Sunday, March 09, 2008

Why is Mojo hiding under the table?



Mojo is hiding under the table because we have an overnight house guest, as you can see from the tail in the corner. His name is Oakley, and he's a golden retriever whose dad was ordered into work. That means someone called out sick, and with no replacement he is forced to work another 12 hours. So, we offered to have him come here. Mojo normally has buckets of energy, but this dog makes him look comatose.

I know how Mojo feels. I feel like hiding under the table after the end of this week. Part of it is because the city is advocating that the library sell our current building and move to an old school that currently is being rented out to community programs. It means abandoning 112 years of tradition to move to a 60 year old building that was vacated by a middle school because it was inadequate. The cherry on top of this crappy ice cream sundae was that we received a challenge to a book we have in our collection. I cringe at the possibility of negative publicity, but as a public librarian I hold the tenets of the Library Bill of Rights sacred. Essentially my job is not to make judgments about what is or is not appropriate for kids. I believe that is the parents' job. I believe in free access for all. The parent in question is challenging a book because her faith deems it "pornographic." I remained Switzerland while we had our conversation about the book on Saturday, and heard her out. The reality is that there are many books I don't agree on, but my job as a librarian who purchases books for the collection is to portray all sides (within reason and taste). It will be interesting to see where this goes...

2 comments:

White Hot Magik said...

If it won't cause you too much trouble, I do wonder what the book is. Our town recently had a big uproar about a book being taught at the Middle School and the book was pulled from curriculum, but I think not from the school library. (The Chocolate Wars)

I never knew the library could be so drama filled. I hope you get to keep your building. That doesn't sound like a bueno trade.

Hyperher said...

It is It's Perfectly Normal. It's graphic and very frankly deals with sexuality.