Offensive

My niece had some spare time during class at Mountain View High School, in Orem. She began reading a personal copy of The New Era, which is the LDS church's monthly magazine for teens. Her classmate, looking at the magazine, said, "Put that away. I'm offended!"

An American Fork teen checked out a sci-fi and fantasy anthology, Firebirds Rising, from the young adult section in the public library. A few pages into the first story, she found profanity and a description of a teen-aged girl's sexual arousal when a certain boy walked into the room. Offended, she closed the book and returned it to the library, asking that it be removed from the library's collection, or at least re-classified into the adult collection.

One teen finds religious themes offensive; the other finds profanity and teen-age sexuality offensive. How does our library decide which point of view to please?

The short answer is, it doesn't.

The long answer is found in the Library's collection development policy, which states, in part:

The American Fork Library obtains, organizes and makes available print and non-print materials which meet the needs of its citizens and support the mission of the Library.

To build collections of merit, materials are measured by a number of criteria. The basic test for selection of any item is whether it is of proven or potential interest or need to the community. Other criteria include the quality of the material, the consideration of critics, reviewers and the public, the amount of similar material already in the collection, and the extent to which the material may be available elsewhere in the community. In addition, the cost and physical make-up of the material are considered. In choosing material to suit a variety of readers, the collection will include differing viewpoints.

In response to community requests and interests, the Library specifically collects in the areas of popular adult reading, best sellers, series books, large-print books, Spanish-language materials, children and young adult literature, religious fiction, religious non-fiction, local history, periodicals, supplementary materials related to the State Core Curriculum, local and state newspapers, and popular media materials.

It should be recognized that some selected materials may be seen as offensive or without value to some readers, but may be meaningful and significant to others. Works being considered are viewed as a whole, not in isolated parts.

Responsibility for the choices of underage patrons rests with their parents or legal guardians. Selection of adult materials will not be restricted by the possibility that these materials may come into the possession of minors. The library will not act in loco parentis.

This approach is the accepted approach among libraries in the United States. It is grounded by our nation's First Amendment traditions. I found the philosophy best explained in a statement on Internet policies by the American Library Association, which I quote:

Libraries are the information source in our society. They link individuals with the knowledge, information, literature, and other resources people seek. It is never libraries’ role to keep individuals from what other people have to say.

By providing information and ideas across the spectrum of social and political thought, and making these ideas and information available and accessible to anyone who wants or needs them, libraries allow individuals to exercise their First Amendment right to seek and receive all types of information, from all points of view. Materials in any given library cover the spectrum of human thought, some of which people may consider to be untrue, offensive, or even dangerous.

To put it plainly: So long as the material does not fit under the very specific definitions of obscenity or child pornography, which are illegal, a publicly funded library makes no ruling on the question of what offends whom.

To be sure, some common sense is in order. A member of American Fork's Library Board, during review of the collection development policy, asked, does the library keep its adult collection within easy reach of children? The answer is that there is no "adult" collection -- at least not in the XXX sense of "adult". The American Fork Library does not collect in that area.

All materials that are not specifically juvenile or young adult are housed in the main reading room of the library, one floor above the children's section. This makes it reasonably difficult for the child of responsible parents to see or check out anything objectionable in our public library.

The Library's collection development policy was recently updated by members of the Library Board, working in concert with Library staff. The update will soon be forwarded to the City Council for approval.

We may hope that the City Council does not find it offensive.