#mlis

Human versions of albums I like

Over the last two and a half months I have read, over and over, ad infinitum, ad nauseam, that the best thing a library can do to protect against frivolous book challenges is to have a strong reconsideration policy.

I have read at least a dozen times all the best practices for reconsideration policies. That they explain the principles of intellectual freedom. That they include a form to document formal challenges. That they include step-by-step explanations of the reconsideration, the review of the materials, and the appeal process, with a timeline of each step.

This serves as a kind of CYA in several directions. It sets up a clear paper trail for what can be a highly contentious sequence of events. It draws a line between informal venting from a patron vs a formal and official complaint, and gives staff directions for dealing with each. It assures the public that we have a clear and straightforward process for dealing with “mistakes” in the collection. It sets out the rules we use to decide what goes where, and under what circumstances we would consider relocating an item.

It establishes a clear procedure. If a patron decides to ambush a public meeting with a loud and shocking speech, you point to the policy and say “I’m sorry you’re upset, but you need to file a formal complaint if you want us to consider this.” If a member of the Library Board starts pulling and “disappearing” controversial books, you once again have a policy use as you tell them to put the books back on the shelf and do it properly.

A good reconsideration policy says that no books are removed from circulation during the review process, because a favored tactic of would-be censors is to drag out the process for months. A GREAT policy requires the complainant to basically do a mini book report to prove they actually read the thing and aren’t just pulling the most shocking quotes off a shared website.

Every single expert’s number one recommendation is a strong reconsideration policy. Several states are currently putting the need for such a policy into law as a way of protecting librarians from litigious patrons. In today’s climate, it is quite literally the thing EVERY LIBRARY should be doing.

*Deep breath*

Today, our new library director emailed us all to let us know she’d gotten rid of our reconsideration policy.

It’s just GONE. There’s a little paragraph in its place that says to have patrons bring any concerns directly to her but we don’t censor here 🙃

Graduation card for my boss

I got my MSLIS!!

Now I'm going into children's librarianship (hopefully... think jobful thoughts).

But also if I commit to UW then I have to move across the country and leave all of my friends behind. I have family in Washington but I don't talk to them much.