From down in New Zealand comes news of a petition calling for reasonable censorship at the library. Julie Gordon, a mother of five and part-time secondary school teacher, has previously complained to the Wanganui Library staff about the explicit nature of some of the titles but her complaints have brought little or no change.
“Some of these comics showed sexual activity in detail, and as a teacher this concerns me a great deal,” she told the Chronicle.
Many loose ends in this story
What is the title of of the graphic novel/manga she is complaining about?
A lot of manga now comes with an age rating from the publisher now, at least in the US maybe in NZ it is different.
Censorship office?
Maybe someone in NZ can elighten us about this.
Why is she using her daughter’s card to check these “objectionable” books out?
Re:Many loose ends in this story
She’s complaining about the manga series Chobits, which does have an age rating on it from the publisher in the US version – I don’t know if the version of the book in NZ is different.
Re:Many loose ends in this story
Thanks!
Looking at our copies, there is definitely an OT 16+ rating on them and ours are shelved in the YA area.
Since I know nothing about how NZ libraries are set up, I don’t want to assume but I cannot see how any library would catalog these so that they would be shelved in the Juvenile area. If there wasn’t a YA/Teen area, I would imagine they would be shelved in Adult.
Re:Many loose ends in this story
A more cogent question might be: Why does this woman think she can successfully impersonate a three-year old, and why does she think that she shouldn’t be able to check out adult materials when she tries?
I rather think the librarian at the counter was responding to the reality of the image in front of him/her, rather than to the information printed on the card.
Re:Many loose ends in this story
Not sure that I would have expected this from New Zealand of all places, heard they’re more liberal there.
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Exactly!
Re:censorship office in NZ
We have the Office of Film and Literature Classification (the Censor)(www.censorship.govt.nz) which classifies items. Members of the public can apply to have a particular item rated or banned.
Libraries here have YA sections, although I can’t comment specifically on Wanganui. Here in Wellington our library has notices up saying that children have access to all areas of the library and should be supervised by parents.