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| The Pflugerville Library facebook post with the before and after view of just one section of their teen bookshelves. Happily, they didn't actually remove any of these books from the library. They just wanted to show what it would look like if they did... |
In this Facebook post, the folks at the Pflugerville, Texas Library shared this striking photo, and wrote:
This is a before and after shot of what a single shelving unit in the library’s Teen Space would look like if we removed every book with content that could offend someone. Out of 159 books, there are ten left on the shelves. We removed books that contained profanity, teen drinking, religious content, racism, magic, abuse, sexual content, and more. But in taking away those books, we also removed examples of friendship, love, courage, creativity, faith, forgiveness, reality, resilience, humor, and history. As a public library, we seek to provide books and other materials that will interest the many people in our diverse community. We believe in giving our library guests the choice of what they check out and read. A book that one reader adores may be despised by another reader. And that’s okay. We provide the books. You get to decide which books you and your family check out.
So well done!
And cheers to librarians doing the incredibly important work of acquiring – and keeping on their shelves – books that can change young readers' lives for the better.
Illustrate, Translate, and Write On,
Lee
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