Lynch at Large

Janet Titus, of Fayetteville, forwarded the following item.

The letter was written to Dr. New and the FPS Board by Sarah Roberson, Cassandra Barnett (FHS Librarians) and Sarah Thompson (McNair Librarian). All three women give their permission to have their names used in connection with the information presented in that letter.

Misinformation in the Media and Circulating E-mails
July 27, 2005

Since Laurie Taylor’s opposition to seventy titles in the Fayetteville Public School Libraries was reported in the Northwest Arkansas Times approximately one month ago, a flurry of letters to the editor, articles, and editorials have appeared in that newspaper, as well as in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and the Fayetteville Morning News. In addition, many e-mails from various sources have appeared in district librarians’ inboxes. We assume that the district administrators and school board members, as the decision-makers within the district, have received even more such e-mails than we have. Not all information in these sources is accurate. We’d like to take this opportunity to set the record straight.

Charge that district librarians perform censorship every time that we select books for the districts’ libraries:
NWA Times Editorial:
“If what Laurie Taylor is doing is censorship, then what the librarians do year in and year out also qualifies as such.”
Librarians make choices based on reviews and previews to build a collection that meets the needs of the curriculum and personal reading choices of students. We respond to the requests of students, teachers, and parents. It is our responsibility to provide materials that represent a variety of viewpoints, a wide range of topics, and a broad spectrum of student maturity. We make professional judgments, not personal choices.
The American Library Association explains selection versus censorship in these terms:
No library can make everything available, and selection decisions must be made. Selection is an inclusive process, where the library affirmatively seeks out materials which will serve its mission of providing a broad diversity of points of view and subject matter. By contrast, censorship is an exclusive process, by which individuals or institutions seek to deny access to or otherwise suppress ideas and information because they find those ideas offensive and do not want others to have access to them. There are many objective reasons unrelated to the ideas expressed in materials that a library might decide not to add those materials to its collection: redundancy, lack of community interest, expense, space, etc. Unless the decision is based on a disapproval of the ideas expressed and desire to keep those ideas away from public access, a decision not to select materials for a library collection is not censorship.
e-mail from Debbie Pelley of Jonesboro, Arkansas, to Undisclosed Recipient:
“502 Books on SEX in Fayetteville School Library”
“George Arnold should be asked what do the parents want, not what does the librarian want?”
The librarians’ charge is not and has never been to build a collection to meet our own wants and needs. However, we are charged with providing a wide variety of materials to meet the needs of our students -- for curricular support, the building of knowledge, and personal interest. We interpret these needs to include building literacy and reading skills through a wide choice of fiction and nonfiction that students want to read – something for everyone.
As the American Library Association spells out, inclusion of materials in our libraries does not mean that we personally endorse those ideas:
The presence of any particular materials in a library collection does not imply endorsement of the ideas expressed in those materials. The library is simply doing its job as a neutral provider of information from all points of view.

Charge that librarians are endangering our students:
e-mail from Laurie Taylor to Dr. New & Board Members: “Children in Danger”
“I would also like to request that a parental review board be appointed to oversee any and all further additions to our system. It is quite obvious that those in charge of this vital post have been remise [sic] in their duties to protect OUR children from sexual pandering.”
Different people see librarians’ responsibilities to our students differently: Ms. Taylor’s are not the first materials challenges the district has dealt with. And with increasing numbers of students, ever-growing professional responsibilities, and cut-backs in staffing, mistakes in judgment are certainly possible. For these reasons, the district has a selection policy which includes a process for challenging specific titles. Accusing librarians of sexual pandering borders on libel.

Implication that every student is personally impacted by every book on the school library shelves:
NWA Times Letter to the Editor (Leigh Parette - Fayetteville)
“What makes you think that the children of these Christian or conservative parents, whose rights you so easily dismiss, should be subjected to such smut?”
These parents have every right to restrict what their children read, but they do not have the right to restrict what other students read. The picture painted here is one of an adult pornographic bookstore. That is not what our libraries are.
Furthermore, books are checked out of the library at each student’s own discretion. While library books may be part of a reading assignment in which the student chooses a selection from a list, no one hands a student a library book and says, “You must read this one.” Librarians work with teachers and students to match books to each student’s individual interests, needs, and abilities.

NWA Times Letter to the Editor (Leigh Parette - Fayetteville)
“[The Homo Handbook] is an inappropriate contribution to a high school library and has absolutely no place in my child’s education curriculum.”
This book was not placed in the collection to meet a curricular need and is not used in any classroom. It has never been on a reading list for any class. It is not a part of any student’s educational curriculum, but was donated by the FHS Gay Straight Alliance to meet the needs of students who identify themselves as gay or questioning. To date, it has only been checked out once by a staff member. That Dewey section of the collection is scheduled for weeding this school year, and this specific title would most likely have been removed because of lack of student interest. (We do, however, foresee curiosity about the book fueled by Ms. Taylor’s inclusion of it on her list, which may lead to increased circulation of the book.)

