Libraries, at least those libraries aimed at adults rather than children, should be places where freedom of information is the governing principle. If an adult wants Mills and Boon or Mein Kampf then it should be made available to them via the public library. My view on what should be in school libraries is more nuanced and although school libraries should reflect viewpoint diversity, care must be taken to make sure that the books available are age appropriate.
Unfortunately sensible library management seems to be a thing of the past in Ontario, Canada. In Ontario school librarians have not merely engaged in the normal run of the mill sensible weeding of collections, but have decided to remove anything published prior to 2008. They have done this all in the name of Diversity, Inclusion and Equity. During this ideologically driven purge of the library the librarians even removed copies of ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ although this was reinstated after protests.
The magazine The European Conservative said:
A school library in Mississauga, Ontario has made the move to remove all books from its shelves that were published before 2008, as part of a school board policy to ensure that books in school libraries are equitable and “inclusive.”
Students at Erindale Secondary School were reportedly shocked to find shelves in the library entirely empty upon returning for the start of the school year earlier this month, with one student claiming that as many as half of the books that were present last year, were now gone, the CBC reports.
The school is part of the Peel District School Board (PDSB), which has recently implemented a new process to meet a directive from the Ontario Provincial Minister of Education Stephen Lecce to ensure library books are inclusive.
However, Minister Lecce, a member of the Progressive Conservative government under Premier Doug Ford, stated Wednesday that he has asked the school board to change their policy:
Ontario is committed to ensuring that the addition of new books better reflects the rich diversity of our communities. It is offensive, illogical and counterintuitive to remove books from years past that educate students on Canada’s history, antisemitism or celebrated literary classics.
While the process of “weeding” books in libraries is a standard practice in order to replace or remove damaged books or those that contain out-of-date information, such as atlases that still list the USSR as a state, some groups are concerned that the added element of inclusion and equity could lead to the removal of books based on individual interpretation.
The weeding process is a three-step one, involving books at least 15 years or older that are examined for damage, misleading or outdated information among other facts. The second step is an audit of books to qualify books based on how well they “promote anti-racism, cultural responsiveness and inclusivity.”
The third and final step involves making sure the books in the library reflect the diversity of the students who attend the school.
The PDSB policy was widely criticised on social media, with the Canadian Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) noting that the Diary of a Young Girl by Holocaust victim Anne Frank had been one of the books removed by the board.
This is utterly outrageous and clearly does not represent sensible library management or the recognised need for libraries to keep their stock up to date and relevant. This mad and dangerous policy has even seen the classic children’s book ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ removed on possible ‘woke‘ grounds. What we have here is the ideological left engaging in metaphorical book burning, or we should hope that this is just metaphorical.
The actions of this school board in relation to the school library are seemingly a case of the educators, and I use that term lightly, deciding to use Orwell’s ‘1984’ not as a warning about totalitarianism, but as a guide to library management. Another thing that bothers me is there’s no indication in the European Conservative article as to where the removed stock has gone. Has it been offered to other institutions or individuals or has it merely been disposed of?
What this story tells us is that in Canada at least and maybe in other places where the education sector has been taken over by the Left, libraries are no longer places where you can find a multitude of information and a diversity of viewpoints but instead are places of indoctrination.
Well, for a start, I don’t see a lot of point in sharing stories from Canada. But accepting this blog is global, in the UK we have a pattern of Conservative councils closing or restricting library services for cost cutting contrasting with the Labour boroughs striving more to keep them open. In the previously Conservative controlled Borough of Barnet (with a recently elected Labour council now) we actually had protestors occupying the Friern Barnet branch library to keep it open.
Going past your sensationalist headline about book burning, I think it’s a serious question to ask as to which side of the political spectrum is more likely to support investment into public libraries.
This is not about cost cutting where libraries are concerned and councils of all shades have cut libraries both sites and opening hours. That’s a massive ginormous red herring you are waving there. What is the key point here is that activist staff at libraries both in Canada with school libraries and in places like Calderdale in the UK are censoring books. The Canadian example is one that is particularly egregious but we’ve had books by gender identity questioning female authors removed from shelves in Calderdale and not appearing on library catalogues in other places in the UK.
I’m a great believer in public libraries but they have to carry a wide range of stock and not just carry what some activist librarian or council wants them to stock. I don’t believe for one moment that the book burning reference was hyperbole as the books in this Canadian library have been removed to who knows where. I can see no reference to where the books have gone or whether they’ve been offered to parents or other libraries or have been sold. They’ve just disappeared in a form of metaphorical if not actual book burning.
Marian
Bradford is a Labour controlled council. In recent years they have been quite happily closing local libraries. I’m sure this applies elsewhere in other authorities
Yes, but all libraries select books out of a limited range of titles. Those not chosen out of many are not necessarily ‘censored’. In the UK as library members we can also request books not on our local shelves but which could be brought in from other libraries or purchased if there is sufficient demand.
It might be an idea to pursue this route first before complaining about censorship.
In the Calderdale case ALL the books taken away were from female authors critical of gender identity ideology. That looks very much like censorship to me. In the end Calderdale council reversed their decision because of massive public pressure. It turned out that the library department had a trans identified male employee who kicked off about the fact that these books were available and HR got the books removed because of the Troon’s tantrum.
Our local Council is Conservative. The library in my nearest town has just been moved into a new building which is attached to the leisure centre. I don’t know how impressive it is, we have our own library in a spare bedroom that has several thousand books in it.
Funny story. My wife and I are avid book collectors. When our son was born we had the usual Health Visitor visit. One of the questions they ask now is ‘how many books in the house’ as it appears that there are many homes that have less than ten books in them. My wife and I looked at each other smiled and then said ‘oh about 3….thousand’. The look on the HV’s face was a classic ‘you wot’ one.