ALA Members

Hello all.

Hachette's decision to pull Blake Bailey's biography of Philip Roth out of print due to the author's history of sexual assault and inappropriate relationships with students brings to question for me, what is our responsibility as librarians and paraprofessionals in maintaining books in collections that are no longer supported or printed by the publisher because of allegations of sexual impropriety or other reasons, such as racism.  Do we support the material for the content, or remove the item due to the beliefs or behavior of its creator?  This seems to be an increasingly relevant topic of discussion in light of the environment of society and the world today.

What are your thoughts?

Allison Durner
Library Assistant, Reference
Library Associate, Circulation
MLIS Student, St. John's University  

------------------------------
Allison Durner
Library Assistant
St John's University
Division of Library & Information Science
------------------------------

Hi Allison,

The Intellectual Freedom Committee has started work on a questions and answers document on the topic of problematic authors to address  the questions you have raised.  This work has just started and we are in the process of compiling questions to include in the document, so if you or anyone else has questions you'd like to see addressed in this document, please let me know by either listing them on this thread or sending them to me directly.  We'll provide an update on where we are in the process of writing this Q&A in our report for the upcoming Annual Conference.

Best,
Martin

------------------------------
Martin Garnar
Director, Amherst College
He/Him/His
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Apr 29, 2021 10:09 AM
From: Allison Durner
Subject: Publisher decision to pull Philip Roth biography out of print

Hello all.

Hachette's decision to pull Blake Bailey's biography of Philip Roth out of print due to the author's history of sexual assault and inappropriate relationships with students brings to question for me, what is our responsibility as librarians and paraprofessionals in maintaining books in collections that are no longer supported or printed by the publisher because of allegations of sexual impropriety or other reasons, such as racism.  Do we support the material for the content, or remove the item due to the beliefs or behavior of its creator?  This seems to be an increasingly relevant topic of discussion in light of the environment of society and the world today.

What are your thoughts?

Allison Durner
Library Assistant, Reference
Library Associate, Circulation
MLIS Student, St. John's University  

------------------------------
Allison Durner
Library Assistant
St John's University
Division of Library & Information Science
------------------------------

Hello Martin.

Thank you for your response.  This is great and timely news!  I will send you additional questions as they arise.   Protecting intellectual freedom and the decision to remove materials from a catalog is constant topic for discussion.   I look forward to the questions and answers document.  It will be a great reference.

Thank you again.
Allison

------------------------------
Allison Durner
Library Assistant
St John's University
Division of Library & Information Science
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Apr 29, 2021 02:50 PM
From: Martin Garnar
Subject: Publisher decision to pull Philip Roth biography out of print

Hi Allison,

The Intellectual Freedom Committee has started work on a questions and answers document on the topic of problematic authors to address  the questions you have raised.  This work has just started and we are in the process of compiling questions to include in the document, so if you or anyone else has questions you'd like to see addressed in this document, please let me know by either listing them on this thread or sending them to me directly.  We'll provide an update on where we are in the process of writing this Q&A in our report for the upcoming Annual Conference.

Best,
Martin

------------------------------
Martin Garnar
Director, Amherst College
He/Him/His

Original Message:
Sent: Apr 29, 2021 10:09 AM
From: Allison Durner
Subject: Publisher decision to pull Philip Roth biography out of print

Hello all.

Hachette's decision to pull Blake Bailey's biography of Philip Roth out of print due to the author's history of sexual assault and inappropriate relationships with students brings to question for me, what is our responsibility as librarians and paraprofessionals in maintaining books in collections that are no longer supported or printed by the publisher because of allegations of sexual impropriety or other reasons, such as racism.  Do we support the material for the content, or remove the item due to the beliefs or behavior of its creator?  This seems to be an increasingly relevant topic of discussion in light of the environment of society and the world today.

What are your thoughts?

