[Libs-Or] Collection Development Policies & Racism

[Riddle City Library]

It seems we've lost the Freedom to Read policy in many of our libraries.
Why are we trying to dictate what people read? What happened to Banned
Books week? Are we moving backward here?  Let's stay open to ALL literature
instead of making it our job to remake the minds of people.. Are we overtly
harming children by banning racist fiction? Think carefully about this.
Rewriting or banning history and "harmful" literature is taking the Freedom
to Read from them. Instead, perhaps the solution is to encourage parents
and teachers to train their children to love and accept all races and
creeds. We, as educators, can have a tiny part in this process as well.
Promote love and good will and remain open minded to the freedoms we enjoy.
They are extremely valuable. Just as the freedom of speech is valuable as
well. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak freely my opinion. I
remain
Looking forward,
Rita Radford
Riddle City Library

On Tue, Sep 21, 2021 at 5:55 PM Taylor Worley via Libs-Or <
libs-or at omls.oregon.gov> wrote:

> Hi folks,
>
> A while back I sent an email out asking for information as we were
> considering setting up a historical children's literature collection in our
> public library. After research and discussions, we've come to the
> conclusion that not only is it *not* an ideal solution for dealing with
> old/complex/and often racist literature, but it would very likely cause
> overt harm rather than simply changing the context around the books, as was
> our intention. So, we're going to the root of things and revisiting our
> collection development policy.
>
> My questions for the Great Brain are: 1) has your library rewritten or
> edited your collection development policy recently 2) do you have specific
> language in your collection development policy which addresses racist
> *fictional* works (for any part of your library, not necessarily
> exclusive to your kids/tweens/teens collections)?
>
> We are working our way through various library's websites and continuing
> to look for examples, research, discussions, etc., but if anyone has wisdom
> to share directly, we'd greatly appreciate it.
>
> Thanks so much,
>
> *Taylor Worley (she/her)                                                 *
> Youth Services Librarian
> Springfield Public Library
> 225 5th Street
> Springfield, OR 97422
> 541.726.2243 (direct)
> taylorlgkw at gmail.com
> tworley at springfield-or.gov
>
>
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