Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to No. They're working on "Macbeth".

Correction:
Mary Anne — (archived)

I said:

If anything, I get more requests to expand parts of the collection from people on the left.

Change "requests" to "demands". "Requests" is a term used to describe any customer input into collection development. A book challenge is a "request", too, though the tone is one of a demand. In order to describe the tone of people who seek to alter the collection to suit their own purposes by positive action (suggestions for purchase, as well as targeted donation, also called "flooding"), "demand" is a better word.

The most recent attempt to flood the collection in my Youth Services Dept. was by neither left nor right. It occurred in early 2002, by CAIR. They sent something in the neighborhood of 30 brand new books and a couple of posters, unsolicited. I kept a lovely book on Ramadan, which had disappeared from the collection and I was going to replace anyway; an elementary novel about a boy struggling with fasting and obedience during Ramadan that was illustrated by an award-winning PA illustrator; and the DK Eyewitness Series entry on Islam, its history and cultural expressions, which has since disappeared and I'll have to replace. The rest went to the book sale. No Q'uran for Kids, or I would have kept that.

We've had other attempts, mostly in the adult collection. Mormons, a gay rights group, white supremicists, Holocaust deniers, and gay bashers. An interesting assortment. We also get a lot of Christian books, but that also reflects our service area. They come in dribs and drabs, obviously used, so it's not considered deliberate flooding.

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