Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Books Displayed In Children’s Section Of Oconee Library Might Not Be Put There By Staff, Patron And Librarians Say

***Display Also Has Two Meanings***

When a parent told the Oconee County Library Board of Trustees earlier this month that he didn’t want his child to see the book, A Child’s Introduction to Pride, on display on a shelf at the Oconee County Library, he acknowledged a problem.

He said he didn’t know who opened the book so its cover was on display next to other books with only their spines showing on the library shelf.

It could have been a library staff member who pulled the book out for display, he said, or it could have been anyone else using the library.

Oconee County Branch Manager James Mitchell said after the meeting perhaps hundreds of books are on display in the open space at the end of shelves or on the top of those shelves in the Children’s Section of Oconee County Library.

After checking with full-time and part-time staff, Mitchell reported last week that none of them remembers putting A Child’s Introduction to Pride out for display.

But Mitchell said that pulling a book off the shelf, opening it so its cover is shown, and putting it in an open space on the shelf is a frequent but casual thing that the library staff does.

He also said that patrons do this, for a variety of reasons, including that they want to promote a book or that they simply don’t know where to restack a book once they have removed it from the shelf.

Staff goes around and restacks books and pulls some out for display when time allows, he said, but it is not done on a regular schedule, so a book pulled out by a patron could remain on display for an uncertain amount of time.

Mitchell also said this casual display of books at the end of or on top of a shelf is very different from a formal library display, which is a collection of materials organized in a thematic fashion.

Second Complaint About Display

Arik Garcia held up his phone with a picture he said he took at the Oconee County Library in Wire Park at the April 8 meeting of the Oconee County Library Board of Trustee and then walked around the table to show the image to each of the Board Members and to the Library staff .

Books Displayed Children's Section 4/9/24

“The reality is it is not really appropriate for my child to walk in and see,” he said.

“But when it is on public display,” he continued. “I just think that it is something that we should be aware of.”

Garcia said the Library should consider not displaying any books as a solution to the problem he identified.

At the April 2 meeting of the Oconee County Board of Commissioners, Julie Mauck, Administrator of the Oconee County 411 (GA) Facebook Group, also had raised concerns about library displays.

“There were a couple people who emailed me shortly after it (the new Oconee County Library in Wire Park) opened about some displays in the children's section with gender bending books that people were offended by,” she said.

Mauck had published an image on Oconee County 411 that consisted of separate pictures of two different books, each on a shelf.

Mauck asked Commission Chair John Daniell at that meeting if he had located surveillance video that would show who pulled these books out for display.

Surveillance Video

Daniell told me in an email message on April 8 that “no video exist.”

Athens Regional Library System Director Valerie Bell, in a conversation after the April 8 Library Board meeting, said that surveillance cameras had not yet been installed at the Library at the time of our conversation.

She also said that the cameras that are being installed will be for security and will not be able to document what a patron is reading or even pulling from or placing on a library shelf.

Bell said she can say with certainty that “the staff did not put those on display,” referring to the books shown in the image published by Mauck.

Branch Manager Mitchell told me in an email a few days later that he was able to say with certainty that staff did not display those two books “because there was a time line and I just had to speak with staff who worked during that time frame and it was within a few days of the display.”

He said it was more difficult to respond to the picture Garcia showed to the Board because Garcia did not say when he had taken it.

Purpose Of Displays

“You put things on display to peak children's interest in reading,” Bell said. “I believe in displays.” Book stores pull books out to display to sell them, she said, and the Library is doing the same thing with its books.

Curated Display Of Books
Children's Section 4/9/2024

Mitchell said there are two types of displays in the Library.

One type of display is when “we put a bunch of books together” in a thematic display. Mitchell referred to this as a “currated display.”

“And there is display in the sense that everywhere you go in the library there is just books facing out,” he said. The books in the picture Mauck published “were two that were facing out in the children's department," he said.

“We do that all the time,” he said of pulling books to face out to attract attention, though he said the staff had not pulled out the books Mauck's picture showed.

