items tagged with librarians

Brent Bozell thinks the ALA's stance against censorship is a front for censoring the right. He has a critique at Townhall.com of the American Library Association's annual survey on challenged books. In his view, librarians are two-faced because they defend having a book about two male penguins caring for chick (pro-homosexual! Anti-family!) while the GLBT Round Table of the ALA reported libraries don't offer enough access to books of interest to the GLBT community but had books like "A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality."

So far as I can tell, the GLBT Round Table wasn't advocating libraries should get rid books they personally found offensive, but were saying there should be better access to books that showed a different side of the story. Oh, and they're making lists of books that are GLBT-friendly, which Bozell considers censorship.

Public and school libraries are often asked to remove books from libraries. Curiously enough, I haven't heard of a request to remove books like The Bell Curve or Unfit for Command. No, it's most often books that sully children's proper understanding of sexuality (like a picture book about two male penguins raising a chick, the most-challenged book in the past two years), or religion (The Golden Compass for being anti-God). The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is also frequently challenged because of its 19^th century language about race.

more after the flip...

Still, I’ve had an itch to follow up on the feelings Steven stirred up with his question, because why we do what we do and whether it matters is a question we all need to ask ourselves from time to time.