Questionable books for a church library

I just had a reqest to remove Sidney Poitier's new book The Measure of a Man..from the church library....I have not read it...it was donated to thechurch library....
But I do often struggle with what books should and should not be on the church library shelves...

Has anyone read this book?

Do others struggle with this ?

I haven't read Poitier's autobiography, but I have it on a list of books I'd like to read one day, based on television interviews he gave while promoting the book. He was instilled with strong values of integrity, dignity and respect by a father who reared a family in a hut with a dirt floor. He grew up very simply, unaware that he would be considered "poor" by the standards of the country where he played out his adult years. He said that his father told him the measure of a man was what kind of father he is. You might want to read the reader comments on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Measure-Man-Spiritual-Autobiography-Oprahs/dp/0061357901/s...

We have never had a request to remove a book from the shelves. We receive a lot of donations and our major consideration so far has been demand for the book in relation to shelf space. If I were faced with such a request, I would be tempted to ask for a letter stating the reason the book should not be in the library, and then place the letter in the book, as well as making a note on the card catalogue. It is certainly difficult to discern if what one person perceives as appropriate is really representative of the good of the entire congregation.

I'd be interested in hearing how you decide to sort this one out.

I have not read Poitier's book nor do I know the reason for the request that this be pulled from your church library, so please understand my following comments have these limitations and are intended as a generic response rather than addressing this specific book.

Lest I be accused of censorship, I would suggest that ALL libraries (well, maybe not the Library of Congress!) have to make decisions on what they will be able to include in their collections.It seems as though a church library, by reason of usually VERY limited resources (and readership?) will need to be quite discerning in what it offers. So perhaps the best way to address this kind of problem is a proactive one.

Do you have any kind of library board that reviews all acquisitions prior to putting them in your library? OR some set of "standards" for what you will include in your library? If you have outlined in advance what your "philosophy" for your church library is, that might reduce the number of these kinds of complaints.

In a previous congregation that was starting a library from nothing, one of the first things we had to address was a large number of "donations" that were really not appropriate for our intended purposes. We had very limited shelf space and wanted to concentrate on the kinds of books not readily available at the public library and its interlibrary sources. As a result, all donations were reviewed by the library committee, with some accepted into the overall collection, some placed in a "free to all" bin, and a very few were discarded because of poor condition and/or content.

We also established some guidelines on the core of books we wanted to establish in this collection and then acquisition decisions were also discussed formally, looking for a balance of books that would help congregation members and visitors grow in their faith and encounter current issues that Christians need to consider in bringing justice and mercy to the world. Obviously, every congregation will have different guidelines, but they should have some plan for acquisitions, since I know of no church that has unlimited funds for their library.

To go back to the specific text here, I think that how to handle the request would depend on why you are being asked to pull the book. Perhaps there is a valid reason (again, not having seen the book, I can't opine on what might be in it), and you might agree to the specific request but let the requestor know that the ultimate decisions on acquisitions does reside with the library committee. If, on the other hand, you do not feel the request is reasonable, you may want to discuss with the requestor why you feel the book fits your library's goals and philosophy. That may not be very satisfactory for anyone, but, if you can explain the positive reasons why the book is on your shelves, that should help address future, similar requests.

Thanks for the comments, suggestions, advice....

It was the language she objected to.....

I am the sole librarian..me, myself and I.....I took over a library that no one was attending any more...and now suddenly people are getting interested in the church library...that is good! We take up a montly free will offering for the library and I buy what people and Sunday school teachers request...and i accept donations of books with the understanding that not all donated books will be put in the library....

So I think I will draft up a policy of sorts and ask for imput from the general church council..some of the donations have been strange...one popular book I have not added to the church collection is the Da Vinci Code...

ITMT...I have pulled The Measure of a Man and am reading it...then I will have to decide what to do...and explain the decision to the person. thanks again.

Networking like this can be useful for finding out about church library collection development policies and practices. Look into other church libraries in your denomination, search out organizations. It beats the sense of isolation, having to do it all by yourself. To remain focused on its mission, a church library needs to be selective. It is a special library, different from a public or academic, and has unique considerations.

I posted links to two web sites (one is an email discussion list) on the Library Acquisition Guidelines discussion.

And talk to your pastor, priest, religious leader. Training in religious education may have given them some definite opinions about appropriate materials for a library serving the congregation. You'll want to be on the same page with those!

Censorship is a sensitive issue but a church library has a purpose - does that book advance the purpose of the library? I will accept most anything but send all non-religious materials and duplicates to our rummage sale due to space considerations. (And books in poor condition are thrown away - mold does no one any good.) Every rector and vestry has allowed me to make these descisions.