Allison Durner
Library Assistant, Reference
Library Associate, Circulation
MLIS Student, St. John's University  

------------------------------
Allison Durner
Library Assistant
St John's University
Division of Library & Information Science
------------------------------

This raises a lot of questions that I don't think are easily answered.  Are we as librarians able to continually research all authors' past statements and actions?  I doubt it.  Do we then rely on news reports and social media to alert us to such problem authors, and if so, is an accusation enough, or do we require a conviction?    If we rely on the court system to judge an author's worthiness,  can we continually monitor all  past and present criminal and civil court cases that involve authors?  Which crimes or offenses are sufficient to require the works to be withdrawn from libraries? Plagiarism?  Sexual harassment?  Theft?  Racist beliefs?  And do we take the cultural context of the author's era or whether an author expressed regret for their actions into consideration when we determine culpability?    Are publishers  the right arbiters of whether patrons should access a book in a library, when a portion of their decision not to publish is likely be based on how the publicity will affect their revenue?   I think we have enough difficulty assessing the content of works, without adding assessments of the content of an author's life.   We should perhaps err on the side of a patron's freedom to read.

------------------------------
Melita Tunnicliff
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Apr 29, 2021 02:50 PM
From: Martin Garnar
Subject: Publisher decision to pull Philip Roth biography out of print

Hi Allison,

The Intellectual Freedom Committee has started work on a questions and answers document on the topic of problematic authors to address  the questions you have raised.  This work has just started and we are in the process of compiling questions to include in the document, so if you or anyone else has questions you'd like to see addressed in this document, please let me know by either listing them on this thread or sending them to me directly.  We'll provide an update on where we are in the process of writing this Q&A in our report for the upcoming Annual Conference.

Best,
Martin

------------------------------
Martin Garnar
Director, Amherst College
He/Him/His

Original Message:
Sent: Apr 29, 2021 10:09 AM
From: Allison Durner
Subject: Publisher decision to pull Philip Roth biography out of print

Hello all.

Hachette's decision to pull Blake Bailey's biography of Philip Roth out of print due to the author's history of sexual assault and inappropriate relationships with students brings to question for me, what is our responsibility as librarians and paraprofessionals in maintaining books in collections that are no longer supported or printed by the publisher because of allegations of sexual impropriety or other reasons, such as racism.  Do we support the material for the content, or remove the item due to the beliefs or behavior of its creator?  This seems to be an increasingly relevant topic of discussion in light of the environment of society and the world today.

What are your thoughts?

Allison Durner
Library Assistant, Reference
Library Associate, Circulation
MLIS Student, St. John's University  

------------------------------
Allison Durner
Library Assistant
St John's University
Division of Library & Information Science
------------------------------

You said: "Are publishers  the right arbiters of whether patrons should access a book in a library, when a portion of their decision not to publish is likely be based on how the publicity will affect their revenue?"  What a lucid summation.

Over the last few weeks I've been going over my old class notes and making  posts about censorship and Freedom to Read at substack.
In John Milton's day a writer couldn't get a license to be published w/o meeting gov't requirements.
In Australia  for decades books were  banned at customs.
In the Philippines under Martial Law there could be no books that criticized the government.
The work that has been done by ALA-- such as "Your Right to Know: The Call to Action" (American Library Association, 1992)
--is at odds with any decision to let a publisher or government cancel a library's capacity to provide books that readers might want.
The Censor's Library Lost History of Australia's Banned Books
The Untold Story of Imelda Marcos 


------------------------------
Kathleen de la Peña McCook
Distinguished University Professor
School of Information
University of South Florida
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: May 01, 2021 11:26 AM
From: Melita Tunnicliff
Subject: Publisher decision to pull Philip Roth biography out of print

This raises a lot of questions that I don't think are easily answered.  Are we as librarians able to continually research all authors' past statements and actions?  I doubt it.  Do we then rely on news reports and social media to alert us to such problem authors, and if so, is an accusation enough, or do we require a conviction?    If we rely on the court system to judge an author's worthiness,  can we continually monitor all  past and present criminal and civil court cases that involve authors?  Which crimes or offenses are sufficient to require the works to be withdrawn from libraries? Plagiarism?  Sexual harassment?  Theft?  Racist beliefs?  And do we take the cultural context of the author's era or whether an author expressed regret for their actions into consideration when we determine culpability?    Are publishers  the right arbiters of whether patrons should access a book in a library, when a portion of their decision not to publish is likely be based on how the publicity will affect their revenue?   I think we have enough difficulty assessing the content of works, without adding assessments of the content of an author's life.   We should perhaps err on the side of a patron's freedom to read.

