Bias Book Procurement at the Salem Library

Last week, I wrote about how the tax levy for the Salem Public Library is not to increase services, but rather to sustain services beyond what a voter would typically think of as what a library does. In response, a Catalyst reader contacted me with an anecdote about book procurement.

Evan Roth wrote: “I would add a bit of context from a parent of young children. I figure I’ll just forward the email I sent to [Mayor] Julie Hoy since I already wrote a bit up about this. The rabbit hole goes deeper if you want to read the emails from the Library’s collection management team. Their goals seem to be closer to activism, I believe.”

Roth tried to get Johnny the Walrus, a children’s book by Matt Walsh that conveys a satirical allegory of a boy who identifies as a walrus. They didn’t have it. One way the Salem Library procures books is to make purchases based on patron requests. Roth filled out the request and got this response:

Dear [Evan],

Thank you for your recent purchase suggestion of “Johnny the Walrus” by Matt Walsh. Unfortunately, that title does not does not fall within the scope of our Collection Development Policy, particularly with regard to literary quality, format and ease of use, and a lack of professional reviews. The board book format, which is generally intended for babies and toddlers, does not align with the suggested audience. The language and concepts are too advanced for board book readers, including words like “crustacean” and “bigot.” The most common age range listed for this title is ages 4-10, which is a very big range, but also not age-appropriate for our board book collection. In addition, there are no professional reviews for this title.

If you are still interested in obtaining a copy of this title, we recommend requesting it through our Interlibrary Loan Request program. To do so, you may fill out our Interlibrary Loan Request form, and our library will order it from another library that has a copy.

Best wishes,

Salem Public Library Staff

City of Salem | Salem Public Library

585 Liberty ST SE, Salem OR, 97301
[email protected] |503-588-6315

Roth asked for clarification of the policy, highlighting a left-wing board book the library does have that violates the same procurement policy:

Hello Library Staff,

Thank you for your prompt reply! I believe this book aligns very well with the board book’s intended audience, at least as well as AntiRacist Baby, and it covers an important concept of loving one’s body. 

 

Please include the full text of the Collection Development Policy, and highlight what in particular this violates. 

Literary Quality violation: Please specify precisely what policy this violates, this does not make sense to me. 

Format violation: Please specify precisely what policy this violates, this does not make sense to me.

Ease of Use violation: Please specify precisely what policy this violates, this does not make sense to me.

Professional Reviews violation: I would like to see the specific policy that cites that professional reviews are required for books to be included in the collection. The book has over 8000 reviews on Amazon alone – can we presume that some of these may be from so called professionals? Is a book only worthy of reading once a “professional” has reviewed it?

Suggested Audience violation: Who specified the suggested audience and how is it in violation of a policy? Please explain how this differs from Antiracist Baby.

Large words violation:  Please specify precisely what policy this violates, this does not make sense to me. 

Would you like me to cite a plethora of examples of board books that have “large words”?

Crustacean & bigot are outside the purview of what a child should be exposed to? Antiracisit Baby has “antiracist” “transformed” “neutrality” “policies” “proclaim” “transcend” – all of which express complex ideas that many children may have a hard time conceptualizing.

I would like to know why “Antiracist Baby” is considered of the literary quality for children of a similar age group, and why there are multiple copies available at the Salem Main Library.  Both have roughly equivalent number of review Is the public library not for a diversity of people and opinions or is it just of one variety of positions? 

Thank you for your time!

The Roths

The Salem Library then walked that prior response back. Rather than produce a more detailed written policy for the procurement standards, the library focused on Roth’s specific comparison in the context of an even broader set of procurement standards:

Hello, [Evan],

Thank you for your request to purchase Johnny the Walrus for our library collection. We truly value community suggestions, as they help build our library’s services, collection, and place in the community. The Salem Public Library strives to curate a collection that represents a broad spectrum of people, cultures, ideas, and experiences. The materials in our collection are selected with equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging at the forefront and an emphasis on current and popular titles. You raised some valid points in your response, and I hope that an explanation detailing our process for researching titles will help answer your questions.

I would like to start by clarifying that Johnny the Walrus does not violate our Collection Development Policy.  I apologize for the misunderstanding. It does not meet many of the criteria that we use in determining which titles to purchase for our collection to keep and which titles are better candidates for our free InterLibrary Loan (ILL) service. You can view our most recent Collection Development Policy on the Salem Public Library’s website among the other library use policies here; I have also attached a copy for your reference. Please note that we review our Collection Development Policy on an annual basis, and the content is subject to change.

Here are the general criteria we use to determine whether we should purchase a title for our collection:

• Popular interest
• Contemporary significance
• Currency of information
• Accuracy
• Local emphasis
• Readability
• Creative, literary, or technical quality
• Relationship to other materials and adequacy of coverage in subject area
• Significance of item within subject area
• Professional reviews from a variety of sources
• Format and ease of use
• Cost and availability
• Availability of copies in the system and relationship to materials in other area libraries
• Physical appearance and condition
• Space limitations
• Public demand and anticipated demand in a consortium setting

As you can see, there are many factors that play a role in selecting materials for the library’s collection. We typically start with information that our primary book vendor has for the title. This information comes from the publisher, and in this case, Johnny the Walrus is listed as a board book format title for 1st-2nd grade students. Salem Public Library does not shelve board books with standard hardcover and paperback books for older children.  We have a board book collection, which is curated for our youngest library customers.

