LISNews: Librarian News

Francesca Lia Block, an award-winning author of young-adult books (the "Weetzie Bat" series among them), has known for a while now that one of her novels, "Baby Be-Bop" is at the center of a controversy in West Bend, Wis.

A few days ago, she found out that it might be burned at the stake. "Baby Be-Bop" is on a list of titles that a local group calling itself the West Bend Citizens for Safe Libraries objects to seeing in the public library. In February, the group asked the library's board to remove a page of recommended titles about gay and lesbian issues for young people (including "Baby Be-Bop") from the library's Web site. Then they demanded that the books be moved from the youth section of the library and placed with the adult collection, "to protect children from accessing them without their parents' knowledge and supervision."

Full story at Salon.com

A private member's bill has put forward at Queen's Park, home to the provincial legislature for the Canadian province of Ontario. The bill by Gerry Martiniuk is said to propose requiring Internet filtering at libraries in the province. The summary note prepared by staff at the provincial legislature discusses in simplified terms what the bill proposes. According to the status report on the bill, it has only had its first reading in the legislative process. Martiniuk's statement upon introducing the bill is available online.

(h/t Connie Crosby)

Egypt's candidate to head the UN cultural organisation, Farouk Hosny, apologises for anti-Israeli remarks in May 2008.

Farouk Hosny, who is Egypt's culture minister, expressed "solemn regret" over a May 2008 pledge to burn Israeli books in Egyptian libraries.

Israel withdrew its protest about Mr Hosny's candidature following a request from Egypt's President, Hosni Mubarak.

But Jewish European cultural groups continued to object to the candidacy.

Opponents of Mr Hosny's candidature have cited his response to a question in parliament in May 2008 from an opposition MP about whether Israeli books were held by the new library in Alexandria.

He said: "Burn these books; if there are any there, I will myself burn them in front of you."

Read more about it at The Beeb.

On a question posted to Yahoo! Answers, a high school student asks, Is it OK to run an illegal library from my locker at school?, then continues:

"Let me explain.

I go to a private school that is rather strict. Recently, the principal and school teacher council released a (very long) list of books we're not allowed to read. I was absolutely appalled, because a large number of the books were classics and others that are my favorites. One of my personal favorites, The Catcher in the Rye, was on the list, so I decided to bring it to school to see if I would really get in trouble. Well... I did but not too much. Then (surprise!) a boy in my English class asked if he could borrow the book, because he heard it was very good AND it was banned! This happened a lot and my locker got to overflowing with the banned books, so I decided to put the unoccupied locker next to me to a good use. I now have 62 books in that locker, about half of what was on the list. I took care only to bring the books with literary quality. Some of these books are:

>The Perks of Being a Wallflower
>His Dark Materials trilogy
>Sabriel
>The Canterbury Tales
>Candide
>The Divine Comedy
>Paradise Lost
>The Godfather
>Mort
>Interview with the Vampire
>The Hunger Games
>The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
>A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
>Animal Farm
>The Witches
>Shade's Children
>The Evolution of Man
> the Holy Qu'ran
... and lots more. -- Read More