Family Friendly Libraries: “Power to the Patrons” Education Campaign

Re:Editorialize with care

Contrary to Family Friendly Libraries’ assertion, public library boards simply can’t remove the books they don’t like. Citizens in Wichita Falls, TX, learned a very expensive lesson in that regard when they tried to remove “Daddy’s Roommate” and “Heather Has Two Mommies” from the browsing collection. The city ended up paying the ACLU hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax money to the ACLU for legal fees after the city lost the First Amendment lawsuit brought by the ACLU.

Which brings up the issue of what is “obscene.”

First, if these folks carry on FFL’s fine traditions, “obscenity” isn’t about the Miller test, but about removing literature that doesn’t pass their moral muster, as well as books referencing homosexuality, contraception, and other nastiness FFL believes is not “family friendly.”

More to the point, local community standards are only part of the test; the work must be determined to have no redeeming social value (see the outcome in the Livingston, MI case, where conservatives tried to get Toni Morrison’s works removed from the school curriculum as obscenity harmful to minors – the prosecutor flatly said the books were not obscene.)

So, yes, in failing to even mention First Amendment issues, the website is a fount of misinformation.

Moreover, If I recall correctly, the leaders of FFL were part of the group that tried to remove Spanish language materials from the Gwinnett County libraries because it diverted monies to serving “illegal immigrants” — monies, in their view, that might be better spent buying “the classics” for homeschooling moms like themselves.

FFL’s campaign is repugnant. It’s based on the facile, anti-democratic assumption that the public library ought to be governed by majority fiat, rather than operated according to professional and democratic standards that call for protecting access to minority and unpopular viewpoints, and providing library service to everyone, regardless of their income, national origin, religious views, or moral standards.

Re:Editorialize with care
Thank you… FFL gives me the chills. As a youth who grew up in a repressive religious environment, my only way to learn about anything “disapproved” was the library.

I shudder to think of the children who may not find out how to protect themselves from sexual abuse or how to cope with homosexual feelings because FFL has come along and helped the community sanitize their libraries.

Re:Editorialize with care
I stand corrected. The fine folks behind “Family Friendly Libraries” merely wanted to get rid of Spanish language materials they deemed insufficiently educational. From the Gwinnett Public Library Watch website, formerly run by Mrs. Varenhorst et al:

Library Materials Written in Spanish
Gwinnett has a large Hispanic population and when surveyed in 2001, “the three most common things foreign residents wanted from the library were people they could communicate with, materials to help them adjust to living in the United States and ways to help their children in school and understand what they are learning.” That sounds like a good idea to us. Instead, the library spent $7,290 for materials such as People Magazine Espanol, Harlequin Romances, The DaVinci Code, John Grisham titles, the Harry Potter series, The Three Hour Diet, etc. We pointed out that our Hispanic neighbors asked for educational materials and not a bunch of pulp fiction like Harlequin Romances.

On the web at http://www.gcplwatch.org/timeline.html (scroll down to Spanish language materials)

So, while it’s okay to have Harry Potter or People Magazine available in English, it’s insufficiently “educational” to make those materials available for Spanish-speaking families. Judging individual reading choices, or prescribing the “correct” literature because, of course, you know better than those poor beknighted immigrants – doesn’t sound very democratic or family friendly to me.

And I’m very confused, Mrs. Varenhorst. You say you agree with the ACLU on the Wichita Falls situation; but why aren’t the 300 petitioners in Wichita Falls merely citizens exercising their “legitimate right” to exclude materials from the library (From the FFL website: “It is desirable and necessary that citizens should exercise their legitimate right to have certain materials included in their library collection, and other materials excluded.” – see http://fflibraries.org/ALA_History.html) Why aren’t they simply citizens exercising “local control”? ( see blurb equating challenges to library materials with “local control” at http://fflibraries.org/Overview.html)

In fact, publically funded library boards cannot simply remove books from the library by simple majority vote on the grounds that the content is offensive, as the Sund v. Wichita Falls decision demonstrates. But that’s the misinformation promulgated on the FFL website FAQ:

Q: I found the most disgusting, offensive book on the shelf at my library. When I told the librarian I thought it should be removed, she told me the library does not “censor.” Does that mean that it’s illegal for the library to remove a book based on my objection?

A. No. Your library board has the power to remove any material the community does not want in the collection with a simple majority vote.

(See http://fflibraries.org/FAQs.html)

This is misinformation that’s only going to put those fine family friendly libraries in court, defending the unconstitutional removal of books, especially given the propensity of citizens to try to exercise local control to remove such “disgusting and offensive books” like Daddy’s Roommate, It’s Perfectly Normal, and even prize winning literature by Toni Morrison. (Of course, it’ll mean trading off legal fees against buying those educational library materials, but that’s the price to be paid for family friendly libraries.)

In fact, “Family Friendly Libraries” is remarkably unfriendly to the Constitition and the First Amendment. I can’t spot one mention of the publically-funded library’s obligations under the First Amendment anywhere on their website, or any mention of the fact that libraries are being sued when they do the very things FFL advocates. And hey, think FFL will ever provide a link to the news stories describing how the “Family Friendly” group in Howell, Michigan, tried and failed to get Toni Morrison and Richard Wright’s works declared obscene?