Quote:
Originally Posted by calvin-c
IMO not carrying a book in a library (or deciding to remove one from public availability) is not censorship-it's management. ... All libraries get rid of books that they believe are no longer popular. I think it's obvious that if a book is as offensive as they seem to believe this one is that it will not be popular among the general public. So I guess it's a question of what the NYPL policy is.
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For brevity I have removed part of the original quote; this is indicated by the ellipsis.
I worked in a UK public library service in the 1970's and 1980's as a professional librarian. During that time I witnessed the deliberate removal of ALL copies of Tin Tin and Asterix on the grounds that they perpetuated racist stereotypes. That these books were popular was manifested by the date stamps on the books showing they were borrowed frequently and by the worn-out condition of the books. The objections of the reading public (black, brown, yellow and white) were overridden. When the removed books were put on sale, they were so quickly snapped up that we were told to remove them from sale to avoid embarrassment to the management.
One instance does not constitute proof that all libraries use "political" criteria to manage their stocks, it does though provide evidence that they *may*.