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I am a library technician in a small academic library.

Is Mr. McSpadden an active member of some religious group? If so, perhaps he needs to consider that Adam and Eve were nude until they ate the fruit from the forbidden tree, Genesis 2:25. That's right, God created Adam and Eve then let them run around naked.

For what it's worth, I hold a B.S. from a Christian college. We used S.I. Hayakawa's Lanuage in Thought and Action, and we learned to evaluate information by context and intent. The art books in the college library contained pictures of naked subjects. (And we studied evolution in our biology class. How else would we know what to believe if we did not know anything about the theory?)

Did Mr.McSpadden's parents take any pictures of he or his siblings naked when he was a baby? I assume he has marked over them, too.

From: Northwest Arkansas Times, July 17

National Anticensorship Group Joins Fight over FHS Library Books

A letter signed by NCAC, NCTE, PEN, ABFFE, and AAP has asked Fayetteville Superintendent Bobby New to resist the efforts of parent Laurie Taylor and others to remove over 70 books they say "have absolute vile and gratuitous sexual premises." New says he wants to discuss Taylor’s most recent request -- that the district conduct an "audit" into the content of its library books -- with district librarians before commenting.

http://nwanews.com/story.php?paper=nwat§ion=News&storyid=30199

Read the letter at http://www.ncac.org/issues/Fayetteville.htm

From Library Journal online
July 6, 2005

FL County Commissioners Assume Powers over Book Selection

Last year, after receiving complaints about a sexually explicit novel, Marion County, FL, commissioners voted 3–2 to maintain the Marion County Public Library Advisory Board. Now, however, they have dissolved the board and, according to the Ocala Star-Banner, have mandated that books deemed objectionable be placed in a separate area. “This brilliant move established something the library never had before—an erotica section,” the newspaper said in an editorial. Moreover, the commissioners have established a new library card that registers several users from a family on one card. The editorial noted that parents could easily monitor their children’s use without having to skirt privacy laws.

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA623044.html

For full story see the July 11, 2005 issue of "Library Hotline" .

From The Denver Post
08/04/2005

Panel to give graphic book a second look

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper on Wednesday asked the Denver Public Library to investigate concerns that copies of a Spanish-language novella with sexually explicit illustrations were found on its shelves.
Full story: http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_2911848


More news about DPL challenge:

http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_2924783

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_3988338,00.html

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_3988310,00.html

http://www.khow.com/hosts/peterboyles.html

http://cbs4denver.com/local/local_story_217115632.html

There was also a front page article in today's Denver Post:

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_2934810

The protestors are an anti-immigration group and for them this seems to be less about "protecting the children" that it is about their outrage that Denver Public Library is providiing Spanish language materials at all. But the fotonovelas are a convenient vehicle for them. There are, of course, procedures for challenging materials at DPL, but that's not what interested these folks. They called the media and used them in an effort to advance their anti-immigration agenda. ...At least, that's my take.

Scathing editorial from the Rocky Mountain News
8/12/05

Rosen: Library as porn peddler

The current flap over Spanish-language dirty comic books on the shelves of the Denver Public Library raises a number of serious questions…

Minors aren't adults. Their rights are limited, as are their responsibilities. Libraries, like schools, are obliged to act in loco parentis - in place of responsible parents - to safeguard kids. The ALA is as bad as the American Civil Liberties Union when it stakes out abstract, dogmatic positions devoid of responsibility and common sense. Strategic planner LaPierre confirmed that the ALA's absolutist position on access to porn for kids is "consistent with DPL policies."

There ought to be something we can do locally to change that.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/news_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_86_3995949,00.html

I wonder if anyone has filed a formal challenge to the "objectionable" materials at DPL. Or have the media and the special interest groups just gone off like firecrackers without even asking about the procedure for challenging materials? Sure they've asked Rick Ashton to comment, but nobody has acknowledge that libraries have materials challenged all the time and that there are policies and procedures for handling these challenges.

The media has quoted ALA extensively and one columnist twisted the Library Bill of Rights around to suit his own purposes until it was unrecognizable. But, I have yet to see them acknowledge that ALA encourages all libraries to have collection development policies and challenge procedures. On the topic of “Dealing with Concerns about Library Resources” ALA says:

“As with any public service, libraries receive complaints and expressions of concern. One of the librarian’s responsibilities is to handle these complaints in a respectful and fair manner.”


