Gay Titles Missing in Most AR Libraries

School, public, and university libraries statewide shun homosexual themes, study says

By Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal, 1/1/2007

We all know that some level of self-censorship takes place in libraries when it comes to gay-themed books. But how bad is it in a Southern conservative state like Arkansas? About 21 percent of public libraries, nearly five percent of university libraries, and a shocking less than one percent of school libraries have books containing controversial themes and characters in their collections, says a survey by the University of Central Arkansas.

“It surprised me the most at universities because the books were so overwhelmingly not there,” says Jeff Whittingham, assistant professor of middle/secondary education and instructional technologies, who conducted the study with colleague Wendy Rickman.

The two researchers spent the summer and fall of 2006 surveying media specialists and checking the online catalogs of public and university libraries for 21 of the most popular gay-, bisexual-, lesbian-, and transgender-themed books published between 1999 and 2005. They included titles such as Alex Sanchez’s Rainbow Boys (S & S, 2001), Brent Hartinger’s Geography Club (HarperTeen, 2003), and David Levithan’s award-winning Boy Meets Boy (Knopf, 2003). Each book they searched was described as a coming-of-age story or labeled as juvenile or young adult fiction by the publisher.

Although only 37 out of 499 media specialists statewide responded to the survey, it still gives a somewhat accurate picture of the missing titles in school libraries because those who failed to respond “were probably turned off” by the questionnaire and more likely to have fewer books about sexual orientation in their collections, says Whittingham.

As a former media specialist, Rickman, director of the university’s technology learning center, wasn’t surprised by the study’s results. She was pleased, however, to find that school and public libraries in extremely conservative places, such as Jonesboro in the northeast, had collections that were comparable to libraries in the capital, Little Rock, she says.

The fear of book challenges, negative comments from higher-ups, and the possibility of losing their jobs are common reasons why librarians avoid purchasing these controversial titles, but the main reason, says Rickman, who is a lesbian, is that, “I know, for a lot of people, it’s a moral decision.”

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