I consulted with the publisher’s website, DW Books, directly and could not find any age rating information.  I also could not find the title on Common Sense Media, another site used to evaluate content and age ratings for children’s materials. Amazon has the title listed with the grade level of preschool and up, and several online booksellers list it as being for ages 4-10. Based on the evidence available, the older age ranges suggest that this title is not an age-appropriate book for babies and toddlers.

Comparatively, Antiracist Baby is consistently described with an age range of babies and toddlers: Amazon suggests ages 1-5, Common Sense Media suggests ages 2 and up, Barnes & Noble suggests 3 months-3 years, and our book vendor suggests Kindergarten readers.

When we look at professional reviews, we consider a variety of review sources. Two years ago, Johnny the Walrus was on the Amazon bestseller list. However, its current ranking suggests that its popularity has declined since publication. It has a higher ranking in Political Commentary & Opinion (#27) and Humor (#349), neither of which are youth specific lists. Amazon is not the primary review site that we use in consideration of titles.  Library selectors predominantly rely on professional book reviews to evaluate material for the library collection.  These reviews are classified as “professional” because they are typically published in journals or on websites that have literary, educational, or library-centered content. They are directed at librarians, educators, publishers, booksellers, and others in similar professional positions. Some examples of “professional publications” include Publisher’s Weekly, Library Journal/School Library Journal, Horn Book, and Booklist.  In my research, I could not find any professional reviews for Johnny the Walrus.

Antiracist Baby was number one on the New York Times Bestseller list and won the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Picture Books in 2020. It currently ranks higher in three children’s book categories on Amazon: Children’s Books in the U.S. (#38), Children’s Books on Prejudice & Racism (#38), and Children’s Values Books (#159). I also found positive reviews in the following professional publications: Horn Book, Publisher’s Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and School Library Journal.

I have researched your requested title availability at other Oregon libraries. Of the 200+ libraries in Oregon, I could only find six locations that stock Johnny the Walrus in their collections. Of these six, four libraries shelve this book in the 818.607 section of the adult collection as American Miscellaneous Writings, with the subcategory of Experimental Literature. Antiracist Baby, on the other hand, I found at over 100 libraries across Oregon and the overwhelming majority of those facilities shelve it in the children’s section at their location. This suggests that Antiracist Baby continues to remain a popular title for children and families.

As I am sure you are aware, the City of Salem is having significant budget issues that are affecting all City departments, including the library. We always strive to be responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars, but we are even more conscientious of our spending during this time of financial hardship. Our librarians carefully review all requests for purchase and are tasked with balancing the duty of responsibly managing our reduced budget and meeting our community’s needs.

It is important to us that our community has access to a diverse range of titles, covering the entire spectrum of the global human experience. Under our current financial restrictions, one of the ways through which this is accomplished is our InterLibrary Loan (ILL) service. ILL is a free service that allows the Salem community to borrow titles from member libraries across the nation.  We like to consider this an extension of our collection, while keeping within the scope of our Collection Development Policy and without incurring additional expenses.

I hope that this information helps to better clarify our decision-making process and considerations for adding titles to our collection over acquiring them via InterLibrary Loan. Please know that your request provides us with valuable information that we will use when selecting new and popular titles in the future.  Our selectors place a high value on building an unbiased collection that is representative of the Salem community. We truly appreciate your support of the library and continued interest in our collection.

Please do not hesitate to let me know if you have further questions or need clarification. Thank you for your patience and for your time.

Respectfully,

Stephanie Hampson (she/her)

Access & Acquisitions Supervisor

City of Salem | Salem Public Library

585 Liberty St. SE Salem, Oregon 97301

Office: 503-588-6473 | Cell: 971-375-2880

Facebook | Instagram | Twitter |CityofSalem.net

Stephanie Hampson’s response doesn’t ring true to me. I’ve checked out quite a few children’s books from the Salem Library, including board books for 1st and 2nd graders, so the procurement standard they are holding to does not appear to apply to all board books.

The Salem Library doesn’t hold to a standard of popularity either. There is actually a better book comparison on this criterion for Johnny the Walrus than Antiracist Baby, Ibram X. Kendi’s board book for socializing children into Critical Race Theory, a different topic. The Salem Library has a robust collection of books teaching young children to question their gender and sexuality, and here is a brochure the library produced to highlight that extensive procurement. Most of these books have far lower popularity rankings than Johnny the Walrus.

Beyond their low popularity, many of these books fail several of the policies the library has cited when denying the procurement of a single book that would offer a different ideological perspective. A reasonable justification for rejecting Johnny the Walrus would be for the library to have a policy saying they don’t buy books for young children that cover sexual topics, but that’s not the case. Despite their budget limitations, the Salem Library buys lots of these books for young kids, even Pre-K. The Salem Library applies its budget constraint to books from a conservative point of view on this issue.

Eric Shierman lives in Salem and is the author of We were winning when I was there.

The post Bias Book Procurement at the Salem Library first appeared on Oregon Catalyst.