Library News: Won't You be My Neighbor?

Oh, Hi.  It's nice to see you again.  (change out of button-up and into worn-out Megadeath t-shirt)  You know, our libraries are fascinating and wondrous places where all kinds of things can happen. (takes off shoes for more comfortable shoelessness)  Every day, something special is happening in your library, like someone looking for a job or finding a book they read as a kid. (fixes a mixed drink of whiskey, red wine and orange power drink in a goldfish bowl) Let's see what happened in our libraries this week so far, shall we? (lights the porch on fire)


The Newcastle library and art gallery have been closed down indefinitely after local officials widened security from protesters over the removal of some fig trees and other growth.  The fig trees responded by screaming silently as they were fed into a wood chipper. Silly trees. abc.net.au

Lewis Black, comedian, has been named to the honorary board of the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library in Indianapolis.  Black plans to help the library by fundraising through performances and such, as well as dressing in shiny boots and time traveling.  ibj.com

Governor Jerry Brown of California signed in a bill this week that will restrict public library privatization.  The bill will force companies to show they are saving the taxpayers money if they take over public services.  Taxpayers could give less of a crap as long as the paper is there in the morning and the new Nicholas Sparks book is on the shelf. mercurynews

The Folger Shakespeare Library is celebrating the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, one of the more influential books in history.  King James was not around to comment on the widespread craziness like those weirdos in Westboro. washingtonpost

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is in the process of moving a 340 ton boulder for an art instillation. They should hire out a company to do this, if they can prove they can do it cheaper than a bunch of museum folk, that is.  nytimes

Alec Baldwin donated around $10,000 to the Central Falls library to keep it afloat in these hard economic times.  This is a long way to go to use a library out of state. whdh

Banned Books Returned to Missouri Library. Sorta.

A little more than two months ago, a Missouri school board voted to remove Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut and Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler from the school library and curriculum after one man voiced a complaint.  After a public outcry of censorship, the board has recently voted to allow the books to return to the library, only in a secure fashion to be checked out by parents for independent student reading.  Some, including students, wonder if this is the right choice.

"Jaymes Haney, 17, said he didn't understand why the board acted on a complaint filed by a man who has no children in the district.
"One religious man's complaint and opinion has caused a review and affected 1,500 people," he said of the high school students. "Now they're putting it in the library and putting it in a secure location? Only parents can come in and check it out; it's not accessible."" Houston Chronicle

I am all for this mode of action.  "Wha?!" you say, "the books are there but harder to get to."  Yeah, I know.  They are also placed in a mysterious prison in a library filled with students.  That makes them special.  I read Harry Potter, I know kids will break all the rules to get at something they seem as 'forbidden'.  Plus, if the parents have to give permission to check out books, they know what the kid is reading.  I say the librarian go nuts and put the whole damn library in that section.  Who knows what dangerous ideas can be found in Junie B. Jones? And we all know Green Eggs and Ham is just capitalist propaganda.  Protect the children!

Let's take the words of John Ciardi and make them real again: "The [public] library is the most dangerous place in town."

Vonnegut Library to Give Students Books, Not Take Them Away

I feel like I may have slacked a bit and for that I apologize.  For a website called Banned Library, I have overlooked an important issue that has happened in the past week.  A Missouri school district banned several books, including the classic Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.  I did give a small retweet on the subject, but that was not enough.  Now I hear that the Vonnegut Library is offering free copies of the book to students of that school and my heart swells.

When I was younger, I had the great fortune and honor to hear Mr. Vonnegut speak.  I was a dumb high school kid with visions of writing the great American novel and yet had not read enough to know who the hilarious and cultured man on the stage was.  I only went because my art teacher gave me credit to give a short review of the speech.  The man on stage drawing on a chalk board and telling jokes changed my life, in how I view books, plots, characters, authors, and the people around me, the audience.  Afterward, I read most if not all of Mr. Vonnegut's books, some I got from the local library and some I scrounged from used book stores.  This man changed my life when I was young, stepped in at the right time and told me what literature should be, could be and was.  I am forever grateful.  I am sorry, Mr. Vonnegut, for allowing this injustice to pass.  Everyone should be allowed contact with your art, your message that the world is a strange, upsetting, hilarious mess. 

To the school district in Republic, Missouri: May you be humbled that while you refuse to teach your children the ways of the world, the world does not give a damn and will teach them anyway.  Please prepare them with our best weapons: books.

"If what Billy Pilgrim learned from the Tralfamadorians is true, that we will all live forever, no matter how dead we may sometimes seem to be, I am not overjoyed. Still--if I am going to spend eternity visiting this moment and that, I'm grateful that so many of those moments are nice."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five