In Most Area Libraries, these are Young Adult Books

Ginny Maziarka & Co insist that numerous books in West Bend Library's young adult section are "sexually explicit" and should be labeled as such and moved to the adult section, purportedly to reflect "community standards".

I decided to take three of the books Ginny highlights and see how other area libraries catalog them. Here are the results:

. The Perks of Being a Wallflower The Geography Club Deal With It! . Beaver Dam Non-fiction . Big Bend Fiction Young Adult . Brookfield Fiction . Brownsville Young Adult . Cudahy Young Adult Young Adult . Delafield Teen Fiction Teen Fiction . Eagle Young Adult . Elkhorn Young Adult . Fontana Young Adult . Fort Atkinson Young Adult . Franklin Young Adult Young Adult Young Adult . Germantown Young Adult . Greenfield Young Adult Young Adult Young Adult . Hartford Young Adult Young Adult . Hartland Young Adult Non-fiction . Horicon Young Adult Young Adult . Hustisford Non-fiction . Jefferson Non-fiction . Kenosha Young Adult Young Adult Adult . Kewaskum Young Adult . Lake Geneva Young Adult Young Adult . Lake Mills Young Adult . Lomira Young Adult . Merton Young Adult . MPL Atkinson Young Adult . MPL Bay View Young Adult Young Adult . MPL Brown Deer Young Adult Young Adult . MPL Capitol Young Adult Young Adult . MPL Center Young Adult . MPL Central Young Adult Young Adult . MPL East Young Adult . MPL Forest Home Young Adult . MPL Hales Corners Young Adult Young Adult . MPL Villard Young Adult . MPL Washington Park Young Adult . Mukwonago Young Adult Young Adult Young Adult . Muskego Young Adult . Northshore Young Adult . Oak Creek Young Adult Adult (call no indicates "YA") . Oconomowoc Young Adult Young Adult . Pewaukee Young Adult Young Adult . Racine Fiction Fiction . Shorewood Young Adult Young Adult . Sussex Young Adult Young Adult Young Adult . Theresa Juvenile . Twin Lakes Young Adult Young Adult . Waterford Young Adult Non-fiction . Watertown Young Adult . Waukesha Fiction Young Adult . Wauwatosa Adult . West Bend Young Adult Young Adult Young Adult . Whitefish Bay Young Adult . Whitewater Young Adult

As you can see, nearly every area library that holds these books places them in the young adult section, reflecting what appears to be standard classification practices for southeast Wisconsin libraries.

(Acknowledging that Deal With It! seems to be the one text that is also frequently placed in the regular non-fiction sections)

Are West Bend's "community standards" really that different than nearly every other southeastern Wisconsin community? Or, perhaps, must we realize that Ginny's opinions don't necessarily reflect the entire community?

Patriotism WBCFSL Style: Celebrating Censorship & British Literature on 4th of July Float

Ginny's WBCFSL group entered a float into West Bend's 4th of July parade. Images are available here and here.

I've been struggling, however, with figuring out how a float pushing a minority group's opinion about how to manage the shelves at the public library fit in a parade that is meant to celebrate patriotism and freedom. Even the parade's guidelines make clear what is expected of participants:

The Fourth of July Family Parade is a community celebration of our nation’s independence. Please keep the tone and attitude of your participation positive, upbeat, celebratory and show your patriotism!

I guess the fact that the Preamble of the Constitution was recited, and that the float was red, white, and blue helps meet these expectations, but generally I remain befuddled about how pushing an agenda that is focused on forcing the removal of certain books from some of the library's shelves -- and replacing library board members who hesitate to do so -- is meant to be "positive, upbeat, celebratory" or otherwise worthy of a float in a parade.

Further, consider the books celebrated by the float and its participants:

• Treasure Island
• The Scarlet Pimpernel
• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
• The Indian in the Cupboard
• Saffy's Angel
• Little Women

Each, save the last one, are notable books from British authors -- hardly appropriate for a parade meant to celebrate Amercia's independence from the Brits.

And it's no surprise that these books tend to celebrate Christian, Puritan or related themes. Sure wouldn't want anything salacious on the float (we'll ignore Louisa May Alcott's other notable book, the passionate gothic novel, A Long Fatal Love Chase).

Happy 4th!

