Re: Burger King Mentality

[Viviane Lampach - Librarian <lampach@BXSCIENCE.EDU>]

I agree with you until line 3 of the third paragraph. To maintain a
balanced collection one should have many differnt views represented. I am
not a homosexual but I know that there are students who are
writing about topics in health and others who are interested in the
subject whose informational needs must be met. I hate  Nazis but we have
a large collection of materials about them. We even received pro-life
books from an organization that only shows one side  of the issue. Yes we
got it for free from the same organization that is sponsoring an essay
contest so that students can win money for college. We don't necessarily
agree with the opinions expressed but "freedom of speech" is a big part
of it.We teach our students to recognize point of view and understand the
importance of who is the publisher of special interest  houses so they
recognize propaganda being passed off as facts.

This is our 2 cents worth!!

Viviane Lampach & Sheryl Ives
lampach@bxscience.edu
On Mon, 12 Feb 1996, Deborah Marie Collier wrote:

> A question just popped into my mind while reading this recent thread.
> This is especially for school librarians who don't believe Internet
> access should be censored:
>
> How many of you have a subscription to _Penthouse_, _Playboy(girl_),
> _Hustler_, etc. on your periodical shelves? If not, then why? If you
> don't, don't you think you've "censored" what the students have access
> to? Maybe the answer is to try to "censor" what actually comes into
> our libraries via the Internet & various "blockout" programs.
>
> We ALL censor--when we decide what to spend our hard-to-come-by budget
> on if at no other time-- & you may call it what you will--if we're honest
> all us librarians have done it. We don't buy books for our libraries that
> we are sure would cause flack--we don't want to knowingly invite a
> reconsideration process. A lot of us (me included) don't buy books whose
> message goes against what our personal values & beliefs may be--such as
> homosexuality, devil worship/witchcraft, etc.
>
> We are only human, after all, & even if we had unlimited budgets I KNOW
> there are some books & other printed materials that would NEVER make it
> to our shelves--even if they were handed out free. Ultimately our
> conscious must be our guide.
>
> This is just my $ .02 worth from where I see this problem, & it's
> probably not even worth that!
>
> ******************************************************
> *   Debbie Collier          Orange Grove Elementary  *
> *   Librarian &             Houston, Texas           *
> *   "Resourceress"          COLLIE@TENET.EDU         *
> -******************************************************
>