This is a key point that is almost always ignored in these discussions. Almost any K-12 library has extremely limited capacity (only a few thousand volumes, usually) compared to the utterly vast number of books in existence. Careful selection criteria MUST be used b/c neither shelf space nor budgets can allow for indiscriminate stocking of titles the way the Library of Congress or NY Public Library or Harvard U. can afford to do.
So, even before any content debates are begun, the FACT is that every book in a school library takes up space that could be occupied by another, different book.
Then, of course, it IS perfectly appropriate to ask what are age-appropriate titles. Should an elementary school stock books with the most explicit descriptions of sex, violence, drugs? [mommy, what is ‘fisting’? mommy, what is ‘mainlining’? etc.] Sounds like a lot of liberals think so, b/c to insist upon keeping such things out of 8 yr. old hands would be “censorship.”
What about books replete with instances of crude racism and/or sexism? Are taxpayers required to offer those to young students?
Where the debate can get more heated is on the high school level, where liberals are usually more ferocious about insisting upon stocking novels that might be controversial to some but are at least slightly in the pantheon of “literature” (not sure Henry Miller is that much of a writer but his books used to be exciting for people looking for something salacious).
Anyway, it is all lib propaganda to say that any attempt for a community to have input or control over the titles stocked by SCHOOL libraries is evil “censorship” or book banning — not adult in the community is affected in the slightest way by what schools do or do not offer to CHILDREN for their educational fare. The adults can still freely buy or borrow any book under the sun.
Ah, correction — I was thinking it was about school library books but it appears to be about the town public library.... same issues apply to very limited space, a local public library should only stock what is truly worthwhile etc.
But the leftist ALA has propagandized so thoroughly for so many years that it is always “censorship” to think a small library ought to exercise some intelligence and ethics over its acquisition and retention policies (most libraries of limited space also get RID of books annually in order to make space for newer ones considered more valuable to the collection). ALL public libraries make all sorts of decisions all the time about what books are or are not worthy of being in their collections. What librarians really are asserting in these debates is that THEY are the sole arbiters of what belongs in the town library. It should be perfectly appropriate to question their judgments as public officials, but of course liberals go into hysterical rage when anyone tries to do so.