Library Stuff

“The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Utah filed a lawsuit against the Davis School District after elementary schools in the district were instructed to remove a children’s book about a family with same-sex parents from library shelves. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a mother whose children attend one of the schools where the book was restricted. In Our Mothers’ House, by acclaimed children’s author Patricia Polacco, was initially placed in the Easy Reading section of Windridge Elementary School in Davis County. After a group of parents complained that the book “normalizes a lifestyle we don’t agree with,” the school district instructed librarians to place the book behind the library counter and to lend it only with written permission from a parent.”

via American Civil Liberties Union

“Restricted access is still censorship, the Kids’ Right to Read Project declared in its call for the return of Patricia Polacco’s In Our Mothers’ House to school library stacks in Davis County, UT. The Kids’ Right to Read Project is a joint effort of the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) and American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE), In a letter sent (click for .pdf) to the Superintendent of schools, the Kids’ Right to Read Project criticized the County’s recent moves to restrict access to the book, allowing it to be checked out of the school library only with a signed permission slip.

via NCAC

AP – “Book dealer Ken Sanders has seen a lot of nothing in his decades appraising “rare” finds pulled from attics and basements, storage sheds and closets.

Sanders, who occasionally appraises items for PBS’s Antiques Roadshow, often employs the “fine art of letting people down gently.”

But on a recent Saturday while volunteering at a fundraiser for the small town museum in Sandy, Utah, just south of Salt Lake, Sanders got the surprise of a lifetime.”

Some pics of the new feature at the U of U library.

Salt Lake Tribune – “Floors that once were filled with stacks upon stacks of books are being converted to high-tech classrooms, glassed-in group study rooms and an open area called the Knowledge Commons as part of a $77 million renovation scheduled for completion next year.”

Press Release – “The pull service means that patrons can now request that books and other items be pulled from the stacks via the library catalog. Patrons then pick up requested volumes from the reserve desk on the first floor. There is no limit to the number of books that can be requested.”

Very cool!