Inaccuracies concerning the actual diversity of the collection:
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Letter to the Editor (Bobby L. Hester – Jonesboro – President of the American Family Association of Arkansas)

Mr. Hester’s figures: Actual figures:
Abstinence fiction 0 Abstinence is included in Sex Instruction

Sex 502 489, including every record in the district catalog that has “sex” at the beginning of any word. Many of the books deal with sexual harassment, sexual abuse, sex discrimination, and “sex role” (most often girls or young women who defy sexual stereotypes in fiction about sports, world cultures, or history).

Homosexuality 53 84 records, 62 of which are at FHS – this number includes
Homosexual fiction 25 homosexuality, gays, and lesbians, gay rights, gays in the Gay fiction 10 military, dealing with a gay family member, and AIDS Lesbians 29 - 29 fiction, 55 nonfiction
Lesbian fiction 12

Hispanic fiction 9 keyword searches that include “Hispanics – Fiction” & “Latin America – Fiction”: 49
Indian fiction 1 keyword searches that include “Native Americans – Fiction” & “Indians of North America – Fiction”: approximately 400 titles, 88 at FHS
Afro American fiction 2 keyword searches that include “Blacks – Fiction,” African Americans – Fiction” and “Afro Americans – Fiction”: 609 titles, 150 at FHS
Jewish fiction 2 keyword searches that include “Jews – Fiction”: 246 titles, 55 at FHS
Perceived access vs. actual access:
e-mail from Debbie Pelley of Jonesboro, Arkansas, to Dr. New & Board Members:
“Take Actions to Protect Our Children or Just Become Desensitized”
“We learned that any student in the 6 or 7 school districts in Washington County can go online and have these books delivered to their school for them, and the parents would never know.”
e-mail from Laurie Taylor to Dr. New & Board Members: “Children in Danger”
“Remember that any and all books are available to ALL students via the e-library!!”
Fayetteville Public School Libraries do offer our students and teachers interlibrary loan services. Most lending and borrowing is done among the schools in the district, but we also borrow from public and university libraries, both within and outside Arkansas. This service has become an integral part of our program and is helping to stretch our funding. To date, we have never borrowed from or loaned to a public school library outside Fayetteville in Washington County. We certainly do not have a system in place that makes it as easy as Ms. Pelley and Ms. Taylor make it sound.
While borrowing from other libraries has “widened the walls” of our libraries, that doesn’t mean we have torn them down. Students don’t just send a request via the Internet and have the book turn up on their homeroom desk like they were ordering it from Amazon.com. Whether the student makes the request in person or on-line, the request goes through the librarian at the student’s school before it is sent to the lending library. And then it must be filled by the librarian at the lending library.
The borrowing librarian knows the students; the lending librarian knows the materials. It is part of our practice for the lending librarian to send an e-mail to the borrowing librarian alerting that librarian to the possibility that the material may be too mature for a student at the borrowing level. Since the borrowing librarian knows the child, that librarian is responsible for deciding if the material can be checked out. Quite frankly, the heaviest use we see for lending between schools is for meeting curricular needs (that report on the Hummer), filling gaps in a series a student is reading (must have the next installment in the Redwall series!), and getting another copy of a popular book that another library has extras of. We don’t have fourth graders requesting The Homo Handbook.
Also, Ms. Taylor’s use of the term “e-library” in this e-mail and in other venues implies that students can actually read these materials on-line. At this time, FPS Libraries have no subscriptions to e-library books.
Inaccurate description of content:
e-mail from Debbie Pelley of Jonesboro, Arkansas, to Undisclosed Recipient:
“502 Books on SEX in Fayetteville School Library”
“Doing It by Melvin Burgess - Has a picture of couple having sex on front cover.”

He is holding her, but they’re not having sex. Both the young man and the young woman in the drawing are fully clothed.

Inaccuracy of terminology:
The terms “complaint,” “challenge,” “ban,” “restrict,” and “audit” are being used somewhat interchangeably in e-mails and the
local newspaper articles, editorials, and letters. At this point, there have been no formal challenges to any specific titles. Until actual challenge paperwork has been filed on specific titles, we have nothing more than an “oral complaint.”

From the American Library Association:
In 1986, in response to inquiries from librarians facing book or material challenges for the first time, the Intellectual Freedom Committee developed the following list of definitions to clarify terminology associated with challenges:
• Expression of Concern. An inquiry that has judgmental overtones.
• Oral Complaint. An oral challenge to the presence and/or appropriateness of the material in question.
• Written Complaint. A formal, written complaint filed with the institution (library, school, etc.), challenging the presence and/or appropriateness of specific material.
• Public Attack. A publicly disseminated statement challenging the value of the material, presented to the media and/or others outside the institutional organization in order to gain public support for further action.
• Censorship. A change in the access status of material, based on the content of the work and made by a governing authority or its representatives. Such changes include exclusion, restriction, removal, or age/grade level changes.
Audit – an official examination of accounts to see that they are in order.


Thank you. If you have any questions or need clarification on any items, please e-mail or call any of us.