Wisconsin Library Challenge Heats Up
By Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal, 5/7/2009
The library board that’s supposed to determine the fate of a major book challenge at Wisconsin’s West Bend Community Memorial Public Library is having a hard time doing its job. That’s because the city’s Common Council just got rid of four board members for taking too long to resolve the issue—and who were likely to vote against moving sexually explicit YA books to the adult section.
But now the council says it may reconsider its hasty decision.
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The West Bend Community Memorial Public Library. |
The titles—which were on a reading list called Out of the Closet—include Brent Hartinger’s Geography Club (HarperCollins), Stephan Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and Esther Drill’s Deal With It! A Whole New Approach to Your Body, Brain and Life as a gURL (both S & S). (The name of the list has since been changed to Over the Rainbow.)
Since filing their complaints, however, the Maziarkas have altered their position. First, they expanded their list of objectionable books to 82—which now include a range of titles with sexually explicit themes. And instead of outright banning them, the couple wants the books reclassified and moved to the adult section where parental approval would be needed for kids to take out the books.
“These books talk about explicit sex acts in a crude manner that’s not appropriate for minors in any shape or form,” says Ginny Maziarka, a grandmother and mother of four who describes herself as coming from a largely “conservative and faith-based” community. “This isn’t a conservative or liberal issue. It’s a common sense/decency issue, where we’re asking for respect for parents and the youth of our community.”
Maziarka goes on to say that she and her supporters are fully aware that other libraries across the nation shelve sexually explicit books for children, but "We simply do not care. We expect our taxpayer-funded library to uphold our community standards."
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Jim and Ginny Maziarka want 82 YA books moved to the adult section. |
Regardless, the library has no plans to meet any of those requests. “What they’re asking for is a form of
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The library's YA Zone for teens is separate from the children's room. |
Over the past three months, the Maziarkas, have amassed a couple thousand signatures in support on their online petition and gained the support Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays, as well as Dan Kleinman, director of the New Jersey-based SafeLibraries.org, which aims to keep children safe in public libraries while conducting a campaign of criticism against the American Library Association (ALA). Certain city council members, such as Alderman Terry Vrana, also seem to support their cause. Vrana has said at an open town meeting that he was concerned about the morality of West Bend, and even compared the library to a porn shop.
The West Bend library has also garnered support from the ALA and groups such as the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the National Coalition Against Censorship, the Association of American Publishers, and PEN American Center, as well as from Michael Zimmer and Joyce Latham, two professors at the nearby School of Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee—where Tyree and the West Bend’s young adult librarian Kristin Pekoll received their MLS degrees.
Parent and library user Maria Hanrahan and her group, the West Bend Parents for Free Speech, also has its own online petition, which has gathered more 500 signatures.
Hartinger, who is no stranger to book challenges, says the Maziarkas have no right to decide which books are inappropriate for their community, their schools, or their libraries. “I honestly can’t imagine anything more un-American than the idea that we shouldn't be allowed to decide for ourselves what books we want to read, and what books we want our kids reading.”
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Library director Michael Tyree. |
The four ousted board members are all strong library supporters: Tom Fitz has spent 24-years on the board and is a retired librarian; Mary Reilly-Kliss is a retired school teacher; James Pouros is a local attorney; and Nick Dobberstein is an alderman and high school English teacher.
Although Mayor Kristine Deiss has said that the four library board members can remain on the board until she can put together another slate of appointees, the council may very well decide to reappoint them when it meets on May 18.
