WorldNetDaily: Banned Books Week: Smoke screen of hypocrisy

Here's an interesting read concerning the perception that libraries purposely ban "conservative" material for more "liberal" material. (Found via LibraryLink of the Day)

WorldNetDaily: Banned Books Week: Smoke screen of hypocrisy:

Libraries and schools throughout the country are ready once again to observe Banned Books Week. It's that special time each year when some in the library profession point an accusing finger at parents, especially Christians or conservatives who might dare to question the value or appropriateness of certain materials available to youth. For 25 years since its inception, Banned Books Week has been warning America: 'Beware of the ignorance and repression of censors! They will deprive us all of valuable knowledge and freedom.'

Setting aside any danger that the government might ban valuable materials, which is not happening in any community in America, let's strip away the spin and look at the facts. The supposed dangers are essentially phony. For there are several methods to 'ban' a book from a school or library: someone can ask that something already in the library be removed, or, valuable books can be banned from consideration before they ever reach the shelves. This is the dirty little secret behind the bluster and outrage of Banned Books Week: private, library-initiated censorship is a routine practice throughout America. ...

The article goes on to say

I searched under "homosexuality," "gay and lesbian," "traditional marriage," "Christian morality," "ex-gay," "ex-homosexual," and many other phrases. My search yielded four non-fiction books expressing a conservative viewpoint.

Not to slight the concerns of the article author--but this is where subject searching versus keyword searching comes into play. If I was a betting lady I would bet the author tried a subject search for these terms--as opposed to a keyword search. Using the exact same words as either search will yield different results.

For instance I went to his library's catalog and tried his searches with the correct subject headings. Instead of performing a subject search for "traditional marriage" perhaps he should have tried the Library of Congress subject headings Marriage--United States or Family--United States. When I did a search in his library's catalog for Marriage--United States I found 61 books on the topic, the first several pages of results contained several books on building strong "traditional" marriages. And doing a search for Family--United States found 71 books on various aspects of families, the second book being Dan Quayle's The American Family: Discovering the Values that make us strong. In other words just using those two subject headings I found more than 4 books that highlighted traditional values.

In the immortal words of School House Rock "Knowledge is Power". Had the author of the article asked for help performing a search in the library catalog he could have found several books relevant to his search for traditional values. Instead it appears he took the much easier and news catchier way out and created his own story. Am I saying libraries don't censor to some degree? No, I'm not saying that I am sure there are many out there that do. But in this particular case this gentleman could have been surprised if he had just Asked a Librarian for a little help.