Comments on: radical books in libraries – problem or solution?

By: thorn

thorn — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 21:46:20 +0000

i really wish we could just say:

“if you don’t like it, don’t read it. you do not get to decide access policy for the following groups:

1. people who are not you or your minor children.

regarding access control for the minor children of people who are not you, see #1.”

By: Nancy

Nancy — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 17:50:33 +0000

I am a librarian, but equally consider myself to be an avid USER of libraries. The study of religions and religious history is a passion of mine, and I couldn’t pursue it without libraries. So I say libraries MUST have material such as this; how can I truly understand the religious viewpoints of others if I cannot actually read them first-hand?

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 23:41:52 +0000

I think that’s a good point Dee. I have a tendency to use balance when what I mean is diversity. I think the American model of “balance” is one of the things that makes our news shows so terrible. They do that two sides thing and make it seem like every issue has two valid (and equally weighted) sides to it when it’s often not the case at all.

By: Diedre Conkling

Diedre Conkling — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 20:32:17 +0000

Oops, I was interrupted by patrons in my first try at a response so here is a corrected version. (A weak excuse for my mistakes)

I noticed that you said “and you reply that you’re trying to achieve a balanced collection.” I have been saying as loud as I can for many years that using the word balanced in describing what we are trying to do with our library collections is not a good idea. We will never achieve “balance.” What we are really trying to do, I believe, is have diverse library collections that reflect the many view points out in the world on issues.

I find that balance often implies, though not always, that there are just two points of view. Yes, I know that one can achieve balance with more than two points of view but I just don’t think that is the usual perception. To achieve balance a collection would need an equal number of items repesenting each view. Of course, even when people view things in a similar way they don’t usually have exactly the same ideas on a subject. So, I am promoting the use of the term “diverse” to allow for the many differences over the word “balance.”