Sue Lani Madsen: Libraries are supposed to challenge us

Forget battling over book banning, focus on book adoption. The American system of government by the people needs public libraries filled with useful, entertaining and sometimes challenging or uncomfortable ideas. But which books belong in a particular library serving a particular community, and who decides?

Not even the Library of Congress keeps a copy of every book written, or all of the more than 4 million published in the last year in the United States alone. Not stocking a book is not book banning. Choices must be made on books as well as budgets and operating policies.

In Liberty Lake, the community is debating who makes those decisions and to what purpose. A 2022 challenge by a library patron to an adult-oriented graphic novel raised free speech fears of attempts to ban books. The controversial work by Maia Kobabe, “Gender Queer: A Memoir,” has been subject to challenges nationally, but the library board decided it should be kept in the collection. The Liberty Lake City Council voted last May to uphold the library board’s decision. No books were banned.

But to the library board and others speaking at two meetings recorded on Feb. 21, it was a close call with the First Amendment. Setting aside the governance question of fiscal responsibility and accountability to voters – because almost no one wanted to talk about that – the free speakers mostly accused city council members of wanting to ban books. Their defense was grounded in reminding parents it’s their responsibility to monitor their children’s reading material in a popular materials public library, and an assurance the board was following library best practices.

To this traditional 20th century bookworm, “graphic novel” is a fancy name for a comic book and not library-worthy regardless of content, but they’re attractive to somebody. Public libraries serve communities with “widely separate and diverse interests, backgrounds, cultural heritage, social values, and needs,” according to the Liberty Lake Library Collection Development Policy approved in September . That is as it should be.

But how diverse is the collection? Since gender fluidity lit the controversy, does the library stock any popular books pushing back? The also-controversial book “Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters” by Abigail Schrier is not on the shelves, although available on inter-library loan. Fair enough, no single library has budget and space for everything.

Liberty Lake’s acquisition policy says purchases should maintain intellectual diversity and uphold “the right of the individual to obtain information, though the content may be controversial, unorthodox, or unacceptable to others.” Library staff are expected to use their expertise along with 10 criteria – not all of which need to be met – to choose materials. Among the guidelines is using “professionally recognized critical review sources” including Baker and Taylor, Kirkus and the American Library Journal. None of them had reviewed Schrier’s book. None responded to inquiries for their policies on choosing books to review, but the bias is clear from their websites. For example, on the American Library Journal’s “Books of 2022: 400+ Titles to Know, Read, Buy, and Share” we find:

Two out of 445 titles are from Christian book publishers, both in the Fiction section.

Under Nonfiction/Politicians’ Perspective there are six memoirs – five Democrats and one Republican.

Under Nonfiction/Biography, there are 10 biographies. Four feature Black protagonists (two civil rights activists, one athlete and a heroic perspective on George Floyd); two are about Native Americans (Olympic athlete Jim Thorpe and the leadership at the last stand of the Sioux Nation); and four are about whites (two Bidens – President Biden’s wife, Jill, and his sister who served as campaign manager in 2020; one deconstructing the “privilege” of an abolitionist multiracial 19th century family from a 21st century perspective; and a profile of a Nazi described as one of Hitler’s elite).

Really, American Library Journal? The only biographies of white folks worth recommending in 2022 were two Biden women, a revisionist rant and an actual Nazi? If the “diversity” of that list represents best library practice, we’re in trouble.

The library board might want to broaden its perspective and consult a source like the Claremont Review of Books for scholarly reflection on publications ignored by the ALJ. A review of Schrier’s book can be found at claremontreviewofbooks.com/girls-will-be-boys/. Goodreads and Young America’s Foundation both have lists of essential books with a conservative perspective. Are they all in the public library system?

John Adams observed at America’s founding that “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Better add “well-read” to that list. Instead of looking for books to ban, start checking the breadth and depth of the collection and then check out a few books and read. Our system of government depends on it.