Amy Wilson in the Lexington Herald-Leader has an in-depth story on just what went on when two Lexington, KY librarians library workers were fired for withholding a copy of THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN: BLACK DOSSIER from an 11-year-old girl.
What followed has become a battle of principles that is larger than the women ever imagined.
It has become a question of what public libraries are enshrined to do, what role they are to play in monitoring children and whether they get to decide what people get to read.
What complicates this is that the graphic novel in question meets no standard of obscenity by the law.
According to the story, Sharon Cook, 57, above left, and Barbara Boisvert, 62, above right, basically colluded to keep the book out of circulation — Cook, who had become disturbed by the book’s imagery, checked it out for a year, meaning no one else could check it out. However, when an 11-year-old girl put it on hold, Cook was unable to continue her delaying tactic — and Boisvert stepped in, removing the hold, and keeping the book out of circulation.
Both were fired for their actions. The Jessamine County Public Library has not commented on what they call a personnel matter.
Cook seems to have some kind of obsession with the book — she’s still carrying it around in her knapsack, the dirty parts marked with post-its. This, despite what she describes as her mortal danger when reading the book:
“People prayed over me while I was reading it because I did not want those images in my head,” she says.
And what are those images? In the rather lively comments section below the story, a reader posts a link to a Flickr set of the naughty bits. This is the only one that’s remotely NSFW. So yeah, probably not something that anyone would want the average 11-year-old to be reading unsupervised.
HOWEVER, Faux News style, in the image description, user melymbrosia writes:
Should the book with these images be shelved in the children’s section of a public library?
To which, probably most rational folks would say “No way!” except the book was not shelved in the children’s section. It was shelved in the Graphic Novel section, which Cook apparently thought was perilously close to the children’s section.
You can see how some (arguably) good intentions are getting a bit warped here. Those who argue that it’s a parent’s job to supervise their children seem to be in the majority — and libraries have gone this route before and the outcome is always that it it is not a library’s job to censor what people can or cannot check out.
We’ll leave the last word to commenter Ringer, who writes:
Can’t we just be happy the kid is at the library at all? Guess she’ll learn to stay at home and view the most horrible smut anyone can imagine on the internet!
Alan Coil said, “No, Dan, that isn’t true. Go back and read the story again, this time with an eye for fact.”
And I addressed the library’s actions, specifically stating I was not addressing what the fired employees did.
Further, it seems what I said is claimed to be untrue because of the tense of a verb! Had I said, “A library worker then sees that an 11 year old has placed a hold on some material she decided is inappropriate for children,” or perhaps “A library worker then sees that an 11 year old has placed a hold on some material she already decided is inappropriate for children,” that, apparently, would have been more to Alan Coil’s liking!
The lengths people go to attack the messenger and avoid the issues truly amaze me.
Be that as it may, I’ll go back and edit the post accordingly to change the tense. I wouldn’t want to “distort things to [my] own agenda.” I changed it to “decided long ago.”
Dan Kleinman.
Carry on with your agenda. It’s your right.
But spare us the paralogia. Argue actual facts, not fantasy.
What the 2 workers did had NOTHING to do with the fact that the hold was placed by an 11-year-old. It was their attempt to keep material they didn’t like away from other library patrons.
Or maybe they really liked it TOO much, and were constantly reading it.
Do your continued personal attacks about non issues advance the conversation any? Has the library not denied dozens of people freedom of speech? Has the library director not said kids have a First Amendment right to inappropriate material? Is ALA policy not the controlling policy in Nicholasville, KY? Those are the issues. Not me.
To inject an entirely new perspective into the discussion…
Sexuality is a realm of human activity that inevitably makes a mess of the boundaries demarcating the four spheres of an individual’s existence (public, personal, private, secret). At eleven years, it’s totally appropriate for a youngster to begin having questions about sex and tentatively examine her or his newly-developing desires (while intercourse is certainly out of the question, sneaking peeks at underwear ads in the newspaper is par for the course).
Looking back on the earliest days of my sexual exploration, I’m thankful for the very public people (shopclerks and librarians) who gave me access to racy material that helped me wrap my head around this new frontier of experience that had yet to even make the transition from secret to private. These folks trusted that my parents were doing their part by talking to me about sex and monitoring my media consumption. And they were right. My parents kept me away from hardcore porn but were otherwise content to turn a blind eye to the books and comics that I thought I was sneaking past them. Little did I know that I was mistaking typical hang-ups about sex for the watchful eyes of Mom and Dad.
