Bob Locke
Member
Library won't ban books
The Weld Library District board closed the book on two censorship requests Monday and a third request is pending.
Library board members agreed to keep "The Cat Who Killed Lilian Jackson Braun: A Parody" and " Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture" on the shelves.
Greeley resident Nancy Derby, 65, asked the board to toss
"The Cat who Killed Lilian Jackson Braun," after she read the first few pages and discovered the parody was more than innocent jokes about one of Derby's favorite cat-loving novelists.
The opening of the novel has Braun's severed head floating in the toilet of a gay bar, which is about where Derby lost interest, she said.
"I am not a prude by any means," Derby said. But Derby wanted to keep the book away from young patrons who, like her grandchildren, love Lilian Braun books, she said.
Still, library board members held fast to the idea that public libraries are designed to provide a broad range of materials that readers can choose from, even if some deem them offensive.
That mission is in line with the American Library Associations' censorship stance. The ALA's Library Bill of Rights says libraries should challenge censorship requests as a way of fulfilling their responsibility to enlighten and inform the public.
Derby said she'll let the matter rest.
"If this is their decision, I will abide by it," she said.
Jerry Hendrickson, the man who wanted the library board to pluck "Arming America" from the shelves, was unavailable for comment. In his request for removal, Hendrickson said the book - which centers on the idea that few Americans kept or condoned guns before the Civil War - was an example of "revisionist history."
The book's subject matter is not its only source of controversy: Author Michael A. Bellesiles stepped down from his job as a university professor after it was revealed that sources and information in his book were likely fabricated.
Library board member Rosalie Martinez said the book should stay in the library collection, despite the dubious nature of some of its contents, because it represents a particular point of view on guns.
Still, the library district agreed to add a book that provides a pro-gun counter-point to "Arming America." The district is adding "Guns in American Society: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics, Culture and the Law" to its collection.
The censorship requests on "Arming America" and "The Cat Who Killed" are not the first the library board has handled - and they won't be the last.
Next month, the board will consider Evans resident Jeannie McAllister's request to remove an adolescent sexuality book called "It's Perfectly Normal," from the district collection.
McAllister, a 33-year-old mother of four, said she usually screens her kids' library books. But the day they grabbed "It's Perfectly Normal," they chose too many for her to check, she said.
McAllister was later horrified to see that the book her 8- and 5-year-old flipped through contained illustrations of naked people, a man with an erection, and a couple having sex, she said.
"I would call it mildly pornographic," McAllister said.
Recent history shows that the Weld Library Board is loathe to censor books no matter what the reason. But McAllister said she won't accept "no" for an answer.
If "It's Perfectly Normal" is not removed, McAllister said she will circulate petitions and possibly even picket the library.
"I don't want to have to do this, but I will because that's how strongly I feel about it," she said.
The Weld Library District board closed the book on two censorship requests Monday and a third request is pending.
Library board members agreed to keep "The Cat Who Killed Lilian Jackson Braun: A Parody" and " Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture" on the shelves.
Greeley resident Nancy Derby, 65, asked the board to toss
"The Cat who Killed Lilian Jackson Braun," after she read the first few pages and discovered the parody was more than innocent jokes about one of Derby's favorite cat-loving novelists.
The opening of the novel has Braun's severed head floating in the toilet of a gay bar, which is about where Derby lost interest, she said.
"I am not a prude by any means," Derby said. But Derby wanted to keep the book away from young patrons who, like her grandchildren, love Lilian Braun books, she said.
Still, library board members held fast to the idea that public libraries are designed to provide a broad range of materials that readers can choose from, even if some deem them offensive.
That mission is in line with the American Library Associations' censorship stance. The ALA's Library Bill of Rights says libraries should challenge censorship requests as a way of fulfilling their responsibility to enlighten and inform the public.
Derby said she'll let the matter rest.
"If this is their decision, I will abide by it," she said.
Jerry Hendrickson, the man who wanted the library board to pluck "Arming America" from the shelves, was unavailable for comment. In his request for removal, Hendrickson said the book - which centers on the idea that few Americans kept or condoned guns before the Civil War - was an example of "revisionist history."
The book's subject matter is not its only source of controversy: Author Michael A. Bellesiles stepped down from his job as a university professor after it was revealed that sources and information in his book were likely fabricated.
Library board member Rosalie Martinez said the book should stay in the library collection, despite the dubious nature of some of its contents, because it represents a particular point of view on guns.
Still, the library district agreed to add a book that provides a pro-gun counter-point to "Arming America." The district is adding "Guns in American Society: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics, Culture and the Law" to its collection.
The censorship requests on "Arming America" and "The Cat Who Killed" are not the first the library board has handled - and they won't be the last.
Next month, the board will consider Evans resident Jeannie McAllister's request to remove an adolescent sexuality book called "It's Perfectly Normal," from the district collection.
McAllister, a 33-year-old mother of four, said she usually screens her kids' library books. But the day they grabbed "It's Perfectly Normal," they chose too many for her to check, she said.
McAllister was later horrified to see that the book her 8- and 5-year-old flipped through contained illustrations of naked people, a man with an erection, and a couple having sex, she said.
"I would call it mildly pornographic," McAllister said.
Recent history shows that the Weld Library Board is loathe to censor books no matter what the reason. But McAllister said she won't accept "no" for an answer.
If "It's Perfectly Normal" is not removed, McAllister said she will circulate petitions and possibly even picket the library.
"I don't want to have to do this, but I will because that's how strongly I feel about it," she said.
) & because it looks & sounds somewhat official the reader might just go check out the referenced site.