You’re right, Karen. All the special interest groups have an agenda and they are taking this opportunity to advance their various causes. The media is perfectly willing to play along, because if it’s not sensational it’s not news.

Perhaps the challenges have gone up for a reason not mentioned in the article. Perhaps they have gone up because the number of inappropriate books has gone up and the ALA is recommending more and more inappropriate books.

The ALA makes a big deal about banned books, but there are none. All books can be had anywhere in the USA. True, some books inappropriate for children are removed but that's selection, not censorship. The ALA also claims Harry Potter, The Catcher in the Rye, Huckleberry Finn are all banned books so people should stop banning books. Then the claim is made that it's for religious reasons. This is just not true. This is just ALA propaganda to convince people that children should continue to read the sexually inappropriate books it places on the vaunted ALA reading lists for children of differing grades.

The books that most people want removed are sexually inappropriate; that has nothing to do with religion, other than using religion as an excuse to marginalize parents who uncover the latest perversion in public school libraries. Further, the sexually inappropriate books are not mentioned by the ALA as being banned, only the classics like Huckleberry Finn.

Here is an example of a book some parents want removed at http://www.myppmc.com/ <a href="http://www.myppmc.com/" target="_blank">Parents Protecting the Minds of Children</a>. "Push," by Sapphire. Now I'm leaving out the part where the man has sex with his own granddaughter/daughter age three still in diapers, Pampers to be exact, and remember folks, this is in a public school library,

<blockquote>“My clit swell up I think daddy. [he] sick me, disgust me, but still he sex me up ..nawshus.. stomach but hot tight in my twat.. want it back, the smell of the bedroom, the hurt.. pump my pussy in out in out in out awww I come. he bite me hard.. slam his hips into me HARD. I scream in pain he come.. slap my thighs.. Orgasm in me, his body shaking.. call me Fat Mama, Big Hole! You LOVE it! say you love it!.. wanna say I DON’T.. I’m a chile. But my pussy popping like grease in a frying pan. he slam in me again. His dick soft. he start sucking my tittie… wait for him to get off me.. stare at wall.. then my body take me over again, like shocks after earthquake, shiver me, I come again. My body not mine. I hate it coming.. go bafroom.. smear shit on my face. Feel good. Don’t know why but it do."</blockquote>

Now that does not sound like Huckleberry Finn or Harry Potter to anyone. And you don't have to be religious to think this is inappropriate for children.

But you know what's worse? How about an ALA representative, who coincidentally sells books she authored/coauthored on appropriate books for children, recommends sexually inappropriate and substandard books to children, like "Rainbow Party," because 1) then children can experience things like teenage oral sex orgies from a safe distance, and 2) reading a bad book will help then to know when they are reading a good book. Go ahead, read the quote yourself. To me it means this ALA person is recommending bad books and recommending children learn about inappropriate behavior from a safe distance.

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/08-05/08-06-05/b01li276.htm

<blockquote>But books can provoke discussions, says <b>Pam Spencer Holley of the American Library Association</b>. Although she wouldn't hand a child a copy of "Rainbow Party" without comment, she thinks that book -- and others -- can provoke family discussions.
"I think I'd say, 'This is something we need to sit and talk about,' " says Holley. "<b>It's a way for kids to experience something at a safe distance</b> -- and a way for them to make up their minds about how they would respond in that kind of situation."
She's happy to see teen girls reading. Eventually, girls who are reading Gossip Girls will move on to better books, she says.
"<b>Unless you read stuff that's perhaps not the most literary, you'll never understand what good works are</b>," says Holley. "But when you get them hooked on reading, then you can lead them so many other places, as far as books go."
<b>Besides, she says, what's the worst thing that can happen? "Nobody complains about the adult women who read Harlequin romances."</b></blockquote>

For the ones who think that EVERYTHING should be available to children and label concerned parents CENSORS, please, read the following and tell if you still believe young minds should be exposed to this:

- "I wake up at night, morning he not wif me, I know he in there wif her. When did it first start? I don’ know.. am good mother.. [he] jus’ a high natured man.. She still little.. around 3 maybe. I give her bottle.. got milk in my bress but from [boyfriend] sucking. I give him tittie. [daughter] bottle.. bottle her, tittie him.. never get dried up ‘cause [he] always on me.. we in bed.. her on one side.. [him] on other side.. [he] got my tittie in his mouf.. natural.. I hot. he sucking my tittie.. he getting hard.. climb on me.. Then he reach over to [child]. Start wif his finger between her legs.. he say.. This is good for her.. git off me, take off her Pampers and try to stick his thing in.. trip me out.. it can almost go in.. freak baby.. I say stop.. I want him on me!.. Sex me up, not my chile.. cain’t blame all that shit happen to [her] on me… he her daddy, but he was my man!…. I hate Mama, she ain’ shit." From Push, by Sapphire --this is that WONDERFUL book being challenged by that evil woman, Laurie Taylor, you know?!