Shopclerks and librarians perform a public service in serving as accomplices in the little transgressions that young people must commit to become adults. In cases like mine, these small rebellions are parentally countenanced and serve to liberate minds from fetters attached by the environment outside of the home. In cases like households run by the women in the article, these acts serve to bring desperately needed erotic imaginings to adolescents who are having that vital element of their psyches mangled through repression.
Someone should send these women a copy of the Library Bill of Rights.
Aside from the curtailing of intellectual freedom these women should have been fired for abusing their privileges. They spied on library patrons (which, how did they know the girl wanted the book and not her parent using her card? it happens) and they also used their privileges to override due dates to purposefully misuse library property. They were library staff and they essentially stole property. If I did that at the library where I work I would be fired for stealing from a taxpayer funded entity.
Dan Kleinman said:
“Do your continued personal attacks about non issues advance the conversation any?”
Dan, I made no personal attacks. Your last post does not advance your argument in any way.
Keep pimping your agenda.
Drop it already, Coil.
I see, reported today, that another library has come across a ‘censor or not’ situation. This one in South Dakota school. And the situation was resolved after a recommendation by a panel.
Not by individuals.
You know it might sound strange but I really miss the days of censors vs. comic book companies. And the whole argument about violence and indecent material. There was a whole Us Vs. Them mentality that as a reader, made it a bonus to read comics back in the 80′s.
Nowadays, all it is complaining about the crap quality of the stories that the Big 2 churn out. And which franchise is next to get greenlit by Hollywood.
Dan,
As this is not your board, you have no right to tell me to drop it.
However, I am dropping it. I have no more to say on this subject at this time.
Have a nice day.
Scott: My mother had six children. We each checked out “five to ten books a WEEK” from the library. That’s easily 60 books a week to go through. She was still, while getting a Masters degree in linguistics and working full time, able to monitor our reading material for appropriateness. Which meant I didn’t get to read John Norman’s Gor novels (shelved with the regular science fiction), or Tales From the Vulgar Unicorn (ditto) until I was over 18. (The reader’s regret those caused, well, that was another matter.)
If a parent is determined, they can monitor their child’s reading material, video games and television viewing, regardless of the amount the child consumes or the number of children involved. And honestly, the rating systems for other media? Are pretty much ignored by the vast majority of the parents in the US. When I worked in a video game store, I could not count the number of parents buying Grand Theft Auto games for their 8-year-olds, despite the MA rating, and despite us informing the parents the games were full of violence, cursing and sex. I regularly see whole families in rated R gory horror movies, with children as young as 2 or 3.
Most comic companies do already mark their comics with ratings. Marvel has a system (all ages books say, amazingly, “ALL AGES” above the barcode), all the manga have suggested age ratings on the back covers, and I have never seen an adults only comic that didn’t have “ADULTS ONLY” on the cover. Comics HAVE ratings on them, there’s just not a governing board like the ESRB system or the MPAA. (We used to have that in the Comics Code Authority, which went the way of the dodo for a multitude of reasons.)
And, as others have stated, this case has nothing to do with ratings, and everything to do with library workers flouting library regulations. But hey, get that plank in there while you can.
Elin…
Amen. You’re absolutely right.
But as you pointed out. Parents are generally stupid…ha ha.
Anything we can do to educate them. To help their kids out…is a good thing.
Thanks for understanding.
It still baffles me that there are a few people out there who would OPPOSE informing parents about innappropriate things in a comic.
The only answer I’ve heard (and this baffled me even more) is “if a book says it’s mature…we might not get as many sales”
So…essentially…you WANT kids to read stuff that’s not written for them?
Great.
This is a small quibble, but Lexington, KY is in Fayette County; this library is the Jessamine County Public Library. Jessamine County is next to Fayette County, but they’re two different places. The largest city in Jessamine County is Nicholasville.
You might have to be from Kentucky to understand this, but people here tend to identify themselves as being from a county rather than a city (outside of the few larger cities), so to a Kentuckian it’s a big slip. Anyone else probably couldn’t place Kentucky on a map, much less Lexington, so…
Just a note: when I was 11, I was reading Piers Anthony books and romance novels.
Just FYI, the “graphic novel” section at this library is in the teen section, right next to the kids section, on the first floor – and both these woman had written letters asking the library to relocate the more adult titles to art/illustration on the 2nd floor or perhaps anywhere else in the library where they wouldn’t be easily accessible to kids.
Not that what they did is right; but if you do a bit of research, you might find a larger story here than what you think happened, and it might tone down our righteous indignation a bit.
Just a quick fact correction because I grew up out that way and even more shoddy journalism drives me nuts. Lexington is in Fayette county, Jessamine county is Nicholasville & Wimore.
