From the Chair: The Challenge of being Free

By Peter Coyl

Texas has been in the news lately, and not for something that makes me proud. Recently a mother in Hood County was upset that her small child picked up a copy of “This Day in June” by Gayle Pitman off the display rack at the Library. She was very concerned that this book was available where a child who couldn’t understand what it was about could look at it.

(As a side note, This Day in June was this year’s Mike Morgan and Larry Romans Children’s and Young Adult Stonewall Book Award winner)

She banded together with some church friends and submitted requests for reconsideration per the Library policy. These were reviewed by the Library Board who recommended keeping the book in the collection (along with another challenged title, My Princess Boy by Cheryl Kilodavis). Unhappy with this, the mother took it to the County Commissioners. They held a hearing for public comment.

I’ll cut to the chase: the county commissioners didn’t vote on the issue because they said there wasn’t anything to vote on. Previous court cases had ruled that they couldn’t ban a book; they just wanted the community to have the opportunity to have their say. And have their say they did. If you want to watch the hearing in its entirety you can do so here:

 

 

In full disclosure, yes I messed up the name of the round table. I was extremely nervous and tried to ad lib my introduction. I shouldn’t have and I was pretty embarrassed by it).

The challenge to this book came because we live in a free society. We are free to read what we want. But we are not free to tell others what they cannot read or what they must read. We are also free to believe what we want and practice our religion how we want. But we cannot tell others what to believe or how to practice their religion. We also cannot allow our religious beliefs to prevent us from doing our job.

Like County Clerks having to issue marriage licenses, so must Librarians answer reference questions, order objectionable books and even help the customer who we know to be bigoted, racist or misogynistic. The beauty of Libraries are that they embody the pure principles of freedom and democracy. Can you imagine a customer being turned away from a Library because they asked for information on where to get birth control, or how to get a divorce, or a host of other things someone might find objectionable. Can you imagine an Atheist Librarian refusing to help someone find information on Christianity or a Vegan Librarian refusing to purchase cookbooks that contain animal ingredients? I can’t.

What I can imagine (and see every day) are Librarians helping people despite their disagreement with their views, in spite of their personal beliefs. We help anyone find anything without judgement or prejudice.

Often we are accused by some of pushing the “gay agenda” when we strive for intellectual freedom by having GLBT materials in our collection. We are not pushing agenda other than one of free speech, free ideas and openness to all. We are guided by the Library Bill of Rights and the Freedom to Read statement. Our materials selection should be based on broad interests generally and should meet the needs of our community, and that often means purchasing materials we do not agree with. You should never hear of a Librarian refusing the buy a book because they disagree with its content or views.

I am grateful that we have challenges to materials in our Libraries. It means that we have a free society and that we are nor restricted in what we can buy for our customers. If we didn’t have challenges, it means we are not buying the right books for our Libraries.

 

We have an amazing profession that does amazing things: and we do it because our mission is important to us; more important than our disagreements with those across the desk from us. We shouldn’t buy books to cause challenges, but we certainly shouldn’t be afraid of them. It’s one of the hazards of the jobs. And one of the challenges of being free.