Middle School Librarian Interviewed

Censorship: Views from a Middle School Librarian

As part of this activism project, we will be posting interviews with people from different disciplines. As a start to our conversations, we chose to have interviewees read and discuss the children's book And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson. The goal of the interviews is to get a variety of viewpoints about censorship from both library users and non-library users. We wanted to explore what people in our community think about censorship.

*Note: We will be referring to the interviewees by their initials and will provide generic information about them in order to protect their identity and privacy. Please remember to keep all comments respectful.

The first interview was conducted with a middle school librarian, AK. After asking AK to read the book And Tango Makes Three, we discovered that the book was already in her school collection.

Here is an overview of the interview:

“If a library does not have the book And Tango Makes Three, should it be included in the collection for students to access?” 
AK believes the book should be included in the library. She believes that in order to create a diverse offering about sexual orientation and what makes up different types of families such books should be included, along with books about ethnicity. However, if a library does not have the book in the collection, she points out that it might just be because the librarian does not know about the book.

When asked about censorship in schools, this is what AK had to say:
“It’s so tricky. Unfortunately, because we are attached to schools, we are also attached to money that comes from the state and federal government and local voters. So what happens is you have to say ‘no’ sometimes because of funding. As a librarian, I would never say no because of funding.  I would just find another way to get the funding. In a public library, you could fight and people would back you but in a school, the librarian will probably be the only fighter.”

 If money was not an issue and you had unlimited, uninfluenced funds, are there any books that you would not include in the library? Do you have any limits?” 
Like a lot of issues in our society, money is an influencing factor and AK recognizes this as affecting the books she is able to include in the library.“I kind-of went by what is already here. If I had a really conservative collection, I would be a little more careful about what I put in.” The community that the library services is a big factor when choosing what books to include. AK’s library collection is pretty liberal so she feels comfortable with adding different types of books to her collection, including books that might be controversial.

Is there ever a situation that would warrant censorship?
“I think there is probably a place for it in the school libraries, specifically in the elementary schools. You can’t put Forever by Judy Blume in an elementary library. But it’s such a blurry line between what’s age appropriate. I don’t always go by what they say on the back of the book, what the publisher thinks. You have to go with your environment and if the collection is conservative then I wouldn’t add some of the books. You have to work with the pace of your community and while some radicals would think that its censorship, it’s not. It’s respecting your community and if you go with their pace, eventually they will trust you and you can start to add things.”

AK often reads the books before she includes them into the collection and if the book has any sexually explicit content, she is a bit hesitant. She does work in a public school after all. AK often looks at the collections from other libraries to help her make a decision about a book. It is clear that great thought and consideration goes into what books are included in the collection, but not because of AK’s personal viewpoints, but what is appropriate for the age of the students she is serving.

AK’s collection already has books about homosexuality, so she has felt comfortable adding books with characters that are gay. These books are getting checked out without issue. In fact, AK has not had any issues with people challenging the books in her collection.

As a librarian, AK herself has experienced censorship this year. She wanted to do a project for Banned Books Week where her students would make videos for the school website featuring their favorite banned book, like a book trailer. Students would then vote for their favorite video. At first the principal thought the idea was “awesome” and supported the project. Then central administration became involved. Central administration made it clear: no Banned Books Week. AK doesn’t think the district is against having the books on the list, they just didn't want to draw attention to the fact that they have them in the school

 It seems that censorship often times can come from the ‘higher ups’ and often times individuals, like AK, are against censorship but are forced into it from others that are higher on the food chain.

AK feels strongly about anyone objecting to something they haven’t read all the way through, or if they haven't read the reviews. It’s important that we don’t let our initial look at a book control how we view the book as a whole piece. Don’t judge a book by a single page!

The important thing for AK is having good books in her library. These books are trendy, meet the student’s needs (reading level), and meet their interest levels. AK reads a lot of the books and then can promote these books to the students. Peer reviews matter, even if a book exists that is not one of AK’s favorites she will still include them in the collection if they received a good peer review. For AK it’s all about getting kids to read good books.