I am still trying to deal with what constitutes children's materials and should I allow children to take out books they cannot read. My solution for many years has been to ask them to bring in their parents and, if they think the book is appropriate, I'll let it go out. Really is censorship of a sort. What do other libraries do?

Sometimes the word "censorship" can be unfairly bandied about, when what we are really doing is having to make decisions.

Any church library should have some purpose, some goal, some expected readership, since there are limitations to budget and space that will mean not every "acceptable" book will be on our shelves. There are probably wonderful textbooks on the art of garden tractor repairs or how to solve quadratic equations, but it's doubtful either of these would be appropriate acquisitions for almost any church library.

As jlane points out, a church library is a very specialized collection. If our congregation has a clearly defined mission (and I would hope that each of them do), then the library can/should be a way for us to provide our members and visitors with resources to help work toward that mission.

The National Church Library Association can give you some samples of "Donation guidelines." Condition, age, subject matter, etc. Check out their website if you haven't already done so. GVLuthCh

I have bveen working with librarything for a few months and jsut now jumped in here. I am wondering how many of you have written policies? A policy for a challenged book usually says it stays if the book taken as a whole (not jsut the challenged aspect - language) has redeeming factors which I believe this book does have.
Hope that helps, Grandview UMC

Some church libraries have books that might refelcet a book club associated with the church. I remember years ago that a club at a church I attended 35 years ago was reading Albert Camus's The Stranger, which did fit not my conception then of a 'Christian book'. But, we grow and struggle with our faith, and one can see how this book, as well as Sidney Poitier's The Measure of a Man might fit very well in a church library.

I have children's books arranged in age groups: Easy:1-4, Juvenile: 5-8, Junior:9-12, Youth. Each group is shelved together and has separate dots on the spine: red (easy), blue (juvenile), yellow (junior) and green (youth). The kids pretty much go to their age group, with really good readers going to the level above. I have these groupings posted. Parents know which books are generally suited for their child and help them chose accordingly. "Works for me." GVLuthCh

Thank you all for your thoughts. I have read them all and they have all helped me grow and develope policies for my small church library. The book was donated to another library where there was no patron that objected to it. Personally I would have kept the book but out of respect for the person objecting I removed it. Something I have learned to consider as I deal with and discuss books with library users in my samll church.

I am the new librarian of a very small congregation and an even smaller library. We had many, many books that were donated by past ministers, and the topics and appeal of the aged books caused me to create a donation and weeding policy. I used the guidelines provided by the National Association of Church Libraries, our minister tweaked it a bit to reflect the church's mission statement. The Adult Faith and Formation committee will read and approve it this month.

I wonder if a simply note inside the cover would not be appreciated for those who prefer to stay away from language. Wouldn't content warnings be great for all books, like movies provide?

We have tried to place only books that provide some level of spiritual growth, though some areas are still shady. Other types of fiction can be found at the local library or placed on the "feel free to take" shelf. A few classics still linger. I did have a request to take down "Hansel and Gretel". I had never really considered the content and viewed it as a classic. It served no purpose to keep it, so multiple copies have been removed which have been donated through the years.

The American Library Association considers labels of any kind on library materials a violation of the Library Bill of Rights. Who is to say what label is appropriate for what material?

One thing taught in library school was that every library needs a policy manual. This may be true for your case. Untimately, though, the church leaders or elders should have the final say, especially if there is disagreement in whether or not the book in question should weeded. Our library is a collection of books intended to be used for study, so they comform to our congregation's beleifs--a collection that is suited for the client as we learned in library science. At any rate, what stays and what goes should be decided by more than one person. That way you have someone else to take a stand with you if needed.

My dear 'net friends, in the interests of Full Discloure, let me say that I have worked in libraries probably longer than some of you have been alive, and I am the author of a bbok which has been denied space on public library shelves, AND I am a Christian baptized as an adult. All that being granted, what I am about to say could just as well be offered by a post-adolescent agnostic or a rock-&-roll punk, or clergy of many denominations. Namely: what century are we in? What shocks or surprises lie in any mainstream biography any more, either in content or language? Maybe the issue is: is our sense of decency, and indeed, our sense of divinity too small? Honestly, discussions like this make both the Church -- broadly defined -- and most librarians look just a little bit silly. I get no pleasure from saying this, but perhaps it's no accident that people, whether people of faith or not, might shake their heads in mystification over this discussion in 2013. Peace to you all, -- Goddard

A tip if you are new to a church library...depending on your purpose, if you are finding it hard to get people into your library, even if your purpose is to provide books for Bible study, prayer, devotions, crisis, marriage support etc....we found out pretty quickly that the fiction part of our library was the main draw. We weren't going to offer mainstream 'bestseller' type fiction but no one was coming to our library.

