Sarah Palin, Librarians, and the Wasilla Library Book Banning Controversy
(continually updated, from Library Journal)
Read other Shelf Check strips tagged "banned books"
9/27/08
Shelf Check #279
Sarah Palin, Librarians, and the Wasilla Library Book Banning Controversy
(continually updated, from Library Journal)
Read other Shelf Check strips tagged "banned books"
9/26/08
9/24/08
9/23/08
9/22/08
9/20/08
9/18/08
9/16/08
9/12/08
Shelf Check #268
![\Shelf Check 268\](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_sVy7jYhpVJrpsWCjRJtLxcRdHig7qi0exNa7GccgYn_TJPRLy_eA0N9qRsAI0fev4hpSXfhprlLGHpXOBEKGkMzahkW-NEfrN2xVDSNL-q91xafOdCq7-1dvwNsMmJkqb1McP8qOoAGR010f3OEQriOQ=s0-d "\Shelf Check 268\")
Note: why at 80? "Sendak said that the idea of a gay man writing children books would have hurt his career when he was in his 20s and 30s." I think he's right [might add 40s and 50s], and don't think this cartoon is all that funny. But when my reaction to the story was "Let the wild rumpus begin!", my partner said, "You have to put that in a strip," so here it is.
9/11/08
9/9/08
Shelf Check #266
(2-part; forgive the break)
Note: While I don't and won't block comments, I'm not too interested in getting into a comment war over what may or may not have happened. I've read many articles/fact-checking sites, etc., and this is what *I* (and Jan) have come to believe happened between Sarah Palin and Wasilla library director Mary Ellen [Emmons] Baker. I put in the "apparently" because this info is based on what Anne Kilkenny has stated, not something I saw with my own eyes. I will say that I think it is wrong-minded and silly to say there's no issue here because "no books were banned." I don't even really think the story is about banned books (nor have I used my "bannedbooks" tag on this strip), and it's a shame discussion is getting mired in faux banned-book lists, etc. I think the story is about power and control. Banned books fall under that banner--the desire to have control over what is made available to the public. But this attitude seems to me to be just as (or even more) dangerous brought into institutions other than libraries, and I do not expect that Palin did stop or will stop, if elected, at libraries. For reference: link to Kilkenny letter; link to "Palin: Library censorship inquiries 'Rhetorical', an article that first ran in the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman on 12/18/96.
Note: While I don't and won't block comments, I'm not too interested in getting into a comment war over what may or may not have happened. I've read many articles/fact-checking sites, etc., and this is what *I* (and Jan) have come to believe happened between Sarah Palin and Wasilla library director Mary Ellen [Emmons] Baker. I put in the "apparently" because this info is based on what Anne Kilkenny has stated, not something I saw with my own eyes. I will say that I think it is wrong-minded and silly to say there's no issue here because "no books were banned." I don't even really think the story is about banned books (nor have I used my "bannedbooks" tag on this strip), and it's a shame discussion is getting mired in faux banned-book lists, etc. I think the story is about power and control. Banned books fall under that banner--the desire to have control over what is made available to the public. But this attitude seems to me to be just as (or even more) dangerous brought into institutions other than libraries, and I do not expect that Palin did stop or will stop, if elected, at libraries. For reference: link to Kilkenny letter; link to "Palin: Library censorship inquiries 'Rhetorical', an article that first ran in the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman on 12/18/96.