- “Y’know one of the good things about queer sex, Les…? Nobody gets pregnant.” From Stuck rubber baby, by Howard Cruse, a cartoon book that pictures men performing sodomy.

- "What happens if a boy had intercourse with an animal? [...] you would be best advised to keep any knowledge of it to yourself so you can avoid either ridicule or punishment, or both. You can feel secure in your knowledge that you're no monster, no matter what society may think about it." From Boys and Sex by Wardell Baxter Pomeroy, Ph. D.

- "If a girl or woman is curious abuot what these openings look like, she can hold a mirror between her legs and take a look." From It's Perfectly Normal, by Robie H. Harris.

- "Before I skated me and Bob Motley made like four films together. The best one was called Girl Eats Boy, where Bob Motley puts this black pillow case over his head and pretends like he's cutting me with the electric saw. Then he grinds up my legs in a hamburger maker and feeds me to this little girl who lives under the kitchen sink. The little girl's name was Wendy Sue. She was like seven or some shit. I think she belonged to one of Bob Motley's boys, but I ain't sure. One night I pulled her shirt up and stared at her body. She didn't even know it cuz she was sleeping." From: 33 Snowfish, by Adam Rapp.

- "Heather acted like it was perfectly normal that she loved another woman, and I'd felt all proud of myself for treating it that way, too. [...] I didn't think there was anything wrong with a woman loving another woman, or a man loving another man." From Kissing Kate, by Lauren Myracle.

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From the State IF list, courtesy of Michael Wright:

FYI: I got a call today from the Central Iowa Library Service Agency letting me know about a problem at the Knoxville (IA) Public Library. A patron (from Pleasantville, Iowa, a few miles west of Knoxville) has challenged the presence of Scientific American in the library due to a picture of a representation of a nude prehistoric woman in an issue of the journal. The patron has complained to KPL's director and written to the Knoxville paper.

It seems that the library board, city administration, etc. have all responded appropriately and supportively. Jan had a very good letter in last Friday’s Knoxville Journal-Express (http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?brd=1463 – see the Editorial/Opinion link) and there was also a letter of support for KPL from some community members. The patron has allegedly defaced the Sci. Am. issue with a marker, and is alleged to have done this to other materials deemed offensive.

It escalated this morning when Ms. Behrens received an email from a Dan Kleinman who claims to represent a New Jersey-based group called “Plan2Succeed” (http://www.plan2succeed.org/) which is pretty violently anti-library.

I believe that it is very important for public libraries to provide access to a very wide range of ideas, opinions, and points of view. I don’t believe that the materials that public libraries provide access to should be limited to those that I feel are appropriate for my child. I certainly don’t want the materials available in or through public libraries to be limited to those that I feel comfortable with. It is my responsibility as a parent, to be involved in my child’s reading and use of the public library so that I can provide guidance and support so that she has materials that I feel are appropriate for her age and level of maturity.

Questions about what books, films, music, television are appropriate for children at various ages are not easy to answer. Nor are questions about just what affect reading, viewing and listening to things that someone believes is inappropriate have on children. While I am sure I would not always agree with the decisions and opinions of other parents, I want to be the one who makes these decisions for my child.

Not every parent is going to agree about what is or is not appropriate for their children, or at what ages children should have access to certain books, films, or music. And not every parent is going to agree about the consequences of a child gaining access to inappropriate reading, viewing, or listening. (From now on I'll just say books and reading--but I think the same basic principles apply, regardless of the medium.)

As a parent, I believe that I should take responsibility for deciding what is appropriate for my daughter to read and experience. I also believe that as a parent I have an even more important responsibility to help my daughter learn how to make her own decisions about what she will read. Part of learning to make those decisions means that she will need to learn how to deal with ideas and images that are disturbing or offensive.

I hope that public libraries will always try to provide access to more, rather than less controversial materials—and leave it up to parents to determine what limitations should be placed on what their children should read or view.