The path to hell is paved with stupidity.
These two numb nuts were to be the keepers of the books, not the judges of their content. The did not only try to keep this book from an 11 year old girl, but they tried to keep it out of circulation all together. Off with their heads!
There’s a reason they call them GRAPHIC novels and this is
the same reason they make good reading material for young
people. Youngsters need to learn about the adult world
before they are going to be ready to inhabit it. And the
first step in learning to be an adult is learning to make
choices on your own. Now, one wonders, how were the
censoring adult described in this story prepared for their
role in the “adult world”? Perhaps someone said a prayer
over them and hoped that would be sufficient…
Perhaps this author needs to check out a geography book from his library. The library in question was in Jessamine County, not Lexington, KY. They’re close, but not the same. The Lexington library has had it’s own share of problems this year; let’s not add false charges.
One look at those two overweight monsters and all the reasons are clear.
HELLO PEOPLE, it does not say the Lexington Library! It says it was from the Lexington Herald. I know there is some local pride at stake but I don’t see what the correction in my blog post it.
I purposely just showed these images to my 12 year old to see what he thought. I don’t even think his pupils dilated a little bit. He asked, “What’re these from?” I said “Some graphic novel I never heard of.” He said, “you mean a comic book?” and I said, “yeah, basically.” He said, “I don’t like the style.”
These librarians should be fired yes.
And it doesnt matter what section this graphic novel was in, the girl put in on hold….meaning she went in and reserved it. She didnt walk into the library find it at all.
At age 11 I was reading on a Post Secondary level. There was just about nothing “appropriate” I could read that didn’t bore me to death.
I read every VC Andrews novel possible, tons of romance novels, all Judy Blume (even her adult stuff which could be “inappropriate”) Mark Twain (but, I think I was more like 9 then), “My First Love And Other Disasters” which was by the “Sweet Valley” author and racier than those books. There were plenty of accounts of sexuality, many of them depicting teens or early 20′s and reasonable outcomes of getting onto sexual situations. Realistic descriptions and consequences, emotionally, physically, socially. The stuff that was total fantasy was obviously fantasy (romance novels, specifically).
I thank my lucky stars every time something like this comes up that I was able to read anything I wanted. I was not allowed to watch Mtv or anything with PG-13 or R due to sexual content. I grew up Catholic. I ended up waiting for significant adult activities until I was legally allowed to vote or join the military or bear arms. I cannot say the same for my friends who were not as voraciously reading all the “smut” they could get their hands on. I think I was well-informed, well-prepared and I’ve made it into my 30s successful, well-socialized and relatively unscathed.
I think the kids you have to really worry about are probably not at the library to begin with.
Credit where credit is due, eh? Alan Moore is indeed a fine and powerful writer, but it’s the imagery of Kevin O’Neill’s artwork she says is doing the bad things to her.
Remember, Kevin O’Neill is the only artist ever banned by the Comics Code Authority for his singularly unique visual style that goes beyond the bounds of comfort for some fragile minds. Alan Moore usually knows the strengths of the artists he works with and plays t them, but Kevin O’Neill deserves the fine credit for this one.
I have been reading books and graphic novels with sexual content in it since I was five years old.
For the life of me, I have yet to figure out what are supposed to be the negative repercussions of allowing children to read adult literature, sex or no sex.
I have not become a slut nor do I constantly seek sexual attention. For all intents and purposes, I’m somewhat of a prude.
I remain baffled.
once again, stupidity reigns
There are A LOT of separate issues at work here, and I think they’re getting entangled to the detriment of all.
First of all, should libraries be allowed to dictate who is allowed to check out certain materials? That is the central argument here. I would say, as a government agency, the answer is no. Nobody wants to have to explain the birds and bees to their kids before they feel comfortable with it, but who is going to be the arbitrators of what is acceptable? Librarians? Who are they?
Second, the placement of books intended for their target audience. I’ve read Moore’s “Black Dossier,” and it is a work that is an exploration of human sexuality (among other things). Does the fact that it is a comic book mean it is meant for children? Once again, no. Was this book shelved in the children’s section? No. In my experience, most libraries place graphic novels in the “Teen” section. Does that often make sense? No, but have you read teen novels lately? The “Gossip Girl” series is currently making millions on television, and I don’t think you’ll find anything there to like if you’re worried about your teenager. Then again, when has “text” ever made a difference?
But the last part is the most important. If a library employee wanted to check out a book to keep it out of circulation, well, I can’t find too much fault in that other than thinking that employee is a bit nuts. However, once the hold was placed, the fact that the same library employee searched the patrons record (11-year-old or not) and of their own accord decided to abort the hold because they felt that patron should not read what they found unacceptable, well that’s despicable.
