Quote:
Originally Posted by avariel
Yet none of them are actually banned. You can buy them.
|
There's actually two separate issues here:
1) The fact that you can buy them isn't really relevant, because we're talking about libraries.
2) A challenge is a hell of a lot different from a ban.
I went to library school (for my Masters) so I've heard about this kind of thing for years. The ALA uses this to raise awareness about censorship, which is good, but they
mis represent the issue, which, IMO, is bad. Not only do they not make a distinction between "banned" books and books that are merely challenged, but they make almost no effort to educate people on why it's important that public libraries don't make selection decisions based on ideological decisions (either to the right or left). People look at the "Banned Books" and say, "WTF are you talking about, 'banned'? I can get that book easily." But that's not the point the ALA is trying to make. It's about government interference in providing books to library users (i.e., the public).
This controversy is small potatoes, though. You should've seen it when the ALA was arguing that librarians shouldn't filter out porn at public libraries. Now
those were fun times!
