Week 7 Prompt

I had not experienced a book or author that affected my work until this past week. I would argue that a small part of this has to do with my newest position in addition to the controversy itself. 

This past week it was announced that several works by Dr. Seuss would cease to be produced due to the representation of people within the works. News stories and headlines surrounding this story, such as this one from NBC News, spread the narrative that the "racist imagery" is inappropriate for children in this day and age. Within my own work, it sparked a flurry of several emails about how to address the controversy. 

A statement was made about considering how best to handle the books in question. There were some differences in thoughts on the matter within my interactions with a few staff members. Someone wanted all of the books to be removed from the shelves completely, and someone else did not seem to have a problem with the books. I am a circulation supervisor now, and although I might have my own feelings about the books in question and the additional published books, I ultimately want to avoid censoring material. 

I greatly appreciate the guidance we received from others about how to handle the situation. While we do not want to censor material, there is still something to be said about how to display material that might be controversial. Perhaps the options include moving the specific titles to another collection, but I do not believe a public library might take a strong sense to remove all of the material like some schools might be trying to do. 

Comments

  1. Erin CataldiMarch 10, 2021 at 7:46 AM

    Great thoughts! Sometimes there is no one right or wrong answer. Our library chose to keep the books (although we suspect at least 5 have been stolen in the past week) but not to display them. People can still access them but we aren't actively promoting them. Full points!

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