For a moment ignore the content of the hold placed. More to the point, replace the “Black Dossier” with a book you may find more acceptable, such as “Huckleberry Finn.” Now imagine if your child placed a hold on the book, and a secret cabal of library employees found a problem with the book. In most states, your library account is protected BY LAW and for very good privacy reasons. Now imagine they accessed your child’s records for no other reason than to prevent them, your child, from checking out something they found unacceptable.
That is an invasion of privacy and trust. Even if you agree with it, it is in violation of EXPLICITLY STATED LAWS.
I don’t know many jobs that will keep you on once you have broken the law, no matter how high intentioned you might have been.
If you want to keep arguing the role of public libraries in policing content, I can see that, even if I don’t agree with it. But the invasion of private records to promote a personal viewpoint…Are you comfortable with that?
Wait… This library has a graphic novel section? That’s awesome.
Most libraries I have visited and checked out the graphic novel section – and I do this a lot, because it’s a big interest to me if libraries display, what they choose to feature, etc – put them in the YA section. Black Dossier in no way belongs in any sort of YA secton, nor do plenty of other graphic novels – but a lot of titles slip under the radar because despite the understanding of the comics community, consumers at large still equate comics – even if they are hardcover or black and white or whatever – as a child’s medium. It’s a minor victory that the expected maturity level of a reader is now considered teenager, but really just furthering the comic book ghetto by not approaching it as a fiction like any other, with some aimed at adults, some aimed at teens, and some aimed at kids. There shouldn’t be a graphic novel section – they should be in the fiction sections and disseminated the same way “non visual” fiction is. Only at that point will graphic fiction be truly accepted and equal by the majority of readers …
Still, the librarians sound like religious whack jobs whose actions are wrong, but intent not entirely. It would be nice if people like this learned that outright censorship only hurts their real concerns – there are actual ways of going about keeping entirely inappropriate material away from an 11 year old.
I don’t give a hot damn what the book was, how old the patron was, or where it was located.
Two desk workers fishing in a library patron’s records for personal information–didn’t we agree as a nation that the GOVERNMENT isn’t allowed to poke around in your records without a court order?
If the government isn’t allowed to poke through your file and jot down notes on your vital statistics and reading habits (just for future reference, don’t be alarmed Citizen!), I don’t see why people think it’s okay for these two self-righteous busybodies to do it.
Do you really think, after sort-of-stealing the book for a year to keep it out of circulation, that they would have returned the book if the patron had been 31 rather than 11?
This IS my local library. Their policy is that it is the parents’ responsibility, and I fully agree with that. Oh, and by the way, the Graphic Novels section is NOWHERE near the Children’s section – they are on opposite sides of the room.
I would have let my daughters check this out when they were 11. Then again, I did raise my daughters to be intelligent and insightful. Seeing a line drawing of buttocks wouldn’t have damaged their strong minds… It’s the kids that are constantly sheltered from reality that would have been shaken by a little bit of ink.
As it was, when the oldest *was* eleven, we had some controversy because her school librarian wouldn’t let her check out the Harry Potter books. By the time I was making my complaint to the school, two of my daughters teachers had also filed complaints. I certainly WAS NOT the librarians role to decide what my daughter could and could not read. That’s MY job.
I think the problem with Black Dossier is a little more than naked buttocks and there is other library material that you can compare this to. My kids aren’t allowed to check out R rated DVDs from the library. If for some reason there is an R rated movie that I think it is okay for them to see, I can check it out and give it to them to watch. Seems to me that’s allowing the parents to make the decision of what their kids can encounter rather than the library or anyone else. By doing it that way, the material isn’t being kept away from kids, just requiring the parent take the responsibility of being the ones providing the kid with the material instead of the library. I just don’t see the big deal there. Regardless, what these librarians did was entirely wrong.
Do you see the way that Poodle is LEERING at the bottom of the lady who is on one knee?
You people DISGUST me and now I need some bleach for my eyes.
Please pray for me.
Naked women, poodles, graphic artists, impure thoughts, save my soul!
For those who say “I can see not letting an 11 year old check this out), I’ll point out that the ethics of the ALA say that if they can get it to the counter, they can check it out.
As a former librarian myself, I’d understand completely if Cook and Boisvert had gone to the head of the branch and asked for Black Dossier to get a “mature content” sticker of some kind. If the library doesn’t maintain any kind of an adult collection, there’s even an argument for officially removing it from the shelf, or transferring it to a branch that does (not one I’d support, but the case can be made). But just pulling it themselves, because they found it offensive? There’s a reason Banned Books Week is sacred at libraries, and it’s to fight exactly that impulse. They absolutely deserved to be fired.