“You go to the library, it is covered with books. There's probably close to 200 books in the children's department right now sitting on top of the shelves, in the shelves.”

“It is just like in a bookstore or anywhere else,” he said. “There's not always a lot of thought. Sometimes you just grab a book that has a nice cover that might catch someone's eye. That's most of the time how a book is chosen.”

Mitchell said sometimes a patron pulls a book off a shelf and decides they don’t want to take it home and just places it at the end of the shelf.

“Or their kid pulls the book out and they say no, don’t take that, and they put it back,” he said.

And they might put that book in an open space at the end of a shelf in what the next patron might consider a “display,” he acknowledged.

10 comments:

Jim Gaither said...

Let's provide body cameras for staff, independent observers to monitor book movement, and free blinders for patrons, mandatory for children. Give citizen committees hire/fire powers. Would that satisfy the momsformyway people?

Lee Becker said...

Just my usual reminder. I will not publish comments that do not include a full, correct, name.
Thanks.
Lee

Retired teacher Lawrence said...

I've heard from a couple of my neighbors here in Oconee that if my child picks up a gay book or any LGBTQ+ publication, he may get gay from it?! Also, one neighbor told me that gay teachers spread the gay! Is that true??
-David Lawrence

Victoria Cruz said...

Victoria Cruz

"Sometimes you just grab a book that has a nice cover that might catch someone's eye." James Mitchell highlighted something that those of us monitoring and challenging books take issue with, especially for books targeting very young children. Attractive book covers, colorful and often artful illustrations and large print can attract a child to a book and disarm a parent into thinking it is age appropriate. Graphic (not pornographic, which is a distinct word with a distinct meaning) novels that target young readers employ the same camouflage technique: they look like comic books of old but may have highly sexualized content that a parent may overlook.

I'm sorry. But anyone who is okay with this type of material in public libraries targeting children needs serious self-examination. Of course, parents who wish to sexualize their children or otherwise live vicariously through them, are perfectly free to effect this within the confines of their own homes with books and other materials which are easily accessible online or at Amazon. Our public libraries can also choose to house these materials, since our laws have carved out a pornography exclusion for them. But for the children's sakes, please shelve them in a separate area where children cannot inadvertently access them. Instead have the parents come to the library and procure material for their child(ren). Parents who feel strongly that their children should have this material can easily make this extra effort.

Retired teacher Lawrence said...

Victoria,
That's a very interesting take on this matter. Is it true that a youngster even touching one of those graphic books, especially in a public library, will go on the Internet to look for gay pornography? I heard that at in graduate school. And everyone knows that too much "self-examination" will make you go blind.

-David Lawrence

Pamela Hall said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Harold Thompson said...

No Jim, only a book burning would satisfy the self-anointed censors.

Harold Thompson said...

This is jaw dropping from a candidate running for BOC or any public office

"I'm sorry. But anyone who is okay with this type of material in public libraries targeting children needs serious self-examination. Of course, parents who wish to sexualize their children or otherwise live vicariously through them, are perfectly free to effect this within the confines of their own homes with books and other materials which are easily accessible online or at Amazon. Our public libraries can also choose to house these materials, since our laws have carved out a pornography exclusion for them."

Really Victoria? I don't know where to begin with this. Are you aware of how offensive this rant is to our librarians and parents? I look forward to reading the proof you have of these accusations?

Pamela Hall said...

If these books are too offensive to be read aloud in any public meeting in our county, then they are too offensive to be displayed in the library by ANYONE and certainly inappropriate to be in the children or older youth sections. I absolutely do not support book banning at all. What I cannot support is providing children and youth with information that is beyond their ability to understand it or before their brain maturity allows for critical thinking skills. Otherwise this is just pure indoctrination for some nefarious purpose.

Unknown said...

" Otherwise this is just pure indoctrination for some nefarious purpose." Pamela, the world is not a conspiracy theory. Just full of people trying to do their job, to the best of their ability.
Carry on with the fear, if it helps you sleep at night. But, seriously--it's kinda strange.
Peace

James Cairns