Library Stuff

American Statesman – “Ask the Texas Department of Criminal Justice how many book and magazine titles it has reviewed over the years to determine if the reading material is suitable for its inmates, and officials will give you a precise number: 89,795. Ask how many authors are represented on the list, and they can tell you that, too: 40,285. But ask how many of those books and magazines have been rejected because prison reviewers decided they contain inappropriate content, and prison officials will tell you that information is unavailable: “There’s just no way to break that out,” said Tammy Shelby, a program specialist for the prison agency’s Mail System Coordinators Panel.”

Examiner – “The Diary of a Young Girl’ survives book-banning flap in Culpepper VA”

Washington Post – “Culpeper County public school officials have decided to stop assigning a version of Anne Frank’s diary, one of the most enduring symbols of the atrocities of the Nazi regime, after a parent complained that the book includes sexually explicit material and homosexual themes.”

The Northwestern – “A popular, young adult book in the Theisen Middle School Library is being challenged as inappropriate. Parent Ann Wentworth of Fond du Lac has issued a formal complaint with the school district, objecting to “sexual content too mature for 11- to 14-years-olds” in the book “One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies” by Sonya Sones.”

AP – “Southern California District had Prohibited Merriam-Webster Edition Defining Sex Act”

BBC – “Library officials in Leicestershire have banned a regular reader from their building following complaints about his “pungent” body odour. The council said they were forced to act as visitors left Wigston Library when 27-year-old Stuart Penman arrived.”

Quad City Times – “A teen sex magazine will stay at on the shelves at the Ames Public Library despite a petition signed by more than 100 parents objecting to the publication. The Ames Library Board voted 6-1 to support library Director Art Weeks’ recommendation to keep the magazine Sex, Ect., in the teen section. Board member Melody Warnick cast the lone opposing vote and she said she agonized over the issue.”

Times Argus – ” A librarian from Mount Anthony Middle School was recently banned from working in all Vermont schools for inappropriately using the Internet. David Wohlsen, a prekindergarten through Grade 12 library media specialist, surrendered his teaching license to the state Department of Education earlier this month on the grounds that he “violated school policy on appropriate Internet use,” according to an Education Department Web site posting.”

Ames Tribune – “More than 100 parents have concerns over what teens could be reading about sex from a magazine at Ames Public Library. Joyce Bannantine presented a petition with 118 signatures to the Library Board of Trustees last month objecting to the open display in the teen area and offering free copies of the magazine Sex, Etc.”

BeyondChron – “Parents do the dumbest things. Consider the mother in Piasa, Illinois who freaked out after she saw the website of her child’s optional reading assignment and bitched about it to the local school board. Her complaint led to the suspension of Dan Delong, the high school teacher who gave the homework.”