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Dear Friends and Good People  -
What is it about sex that makes some adults crazy??  It is indeed disconcerting when library family members disagree on the basic philosophic reasons undermining library services.  Although, as George Will has written, “If you don’t like to argue, you’re not a good American.”  

Have we adults learned nothing about working with teens?  Tell them not to do something, and what will they do?
Tell them not to read something, and what will they do?     (Perhaps the Catholic priest in Nashville who just banned the Harry Potter books from the classroom was only intent on getting the kids to read them, his exorcist notwithstanding?  My guess is that every kid in that school will now be reading the Harry Potter books.  Could the publisher be paying the priest to promote book sales?  What a clever piece of nefarious thinking??) 

Yesterday, Publishers Weekly published this article about Julia Watts’s cancellation to speak at the library:
Author Julia Watts Disinvited from Teen Lit Festival
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-authors/article/81097-author-julia-watts-disinvited-from-teen-lit-festival.html  

Perhaps Knox County Library just wanted to promote Julia Watts’ lesbian erotica by calling attention to it by cancelling her speaking at the library?  If Julia had not been uninvited, probably nobody would have noticed those titles in her “body of work.”  The cancellation only called attention to those “inappropriate” adult books.   Oh, Judy Blume, we knew thy dilemma well.  

Back in the day, some film producers tried to be censored by Boston’s Legion of Decency because the notoriety would make lots of publicity and big bucks for their film’s success.  

The good news about the Knox Library cancellation is that it sounds as if the author’s reputation will be greatly enhanced by being censored by those mean ole public library ladies. 

The bad news is that the Knox County Public Library will now be pilloried and appear on national lists as a censorious group of outdated fuddy-duddies, and that Nashville is a more “enlightened” community than Knoxville.  

As Ed wonders, whatever happen to those principles of intellectual freedom and the Library Bill of Rights that libraries live by to be trusted and respected in their communities?  Mary Pom’s strained explanation was painful to read.  How sad that we haven’t moved further along in our working with teens to understand and appreciate that “protecting” them from “inappropriate” stuff is not the best educational or emotional action. 

The Knox County Public Library is better than this narrow-minded, short-sighted, mistaken decision.  The author is owed a sincere apology.  (Of course, she might make a contribution to the library for all the additional book sales this episode will generate.)  And let’s return to the practice that teenagers “have the right to free access to all information.” 

Cheers  -  Don
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On Sep 6, 2019, at 9:04 AM, Ed Sullivan <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Regarding the article in today's Knoxville News-Sentinel, I am deeply troubled that Mary Pom Claiborne, KCPL's Assistant Director of Marketing and Communication, has such an apparently poor understanding of censorship. She argues that excluding Julia Watts from the festival is not censorship because some of her books are on KCPL's shelves. Censorship is not just about banning books. Excluding an author of teen novels from participating in a festival for teens because she has published books for adults IS CENSORSHIP.

Claiborne further says, "The library did not expect Watts to read from or reference the adult material, but it didn't want to be perceived as promoting her entire body of work at a festival for young teens." If festival organizers did not expect Julia to read from or discuss her adult books, then how would KCPL be endorsing her entire body of work? Julia's mere presence at the festival is an endorsement of her so-called "erotic" writing? The reasoning is appallingly absurd. KCPL's annual Children's Festival of Reading has repeatedly featured authors who write for children, teens, and adults, yet there was no concern about promoting their whole bodies of work. What is to account for this astonishing hypocrisy?

Julia's exclusion from the festival is contrary to the principles of intellectual freedom and professional ethics all libraries are obliged to follow. I hope the other authors invited to participate in the festival will follow Marilyn Kallett's principled lead and withdraw.

Edward T. Sullivan, M.S.L.S.
Friend of KCPL




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Donald B. Reynolds, Jr.
P.O. Box 278
Talbott, Tennessee 37877
865.475.2030
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2014-17, 2018-19 President, Friends of Tennessee Libraries (FOTL)  
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Retired Director, Nolichucky Regional Library, Tennessee
Founding Director/Former President, Association for Rural and Small Libraries
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