LJ Idol - Topic 16 - Equality
There’s this book in the teen section of our public library. The cover has a little warning label that says the material is intended for “Older Teens.” It’s about biker babes who catch criminals on the side while wearing leather Daisy Dukes and shredded, metal-studded halters over their heaving double D’s.
It doesn’t leave much to the imagination because it’s a graphic novel, which means that it’s more a novel-length comic book. The story is told primarily through illustrations. And these illustrations aren’t any black and white line-drawings, they are vividly colored, fully-fleshed masterpieces straight out of an adolescent boy’s wet dream. This book is in our public library, in our Young Adult section, and…it makes me really uncomfortable.
But it’s there because I bought it.
Yes, me. I’m a librarian. Regardless of how a book makes me feel, it is not my place to censor the materials we have. It’s not your place either, but that’s a different topic altogether. The person who wanted the book completed a written request which I filled because I realized the book would circulate and would be a good fit for our population and our graphic novel collection.
In my private, adult life, I am certainly no prude. Bring on the biker babes! Bring on the porn! But as a parent, would I want my young teenager reading that? Hell no! But, that’s my decision to make as a mom, not when I’m on the clock.
Censorship is ugly and it’s even uglier when practiced by librarians, the very people who are entrusted with disseminating information to the masses. One of the first things you are taught in Library School is the necessity of checking your personal bias at the door the minute you step behind the reference desk. I’m not doing my job if there aren’t some books in my library that make me uncomfortable! Then, the “science” part of my Library Science degree refers to the sociology of being a librarian, the art of getting those books into the hands of the people who need them.
We must balance every Democracy in America with a Mein Kampf. We have The King James Bible, the Bhagavad Gita, The Beginners Guide to Wicca, and The Satanic Verses. For every Charles Dickens and Maya Angelou, there are five by James Patterson and Danielle Steele - and who’s to say which is better? In my teen section I have books both about exploring sexuality and sexual abstinence, books about teen parenting but also adoption and abortion.
A librarian I work with was recently overheard telling a parent that “The Young Adult Section is a mixed bag,” meaning, send your child in there at your own risk. Years ago, when I first started working for the library, back when I was a chick with a journalism degree and no “plan,” there was no YA section. Well, there were two small racks of out-dated paperbacks moldering in a corner. No one was purchasing books for the teens at all. I suggested, while helping that librarian with a book order, that we buy something from the catalog on teen fatherhood and a book about STD’s.
Her response was one of horror. “Oh no! I would never get those. I don’t even want to think about what parents might say to me!”
‘But this is the stuff teenagers need to know about’ I thought. ‘It’s what they want. Their needs are being ignored because of what their parents might say??’
Never being great with authority, I ordered the books anyway.
A week later, when the order came in, the library director strode up to my desk with the contraband books in her hand.
“Who did the last book order?” she demanded.
I’m sure I paled visibly. I had been at the library for two months and I was about to lose my job.
“I did,” I squeaked.
In my head I was screaming ‘God! What the hell was I thinking, I could go against my supervisor’s wishes and there’d be no consequences? SHIT!!’
“Well,” the director began, “this is exactly what we've needed! How do you feel about ordering all the YA materials from now on?”
My eyes went wide. That was not what I was expecting.
“Sure! I mean, that would be great! I mean, thank you!” I stuttered.
And that was when I became a librarian.
My teen section probably is a “mixed bag.” And it is that way because teens deserve the same opportunity to entertain themselves and to educate themselves as any other library patron. I firmly believe it is up to me to make information, all kinds of information, available and up to their parents to police what their kids are consuming.
In a library, where every book has its place, it is essential to represent as many ideas as we can possibly arrange in our Dewey Decimal’ed stacks. We exist to serve all races of people, all ages, and for me, the brightest moment of my workday is placing the right book in the hands of the right person and watching their face light up like we’ve discovered treasure.