These librarians did not follow policy, and I suspect have been warned about similar behavior before. I cannot fathom what a parent or anyone thinks would happen if this girl read this graphic novel. Last I heard, reading was good. There is so much she could be doing that would be so much worse. I personally think it is great that she wants to read! I have worked in various libraries for about 7 years, and the only time we would prohibit a child from checking material out is if the parent had specifically said that they wanted their child’s library card to have certain limits on it.
Just a note to recent posters –
The two women were not librarians, just library workers. This was mentioned earlier in the thread, and is repeated now for informational purposes, not argument.
Scott sez… “My kids check out 5-10 books EACH a week. It is nearly impossible to keep up with them all.”
How exactly would you expect library staff to “keep up with” the thousands of items that they help patrons to check out each day if you can’t keep up with 5-10 books per child? Give me a frickin break.
Agatha…here’s your “frickin break”….
A rating system.
You’re welcome.
Good Lord, I’d be thrilled if my 12-year-old took on something as challenging as “Black Dossier” instead of that “Twilight” crap.
Heidi, regarding your post from 11/18/09 at 6:25 pm:
“HELLO PEOPLE, it does not say the Lexington Library! It says it was from the Lexington Herald. I know there is some local pride at stake but I don’t see what the correction in my blog post it. ”
Yes, you do quote the Herald Leader, no argument there. You also refer to the library workers as being from Lexington. Therein lies the problem. The newspaper story you link to pretty clearly states that
“Both women live in Jessamine County.”
There’s where the need for (a small and, as most people stated, relatively innocuous but still factual) correction comes in.
I read anythihng I could get my hands on sihnce I was four. My mother kept ‘naughty’ books in a locked drawer which I swiftly learned to open. One of those bgooks was Tobacco Road, considered steamy in its day. I found it very easy to pick the lock of the drawer she kept it in. i read it from cover to cover at the age of nine or ten. I hardly understood a word and was filled with a sense of vague depression. Maybe more ‘unsuitable’ were the Tarzan books, filled with blatant racism (at least in pre WW1 stories). Somehow I didn’t notice anhd grew up to be an anti-racist activist. I was once asked by a newspqper if
This only an issue in the Midwest where the average settlement, I mean Small Town as popularly lionized in American music and politics, has a population of 1000 people. Most of the people are middle aged and are always looking for something to burn; books, disco records, etc. They’d like to burn anything, since burning people was outlawed after that awful civil rights movement that brought us Political Correctness and Muslim terrorists.
A rating system would be too complex to get their minds around even though TV uses it. How would they even go about to even interpet a rating system? Rating systems aren’t mentioned in the Old or the New Testement. What does “Rated PG” mean to a evangelical Christian? Is Pro God or what?
Yeah, they should’ve been fired for that. Who are they to decide what’s “naughty” and what is not? People like that should not work in the public sector.
Hi,
Being an avid comic reader I would like to point out that comics have had a history of self regulation since the 50′s starting with the comics code authority. DC is the only publishing company that uses it and their comics have to be reviewed by a board and meet certain guidelines before being able to print the seal of approval by the code on their comics. Marvel now has a ratings system of their own implemented that is very similar to videogames, and Vertigo (which publishes The League of Extrodinary Gentlemen) is owned by DC and is the label where they publish their more adult material. It is not rated because, well, all of their titles have mature themes.
So yes, the comic book industry is self regulated.
Also, in any public library I’ve been to, the graphic novel section is always put in the adult section in the library. Which is typically completely separate from the children’s section.
And I think it’s unfair to single out comics for ratings and monitoring anyway. Libraries have numerous books on all kinds of subjects. Some with pictures and some not. How about non-fiction? How exactly would you go about rating something based off of real life?
And yes I think the librarians were wrong for doing what they did. Not only is it not their place to monitor who checks out books, but it is also an invasion of privacy.
I guess I’ll have to be the first to say that hacks who say “looks like X, Y, Z doesn’t care for children” are a bunch of fakes who also do not care about children.
These phonies are here to stroke their adulthood at us and wonder why we still don’t know them on a first name basis.
Take your attention hogging faux outrage elsewhere.
“Most of the people are middle aged and are always looking for something to burn; books, disco records, etc.”
I’d allow them to burn the disco records… that era was just embarrassing…
Just a quick correction to a lucid comment; DC is not the only publisher who uses the Comics Code Authority. Archie Comics bear that branding as well.