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Warning: my library's 'banned books' display got canceled by a single complaint
Last fall I put together a small display for Banned Books Week at our branch in Tulsa, featuring 'The Hate U Give' and 'Persepolis'. A parent complained about the cover art on one of them, and management pulled the whole display within 48 hours. I was skeptical that one complaint could trigger that response, but our director confirmed it did, no review process at all. It made me realize how quietly censorship works at the local level, not just through big legal battles. Has anyone else seen a display or program get yanked fast by a single patron? What did you do about it?
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janac592mo ago
Holding my breath reading this because I have literally seen the same thing happen at our branch last year. We had a tiny Pride display up for maybe three days and one complaint about a picture book with two dads on the cover got it dumped into storage faster than I could blink. No meeting, no review, no chance to defend it, just a quiet email saying we needed to "reevaluate" the selection. It honestly made me wonder how many other displays get killed that we never even hear about. Did your director give you any reason for skipping the review process, or was it just pure panic?
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