When people started donating bestsellers and really good classic fiction as well, we decided to put it on the shelves since we didn't have to pay for it and obviously our members were reading it anyway. And lo and behold, people started coming in. We started really pushing the fiction, both Christian and secular and just getting people in the habit of thinking 'church library' first for all their book needs and it worked.

Now most people come in to get books to read for enjoyment but when they need books for Bible study, small group study, or support for a problem or even to expand their Biblical knowledge, they come for that too! And older people in particular have commented over and over that they like our library much better than the county library because they don't have to get on a computer to look up a book. However we are finding it harder and harder to keep doing the little cards for the card catalogue. So that may end in the next couple of years. They also know that we try to keep the best reviewed books only...We don't have every fictional book the county library has but we have fiction that is 'within reason' for a church library, gets 3-5 stars on Amazon and will be in the genres we have found most people like. However, we do put lots of books that may not be well known or bestsellers but 'sleeper' good books that get good reviews.

We also provide DVD movies with big stickers on the front indicating the rating, Music CDs which will soon be discontinued because most people get their music online now, and Books on CD which are very popular. We have a children's section, Juvenile fiction section, Juvenile nonfiction section, (very small though) and adult fiction section and non fiction section. Nonfiction includes all kinds of categories, Biblical related, other religion info, philosphy, prayer, devotionals, history, crafts, cooking, birdwathcing, gardening, diet and health, animals and pets, short stories. biographies, quilting, music, raising children, family dynamics, and much more.

Now to address the initial topic, books not appropriate for church libraries, a sensitive topic at best. I've only had 2 people bring me books that they thought needed to be removed due to excessive sex descriptions or language or incestuous themes etc (in 15 years) and I just removed them without discussion. They weren't books anyone was going to miss. Yes it is censorship but my congregation is pretty liberal about their thinking and they can handle reading a book from the church library about murder etc because they are intelligent but common sense people. But there are some things that just seem a little too much to have in the library. There's hardly a book out there that doesn't have something bad in it. The difference is how the reader handles it. The bad people get caught in the end. Good wins over evil. We know that there is no good without evil. We know that in order to survive and even witness to others in our world, we had better be 'street smart' and know what the bad stuff really is.

Even books like Harry Potter, which I was vehemently against for several years, have the element of great literature but the theme of witchcraft too. After discussing with SUnday School teachers, church staff, church leaders even, I was convinced that here again, we need to know what we are up against. The books do have witchcraft, but how do we teach our kids what is wrong with that unless we know what we are up against. People in the church were letting their kids read the books, even reading them together, but they were talking about them....what were the differences in witchcraft versus Christianity, what choices were being made and why were they right, or wrong, who are the bad guys and why, what are examples of good things in the books, like sticking up for your friends, sacrificing yourself, being respectful...what are the bad things...like going against the rules, making bad decisions, doing forbidden things, etc. It all makes for fascinating discussions in homes, Sunday School, small groups and Youth groups.Try to use it that way. As a side note though, Harry Potter is so well written and imaginative, and you have to remember that C.S. Lewis wrote The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.... people went berserk over that...but look at the story itself and the themes and how we've used it as a allegory! I will say I haven't gotten the vampire series of books yet though...If they are donated..I'll think about it!

So I say you can have policies about how you choose what books you want in the library, but it may come down to what feels right. If it causes problems, let it go. There are books I just can't find any redeeming qualities with and don't feel they are right for our library.

Hope you have great success with your libraries!

In our church library, the other librarian and I are very careful about what we keep. If a book is in obvious conflict with our church's theology or purpose statement, we don't keep it. I would probably not keep a book with bad language because I see no point in offending people unnecessarily.

Now - I realize that almost every book will distress someone, for whatever reason. But I believe that as a church librarian, you do have to choose carefully what you will keep and why.
And sometimes, if a church member objects to a book and we're not sure what to do about it, we ask the pastor for his input!

Our philosophy is also that as a church library, we want to provide people with books that might be harder to find in a public library. Funds are usually limited and so is space, so we're not wiling to use either for books which are available at every public library in the area.

>1 HUMC: I started my retirement project in Jan 2021 which was to update our church library. There were so many books on hand that I couldn't even put them on the shelves. Our church library was a dumping ground for several years. I got rid of all books that were fifty years old, books written in other languages, war books, golf books, and cookbooks. Plus, I got rid of copies of books. I have limited shelf space. This is a church library, not a public one. Now, I have plenty of room.