A formula for disaster

"Librarians are trained to select resources unfettered by our personal, political, social, or religious views," explains the 19-year media center veteran and mother of two. "We serve all the students. We believe in access to all ideas. Students aren't going to tell me if they want to read these books, but they're there if they need them."

Source: Monica Yant Kinney: Working to shelve students' book choices

Thank you to Dee Venuto for bringing this article to our attention. While the NJ State Library edges toward extinction because of budget cuts, censorship raises it's ugly head, sending chills down my spine.

I remember working for Ocean County Library and conducting outreach events to the GLBT community. The stories from adults who suffered from lack of information about themselves at crucial developmental phases were just heart wrenching. Through outreach and educational programming we were able to build incredible an book and video collection. We also learned the value of self-checkout stations for people who were hesitant to let anyone, even the circulation staff, know of their interest in certain topics. Market research can help libraries to know what their customers need but it still takes a bit of courage to put those items on the shelves when members of the public oppose you.

How ironic that as news stations are turning into huge conglomerates and developing shows with strong partisan views, NJ is decentralizing their libraries, the defenders of equity and access to information, by eliminating the statewide funding that allows smaller libraries to offer their customers the same access as larger ones. No, not ironic. Frightening.

Here's the full story. You may want to email Monica and thank her for the article.

Monica Yant Kinney: Working to shelve students' book choices
By Monica Yant Kinn, Philadelphia Inquirer

Beverly Marinelli seems like a nice lady. She lives in a sunny Lumberton home and owns an adorably obedient Chihuahua mix. She loves her grandchildren so much she sits "right next to them" as they play on Internet sites like Club Penguin.

Regrettably, that's probably the last paragraph of this column Marinelli will enjoy reading.

She invited me over last week to talk about her quest to ban three books from the library at Rancocas Valley Regional High School in Mount Holly, but as I explained, people who earn a living stringing words into sentences rarely cotton to those trying to dictate what the public reads.

Marinelli persists, predicting that I'll gasp at Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology, a book Rancocas stocks to help gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender teens - or their straight friends - navigate choppy waters without drowning.

She calls the book "pervasively vulgar, obscene, and inappropriate," citing one particularly explicit illustration of two Boy Scouts watching two men have sex. "This," Marinelli declares, "is the worst."


Shock and awe

Marinelli is right: I do gasp, for a moment, before being overcome with questions about the drawing and context. She hasn't read much of Revolutionary Voices, and I can't find it at Borders, so I call Dee Venuto, the longtime librarian at the Burlington County school of 2,200 students and 22,000 books.

Until recently, Venuto didn't know much about the critically acclaimed collection of frank essays by young people for young people.

"It won the School Library Journal's Adult Books for High School Students Award in 2001," she tells me. "Some of the readings are very difficult and heart-wrenching."

Venuto doesn't offer much more, because that's not her job.

"Librarians are trained to select resources unfettered by our personal, political, social, or religious views," explains the 19-year media center veteran and mother of two. "We serve all the students. We believe in access to all ideas. Students aren't going to tell me if they want to read these books, but they're there if they need them."

Or rather, they were, until Marinelli's complaint - inspired by conservative blogger Gateway Pundit's larger beef with President Obama's openly gay safe-schools czar, Kevin Jennings - led to a committee review and advice from the Parker McCay law firm.

The Rancocas Valley school board will vote on the matter Tuesday night and appears poised to make a no-win compromise by keeping two of the targeted books but removing Revolutionary Voices.

Marinelli and another member of Glenn Beck's 9.12 Project have lodged a similar complaint in Burlington County's Lenape School District. If I had to guess, this so far low-key South Jersey matter may soon blow up; the American Library Association, the National Coalition Against Censorship, and the Lambda Legal Defense Fund all stand at the ready to pounce.

"If that book comes off the shelf, I don't know what will happen," Venuto says, fearfully. "When we start opening those doors, how do we close them?"


The kids are all right

Marinelli insists she's "not a homophobe," just a "normal mother and grandmother" and former township committeewoman proud of her conservative beliefs. In the fall, she demonstrated against "indoctrination" at B. Bernice Young Elementary School in Burlington Township, scandalized by a video of pupils singing in praise of Obama.

"We did it," she told the Philadelphia Daily News, "for the children."

Adults always say that but rarely consult the kids - who, let's face it, are far more sophisticated than we were at their age.

Rancocas Valley Superintendent Michael Moskalski tells me he met with "key communicators" about the book battle. Students shrugged off the controversy.

Moskalski says the students told him: "Just because these books are in the library isn't going to cause us to be gay. We have so much access to information, if we want to read something we'll read it."

Even modern teens like old-fashioned rebellion. Ban Revolutionary Voices and I guarantee half the student body rushes to find a copy just for the thrill.