Denise Varenhorst writes “Family Friendly Libraries, the organization that garnered national recognition under the stewardship of Karen Jo Gounaud and Phil Burress, for its grassroots campaign against the proliferation of Internet pornography in America’s public libraries, has passed the torch to new leadership; Denise Varenhorst and Judy Craft of Gwinnett County, Georgia.
Misinformed Public:
Family Friendly Libraries has identified, through innumerable media reports, that much of the public is unaware that only local citizens, served by their representatives on local school and library boards, have the legitimate authority to determine local library policy.
“Power to the Patrons” Education Campaign
Family Friendly Libraries has launched an ambitious campaign to support and educate individuals pushing for greater local control of school and public libraries. The redesigned website www.fflibraries.org includes a host of new educational and networking tools intended to bring “power to the patrons.”
Update: 03/07 15:05 GMT by B :I made a mistake when I posted this story yesterday and missed a “break tag” It ended up reading “Misinformed Public Family Friendly Libraries” when it should have read Misinformed Public:
Family Friendly Libraries
Denise Varenhorst writes “Family Friendly Libraries, the organization that garnered national recognition under the stewardship of Karen Jo Gounaud and Phil Burress, for its grassroots campaign against the proliferation of Internet pornography in America’s public libraries, has passed the torch to new leadership; Denise Varenhorst and Judy Craft of Gwinnett County, Georgia.
Misinformed Public:
Family Friendly Libraries has identified, through innumerable media reports, that much of the public is unaware that only local citizens, served by their representatives on local school and library boards, have the legitimate authority to determine local library policy.
“Power to the Patrons” Education Campaign
Family Friendly Libraries has launched an ambitious campaign to support and educate individuals pushing for greater local control of school and public libraries. The redesigned website www.fflibraries.org includes a host of new educational and networking tools intended to bring “power to the patrons.”
Update: 03/07 15:05 GMT by B :I made a mistake when I posted this story yesterday and missed a “break tag” It ended up reading “Misinformed Public Family Friendly Libraries” when it should have read Misinformed Public:
Family Friendly Libraries
Power to the Patrons promotional materials are available at www.cafepress/power2patrons
Past Success
Varenhorst and Craft worked together successfully in Gwinnett County, Georgia, to bring about library accountability, and they share the tools of their success in the form of candidate questionnaires, lobbying guidelines, and other printable documents. Their work addressing local issues of library accountability is chronicled on the website www.gcplwatch.org.
New Standards
Family Friendly Libraries has compiled new standards for public and school libraries, in collaboration with other leading organizations dedicated to library accountability.
Awards
Effective immediately, Family Friendly Libraries will be accepting nominations for Awards of Recognition for libraries that meet Family Friendly Libraries standards. Award recipients will receive a certificate suitable for display and will be named on the Family Friendly Libraries website. The organization will also bestow the Gold Star Award upon individuals who demonstrate exemplary dedication to local control and protecting children in libraries.
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If you would like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview, e-mail Denise Varenhorst at [email protected].”
Editorialize with care
“Misinformed Public Family Friendly Libraries”
Why misinformed? Of course local communities can craft policies to keep their libraries from allowing internet access to legally obscene materials. That is what the Supreme Court’s “community standards” yardstick is all about.
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.
Family Friendly Libraries
In response to “anonymous Patron” above. Yes, Gwinnett County Public Library tried to cut funding for Spanish language materials but, contrary to your assertion, Family Friendly Libraries was not involved. Simply existing in the same county does not make FFL responsible for the actions of the Gwinnett County Public Library Board. Family Friendly Libraries did not lobby for this policy change, and has no representatives on the GCPL library board.
As far as the Wichita TX case cited above, Family Friendly Libraries agrees with the ACLU here, and the judge who ruled that the Wichita City Council cannot delegate collection decisions to any 300 petitioners objecting to a book. This confirms, not contradicts, Family Friendly Libraries assertion that only library board trustees hold the power to remove materials.
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
While “Anonymous Patron” is assigning Family Friendly Libraries responsibility for local controversies in which we have no part, such as the Spanish Language Materials uproar, I’d like address another library controversy emenating from our county; that of local mom Laura Mallory’s campaign to have Harry Potter books removed from all Gwinnett County Public Schools. Family Friendly Libraries is in NO way involved in this effort.
In years past, Family Friendly Libraries provided a forum for citizens to post various viewpoints on the Harry Potter series.
But, let me be clear. Family Friendly Libraries does NOT advocate the removal of Harry Potter books from school or public libraries (or from anywhere else for that matter).
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?