(no subject)

[darchildre]

I realize that, as a library employee, I'm really not supposed to have opinions about the materials my patrons check out but really, if you are returning an actual copy of Slave Girl of Gor, I am going to judge you for it.

I'm not going to say anything or in any way stop people checking it out, of course. But, y'know. Judging.

Comments

[nostalgia]

HAha!

[out_there]

Hee!

[the_rck]

I'm just glad that, when I was eleven and checking out things like that, the folks doing the book checkout never said one word. That was the 1970s, so we didn't have self check out options the way our current library does. Somehow, when I was eleven, it never occurred to me that anyone might notice what I was checking out.

[darchildre]

To reassure your 11-year-old self, we mostly don't notice. And, even if we do and even if we, deep in our hearts, have a negative opinion about a book you're checking out (because we are only human), no library employee worth even half a damn would let you know that in any way, by word or deed. Because reading whatever you want or need to read, without fear or shame, is your fundamental goddamn right and socially awkward weakling me will literally fight anyone who makes you feel otherwise.

We might make carefully anonymous jokes about certain books later, though.

[the_rck]

When I'm able, I volunteer at the library at my daughter's school. I check books in and out and shelve books and shelf read, mostly. I've only once commented in a sort of negative way on a child's book choice, and that wasn't to her. I just gave the librarian a warning that the girl's LDS parents might come in and complain about their daughter having access to And Tango Makes Three. I knew the family from the co-op pre-school we'd participated in the year before, and I knew they were conservative.

And they did come in and complain. The mother handed the book back to the librarian and said, "We don't believe in this." They didn't, so far as I know, try to get the book removed from the library or restricted in access or anything. I think they realized that, given our local community, doing that wouldn't fly. It was a small school at that point, and each grade had at least two families with same sex parents.

I'm still not entirely sure I should have said what I did to the librarian, but, at the same time, it really helps to know that there might be upset parents coming later. I'm sure she knew, when she added the book to the collection, that it was possible someone might object.

Before I became disabled fifteen years ago, I used to work at one of the libraries of the local university. I did support for serial cataloging for a while and some work with acquisitions (a bureaucratic restructuring had stuck all of serials processing and all of acquisitions in the same division), and I worked for a few years in the exchange and gifts section. I don't know public libraries very well, though, not from the working there side.

The school library has been kind of sad the last three years-- Budgets are so tight that the librarian only has about $70 for new materials each year. For the rest, she has to rely on the PTO and donations. There's plenty of money for computers because we managed to pass a millage for that, but we couldn't pass a millage for general operating funds. (I think that the school district miscalculated-- They put the general millage up in a big election when lots of voters were turning out for other things. All the other millages, the ones that have passed, have been either the only thing on the ballot or one of a handful of local issues. In the small elections for millages, parents are likely to make an extra effort to vote while other people may not even realize there's something going on.) We're not in a poor community, either, so it's not that people couldn't afford the taxes. The main, organized opposition for the general millage came from the companies that own a lot of student housing apartment buildings.

[silveradept]

No, no. We don't have opinions about whether a book should stay on the shelf or be removed, part objective things like condition and circulation. We're allowed to have any opinion we like about the people who would read certain books. So long as it doesn't interfere with our customer service.

I think I would have Judgement feelings about someone returning that book, too. I just don't know whether it would be, "Aigh, there are better books out there than that." or "Um, let me point you in the direction of where we keep the books about good sexual practice and consensual BDSM. Just in case."

[darchildre]

Yeah, mostly it's a feeling of "Your Kink is Not My Kink But Your Kink is Okay, however, dude, I'm pretty sure we could find you some better porn."

[silveradept]

Forserious. With a little digging, we could probably find you porn that touches on your kinks and is still better than that. Not that anyone really asks about those things.