*GASP* Local Librarians to Attend Librarian Conference!!!

Some people will complain about anything they can get their dirty hands onto.

The Daily News reports that some of our librarians, members of the West Bend board, and citizen advocates will be attending the annual conference of the American Library Association in Chicago next week.

For shame! Going to a professional conference related to one's profession to discuss one's professional duties.

They will be talking about their experiences with the WISSUP and CCLU nonsense, and even will have (hold your breath) PowerPoint slides as visual aids!

How dare they use 45 minutes of taxpayer dollars to make a PowerPoint presentation to discuss the hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars that have been spent dealing with these complaints.

I honestly don't know how these librarians can sleep at night....

// UPDATE -- Ginny asked to be invited to the panel discussion, but was refused since "The panel is not a debate on the merits of West Bend Citizens for Safe Libraries' challenge, or an opportunity for advocacy, but instead a discussion about policy development and management of challenges."

That is reasonable, although I agree with others who feel that Maria Hanrahan's presence on the panel makes little sense in this context either.

Trying to Make Sense of the Evolution of the West Bend Library Fiasco

Are you finding it hard to keep track of everything that's been going down with regard to the West Bend Library controversy? Me too. Here are some helpful links:

• Maria Hanrahan has a nice timeline of Ginny Maziarka's library complaints (but it ends on April 11).
• We have a post highlighting some of Ginny's confusing/contradictory commentary, especially her repeated claim that this isn't about the gays...
• Michael Zimmer, a professor at UWM, has a detailed summary of the events, along with related news coverage.
• And Kristina Smithers took the time to review a number of Ginny's interviews to highlight the number of times she's called for removing books, reclassification, etc.
• New entry: check out the library's pages on the controversy here.
  

It's 1:00pm. Do You Know Where Your Book Burners Are?

Damn.

It is currently 1:09pm, and I'm missing the CCLU's prayer vigil over at city hall.

It must be my fault, since the insanely media savvy Christian Civil Liberties Union (are they getting a website anytime soon?) faxed a notice about the vigil to the Daily News this morning. I mean, we all know that the best way to promote an event is to fax a notice to the local newspaper mere hours before it happens.

I bet they have over 1,100 people there right now.

All is not lost, since the CCLU's fax also teases us with a later event where they plan to burn "the Baby Be-Bop book." Sweet. I hope I get on their fax machine rolodex, cuz I have a bottle of lighter fluid and a copy of the JC Penny catalog ready to burn (those pages selling maternity bras are morally reprehensible, BTW).

The ominous fax also mention a forthcoming federal lawsuit, which should be a gem.

[PS: You'll love the Street View image of the CCLU's address: 2634 W. Vliet St., Milwaukee, WI 53205.]

More National Media Attention

First it was local. Then it hit the blogs. Now, we've gone national!

ABC News has a story on the CCLU book burners and Ginny's related crusade. I love the opening lines:

There are 174,000 books in the West Bend Community Memorial Library, but Robert Braun, 74, of West Allis, Wis., just wants to burn one -- "Baby Be-Bop," by Francesca Lia Block.

"We will have demonstrations if they don't remove it," he said. "It has to be out of the library. If that doesn't happen, I will be out there burning."

Maybe Letterman will joke about us next....

Again with the deception and subterfuge, Ginny?

Ginny Maziarka is at it again, using heated and exaggerated rhetoric to try to rile up a controversy, and then quietly retreating with the [delete] key when caught.

This morning she posts her reflections on this Boots & Sabers post about the library board seeking an outside legal opinion. Her title is "Mayoral recall suggested over (mis)handling of City Council/Library Board", and her original leading sentence is "Seems the gang over at Boots and Sabers is on board for a mayoral recall" (emphasis added).

Problem is, no one over at B&S has called for a recall, not Owen (comment #10), not a "gang".

So, Ginny was called out on that by Maria Hanrahan (comment #8), and, in typical fashion, Ginny changed her text to indicate (still incorrectly) that "some" are calling for a mayoral recall, not a "gang."

Here you can see the original wording captured in Google's snippet from a search result:


And here again when the original post was reblogged at RightyBlogs:


Ginny, you really should place a note in your blog posts when you make substantive changes to them, especially in response to public criticism. You can't hide from Google's cache, and your actions are deceptive and undermine your credibility.