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Influencing Public Library Selections
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We are leaning heavily on the public library next year, but I have been very dissappointed to find that there are very, very few Christian or ‘living’ books on the shelves there.
We are fairly new to this town, which is overshadowed by a state university, and while I have found many titles in the juvenile and children’s departments dealing with such controversial topics as ‘discovering your sexual identity’ and the occult, I am disturbed at the lack of balance with Christian titles! Even in the picture book category, it seems that there are very few living book selections that correspond with our belief system.
My question is:
How can a group or individual influence their local library to reflect SOME Christian culture? I understand that the library is not a religious institution, but it seems to me that the books chosen should proportionately reflect what the population would like to read.
Is there any way to approach the library so that books Christians and homeschoolers would actually like to read are established in the system? Or am I being too idealistic?
You can request books. I think our library system keeps tabs of the books requested and makes selections based on that.
Does your library system offfer inter-library loans? intra-library loans? How about e-books from the library? Our smallish county library system offers all those things.
You can always ask…..and ask for another book….and appear sweetly and sadly disappointed when they can’t help you. You can even ask if there’s another library within nice driving distance that would have the resources you need.
Our library system has (mostly) sweet staff who are convinced their job is to help the public find the books they want. I do hope that you find out you’re in a similarly-staffed library system, and can get the decent living books you need.
My guess is that in a college-type town, the sweet people who remember Great-Grandma going to church and the morals Great-Grandma lived by and the books that Great-Grandma would have liked are few and far between.
However, you should be able to find someone – a professor of old literature? some older person who volunteers in the library? who might be able to point you in the right direction of both finding the books you need and instigating a change.
Looking long-term, you might be able to volunteer in the library and “suggest” books here and there. But that’d take time.
Good Luck!!
I guessing they get rid of books based on what people check out, so continue to check out the classics.
Sometimes I put good books on the top display wire holders in the children’s section if I see an empty spot, so they’ll get checked out more. Hope that’s not unethical…I try to not put anything up that is the wrong season, etc.
If you have duplicates of something decent, ask if they would put a copy on the shelf if you donated it.
If you find a book that is particularly different from your beliefs, you could suggest another book on the same topic to “balance” it out. For example, I checked out a library book that appeared to be a Bible story but was a “humorous retelling” of it that I found distasteful. I seriously considered finding another book to suggest they buy so that when people looked up “[Bible Story Name]” on their computer they would have another obvious option in the children’s book. I never got around to doing that though.
Well I live in a small town, but I went in and took a list of the books that I want to use for next year’s curriculum and the librarian went through the list and marked which ones they had, which ones they could get through interlibrary loan, and she then actually bought seven of the titles!! They ones she bought were the history readers/read alouds. She seems very open to helping the local homeschoolers as much as possible. I continue to check out the good books even if I don’t get to reading them just yeat so that they are not pulled from the shelves. Luckily since we homeschool, they don’t have books limits for us. This makes it soooo nice. If someone wants a book I’ve checked out, she will call me, Otherwise, I just call in the next week and remind them to recheck everything for me. Love our library!
Oh, yes– check out books that are worth keeping!! When our librarians are deciding to “weed” or “cull” books, they do check the borrowing history. Of course, they can see who borrowed the books, too – – so if you’re the only one borrowing some books, they might cull the book anyway.
I guess you need some “co-horts” to help you check out all the good books. *L*
*L* brings a nice meaning to “conspiracy theory” *L*
<<You can always ask…..and ask for another book….and appear sweetly and sadly disappointed when they can’t help you.>>
@ Karen: Is this the same look I come up with for the nice law enforcement officer when my husband is caught speeding? Lol…
Thank you ladies – We have an awesome homeschool group here, so maybe I could start a positive conspiracy.
It is oddly ‘left’ here compared to our library in Texas. We recently had to call and complain because they put up an end-cap display in the juvenile department with all the books they had on ‘discovering’ if you are GLB, and how to tell your parents, etc…complete with rainbows and all the trimmings. Our poor little 8th grade homeschooled volunteers were so shocked. It lasted about 1 day before they took it down. The town itself is conservative, but the University not so much – and I think that plays a big part in the tone of the books selected.
I am fine with a balanced selection…it just seems that if you have a group with 75 families who all want to check out basically the same history readers, etc, there would be a concerted effort to meet that neeed. But maybe no one has actually asked?
Maybe a consistent barrage of kind, friendly, and participting homeschoolers could influence the library selections. I think I will contact our co-op and see if we could try to approach them collectively.
Missing my friendly Texas librarians…
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