Re: [LM_NET] stickynotes to censor

[Carol Simpson <Carol_Simpson@UNT.EDU>]

I think I have a perspective on this brouhaha that no one has brought up to this 
point.

Are we so perfect that we never make selection decisions? Is there not one of us 
who was ever mislead or underinformed by a short review? Suppose a book that we 
would not have selected had we been better informed manages to arrive on our 
campus. Must we include the book in our collections? Of course not! Is this 
censorship? It is if we unilaterally remove the book ourselves. Why should we cry 
foul when an administrator unilaterally removes a book, but we defend our own 
unilateral censorship as "consistent with our school community?" 

Here's my suggestion on what you should do when you find you have a book on your 
shelf (even on the newly arrived book shelf) that does not meet your predefined 
selection criteria. You do what you do when anyone else objects to a work in your 
library. You read the whole thing, you fill out the reconsideration form, and you 
convene the reconsideration committee. You aren't perfect. You make mistakes. We 
should stop fearing reconsideration committee meetings and instead embrace them as 
a model of collaborative practice. In fact, the more often a reconsideration 
committee meets the more it becomes more of a library advisory board, and we all 
know the positives of those groups. The idea is that the process should be out in 
the open. It may be that you are looking at this in a too restrictive way. Maybe 
this book has other uses that you haven't considered. What isn't appropriate for 
2nd graders may be highly appropriate for 6th graders, and therefore needs to be in 
the collection (possibly in the F or non-fiction sections instead of the E 
section). The idea is to walk the talk. If you want your administrators to follow 
the reconsideration process when they object to a book, you need to be willing to 
do the same yourself.


Carol Simpson, Ed.D.
Assoc. Professor (mod. svc.)
School of Library & Information Sciences
University of North Texas
PO Box 311068
307 S. Avenue B, Suite 205
Denton, TX 76203
940-565-3776 (voice)
940-565-3101 (fax)
carol_simpson@unt.edu

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