[LM_NET] HIT - long - part 1 - book challenge responses

[Amy Ball <amyoball03@YAHOO.COM>]

Original post:
This is an opinion question - please either reply to
me or to the listserve as you see fit.  If I get
requests, I will compile results and post a hit.
I've been following the discussion on book challenges
and have a question as a current student who plans to
get a job in a school library in the fall 2006.  This
means I will enter a library where I won't have
selected the materials and certainly won't know the
collection inside and out, at least right away.
Suppose I get a challenge and my first response is -
"well, of course that book shouldn't be in this
library" (I can't think of anything offhand, but let's
say it's entirely age-inappropriate for an elementary
school library, in my professional opinion and in the
opinion of book reviews in professional journals).
Can I pull the book (selection after the fact) or do I
go through the book challenge process (avoinding
censorship)?  And where have you personally drawn this
line?

LM_Net replies 11-29-05
In case you have not received a reply.  You need to
have a selection policy for your library that
typically requires that books that are included in the
collection have been reviewed by 2 or more
professional sources.  Then you also need a procedure
of book challenges.  They are fairly typical as well. 
The patron has to complete a form that includes
information about the book including that they have
read the entire book.  Then you might have a library
committee that reads the book as well- this is usually
teachers and parents.  Then that committee makes its
recommendation.  The other trick is to decide if the
book will remain on the shelf while it is being
challenged.
Taking a book off a shelf because you think it is
inappropriate can be tricky.  We sometimes stick a YA
sticker on a book and only let our 7th and 8th graders
read it.  Of course, any time you don't buy a book,
you are censoring but we call it selection.  Since we
can have everything in each of our libraries, we
select what we think is the most appropriate for our
patrons.  So, my suggestion is, be sure your library
has a selection policy- and you follow it- and it has
a procedure for challenges.

You ask a good question, and the simple answer is to
use common sense. Regardless of who selected the book
for your shelves, if it's on the shelf and in your
professional opinion, not appropriate for your student
body, then you need to remove it. If a book purchased
by your predecessor is challenged and you feel it
should stay on the shelf, than fight for it. 
When I started my job at my current school, a parent
called the principal quite upset about a book his son
was reading. I had never heard of the book before and
it had been purchased by the previous LMS. I read the
book myself and agreed that it was inappropriate for
our school, mainly due to explicit descriptions of how
the main character lost his virginity! The principal,
meanwhile, had ordered the b book pulled and wanted to
know how it ended up in our collection. Since I hadn't
been the one who had selected it, that was a tough
question for me to answer! But it did get a good
review in School Library Journal,  which neglected to
mention the sex scenes! It also had made a list of the
top 100 YA books of the year it was published. So it
was obvious it had been purchased based upon reviews,
etc. 
If I had read the book and felt it belonged on our
shelf, I might have fought for it. But this was my
first year on the job and the principal had been there
for many years, so from a political standpoint it
probably would have been wise for me to cut my losses
and move on. Luckily, this wasn't a book I lost any
sleep over having pulled from my shelf.

My personal opinion is that this is not censorship but
weeding. I would pull the book and send it on to the
appropriate level. One of the things we are looking
for when we weed is whether or not the material is
appropriate for our curriculum and the needs of our
users.

This is an interesting question...and I am not sure
what the official stance is on this, but my personal
belief is that people can make mistakes (the past
librarian) and if you review the book or know the book
to be inappropriate I think you should withdraw it. 
After all, we do withdraw books when we feel they are
out of date, not circulating, etc.  Why not be able to
pull a book that you, in your professional opinion,
decide is not appropriate age wise.  Could be the
library used to serve older students, or the librarian
was not a professional,  or incompetent, or simply
missed it. I think the issue here is - are you
responding to a parent wishing to censor, or is the
withdrawal based on good professional judgment.

Upon your hiring or even in the hire process, be sure
to note or ask if there is a policy on book
challenges. I'll send you some e-mails I have
collected from LM_NET on the topic over the last year
or so. Age appropriateness is one criteria that should
be in your policy. In your scenario, it should go
through the process using the criteria in the policy.
The GOOD part of all this is that the burden is lifted
from you and placed on the committee doing the review.
Just remember that policies ALWAYS cut both
directions. They can help you but they can  also
hinder you if they are too specific.

You're the librarian, right?  In your example, you
have good reasons to remove it. Of course you can pull
it.

This happened to me this year. It is my first year
working in an all kindergarten library and my aide
checks the books out to the kids so I don't
necessarily see all of the books before they leave the
library. I received a parent complaint about a book
"Big Cats." When I looked at the book it was outdated
and extremely inappropriate for the age of these
children. It had been donated to the library by
another district library when the K-center opened. The
pictures were graphic of large cats dragging away
their kill, the pictures were graphic, and one of the
chapters was even entitled "The Kill." I took the book
to my principal and showed her how inappropriate it
was and we together made the decision to pull it from
the collection with out starting a challenge process.
In a case like this I think it is fine to pull a book
without a formal process, I would have pulled it if I
saw it on the shelf before it circulated. If it were
something I found appropriate then I would have put
the effort into fighting a challenge, but use your
judgment to decide if it is worth the fight. This
certainly was not.

I believe materials are always subject to review and
re-evaluation - even materials I have selected myself!
 I don't have the opportunity to read everything in
the LC myself, even things I have purchased.  If I
later learn more about some piece of material, and
decide it really isn't suitable, I consider that part
of the selection process, and will pull the materials.
The only part is double checking myself to make sure I
am referring to our selection guidelines, and not
being guided by my own prejudices.  Good luck,


Amy Ball, USC MLIS student
Charleston, SC
amyoball03@yahoo.com


                
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