Dirty Little Library Secrets: We forgot to tell the staff not to ban the books

Ask for help
You can speak to the OIF for guidance, but aside from pointing out what I already knew to do and wishing me luck, which was helpful, doing this didn’t make me feel especially empowered. What did was seeking out other libraries that have the material that is being challenged. I had the immensely good fortune of finding a more experienced librarian who had the item in question and was able to talk to me about the book, the process, and helped me understand how different communities might meet needs in different ways. She also helped me see that not all libraries respond in the same way to their librarians. More on that later.
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Collect your research
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Take heart
Filed under: Banned Books Week, Book Challenge, Censorship, Library

About Karen Jensen, MLS
Karen Jensen has been a Teen Services Librarian for almost 32 years. She created TLT in 2011 and is the co-editor of The Whole Library Handbook: Teen Services with Heather Booth (ALA Editions, 2014).
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Wow. I am just surprised that this happens!
I guess we never really think about challenges coming from our own organization. Thanks for sharing your experience!
It can happen more than you think… Maybe not formal challenges, but a staff member decides that something doesn't fit in the collection because they decide that they don't *like* the subject matter. Or someone isn't familiar with a type of material, and doesn't extend themselves to learn or move out of their comfort zone. I've run into more restrictions than outright challenges in different systems, and worked around things.
Great post and wow… that is just crazy. I would have had no idea what to do.
It happens ALL THE TIME where I work.
I just wanted to tell you that, as a new librarian who just graduated in May, I really appreciate your posts that deal with best practices and ways to handle less than common problems in the teen department. I love this blog!
iI was surprised myself, but it does.
Thanks Sheila, and thanks for reading.
Thank you so much Tahleen!
I'm glad people are talking about this! I think something else to keep in mind if you find yourself in this situation is to beware the chilling effect of an internal challenge. Taking risks in your collection is really crucial to meeting the diverse needs and interests of your patrons. The real shame is not losing the one book from the collection, but not adding many others that could similarly benefit your collection.
Wow, I had no idea that things like this were happening within the staff! I've worked in a library for 18 months now and I've never heard of something like this happening. Most of the complaints we get are more about computer hardware and more physical aspects of the library.
I love this blog because I always learn so many new things, so thank you SO much for posting things like this guys. 🙂
Part of the reason that Stephanir, Christie, Heather and I have this blog is because we want to share our passion an continue to be better librarians. It is an opportunity for us to talk about our experiences once we are out of library school and working in the real world, so we love that you are reading and engaging with us. Thank you.
As a high school librarian, I have had internal challenges from other teachers who thought that whatever book a student was reading was inappropriate. Subsequent to a particular book's being confiscated from a student in class, another (female) student said to me, Ms. G, that book has nothing on our conversations in the locker room… My thoughts were that, if this particular teacher had a problem with the book, he should have had a dialogue with the student. His behavior was disrespectful to the student as well as short-sighted.
I have never had a staff member directly tell me I couldn't put a book on the shelf; although I have had my boss suggest I not order books on a particular topic. I have had a fellow staff member outright tell a patron that the books her child had were too old for her and she needed to find something more for her age.
I understand that in library school we learn theory, and intellectual freedom is very important, but we also become part of the community and I feel that I develop a relationship with my patrons and want to help them the best I can, but I do not ever want to come right out and restrict what they are checking out.
We had a teen magazine challenged. I said we should either keep it as is or I would order a similar, less offensive, title instead. I thought my director was joking when she suggested going through each issue with scissors. Found out six months later she had told tech services to inspect and scissor each issue as it came in, removing any “inappropriate” images or advertisements and then the circulation clerk in charge of magazines checked again to make sure nothing was missed.