NY Library Says No to PG Ratings

Board nixes plan to outfit young adult books with warning labels

By Eric Oatman -- School Library Journal, 7/1/2005

Trustees of the Guilderland (NY) Public Library have defeated a proposal to stick warning labels on young adult books with sexually explicit content.

The June 9 vote came at the end of a three-hour meeting attended by about 100 residents of Guilderland, a semi-rural suburb of the New York State capital, Albany. About 30 people spoke, including teens. “The majority of the speakers felt that it was the responsibility of the parents if they wanted to limit their children’s reading,” says Karen Balsen, the library’s assistant director, “and that the librarians were there not as censors, but to guide them. It was very nice to see that the community appreciated the library and the librarians’ not making decisions for them.”

The proposal to label all YA books with either orange stickers (PG) or green stickers (OK) was initiated by John Daly, a library trustee. “We have an obligation to help the parents,” he argued. But seven other voting trustees decided that giving PG ratings to controversial books, however well-intentioned, was wrong.

The sticker proposal baffled Trevor Oakley, the popular teen services librarian. “I can’t see how YA literature can be harmful,” he says. “These books focus on the decision-making process. They help teens make decisions.”

Balsen credits Oakley with making the library an important resource for teens. “It’s ironic that this happened,” she says, “because when you reach out and bring kids in, you bring in new books, and the books are going to be controversial.”

“It was a big learning experience,” says Oakley, a librarian for just two years. “I’m glad it happened early in my career, because if this ever happens again, I’ll be prepared.”