------------------------------
Melita Tunnicliff

Original Message:
Sent: Apr 29, 2021 02:50 PM
From: Martin Garnar
Subject: Publisher decision to pull Philip Roth biography out of print

Hi Allison,

The Intellectual Freedom Committee has started work on a questions and answers document on the topic of problematic authors to address  the questions you have raised.  This work has just started and we are in the process of compiling questions to include in the document, so if you or anyone else has questions you'd like to see addressed in this document, please let me know by either listing them on this thread or sending them to me directly.  We'll provide an update on where we are in the process of writing this Q&A in our report for the upcoming Annual Conference.

Best,
Martin

------------------------------
Martin Garnar
Director, Amherst College
He/Him/His

Original Message:
Sent: Apr 29, 2021 10:09 AM
From: Allison Durner
Subject: Publisher decision to pull Philip Roth biography out of print

Hello all.

Hachette's decision to pull Blake Bailey's biography of Philip Roth out of print due to the author's history of sexual assault and inappropriate relationships with students brings to question for me, what is our responsibility as librarians and paraprofessionals in maintaining books in collections that are no longer supported or printed by the publisher because of allegations of sexual impropriety or other reasons, such as racism.  Do we support the material for the content, or remove the item due to the beliefs or behavior of its creator?  This seems to be an increasingly relevant topic of discussion in light of the environment of society and the world today.

What are your thoughts?

Allison Durner
Library Assistant, Reference
Library Associate, Circulation
MLIS Student, St. John's University  

------------------------------
Allison Durner
Library Assistant
St John's University
Division of Library & Information Science
------------------------------

When a publisher decides to publish, or to withdraw, any product, that is a decision made for commercial reasons: will offering this product be to our benefit or to our detriment? The final decision is likely the result of weighing various factors, but maybe could be boiled down to a simplistic "How much money could publishing return to us, how much will we have to pay out if we withdraw, what is the effect on our corporate image either way?"

A publisher's decision should have NO bearing on a library's decision to retain or withdraw something from their collection. What the library should consider are questions about the value of the product as an information resource for the community that the library serves. If a book was acquired because the library believed the information it contained was valuable to the community, does that value immediately disappear if the publisher stops publishing it? Is the information contained in the book no longer valid because of something revealed about the author--something that is apparently wholly unrelated to the book itself?

------------------------------
Kevin Randall
Principal Serials Cataloger
Northwestern University Libraries
He/Him/His
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: May 01, 2021 11:48 AM
From: Kathleen McCook
Subject: Publisher decision to pull Philip Roth biography out of print

You said: "Are publishers  the right arbiters of whether patrons should access a book in a library, when a portion of their decision not to publish is likely be based on how the publicity will affect their revenue?"  What a lucid summation.

Over the last few weeks I've been going over my old class notes and making  posts about censorship and Freedom to Read at substack.
In John Milton's day a writer couldn't get a license to be published w/o meeting gov't requirements.
In Australia  for decades books were  banned at customs.
In the Philippines under Martial Law there could be no books that criticized the government.

The work that has been done by ALA-- such as "Your Right to Know: The Call to Action" (American Library Association, 1992)
--is at odds with any decision to let a publisher or government cancel a library's capacity to provide books that readers might want.
The Censor's Library Lost History of Australia's Banned Books
The Untold Story of Imelda Marcos 


------------------------------
Kathleen de la Peña McCook
Distinguished University Professor
School of Information
University of South Florida

Original Message:
Sent: May 01, 2021 11:26 AM
From: Melita Tunnicliff
Subject: Publisher decision to pull Philip Roth biography out of print

This raises a lot of questions that I don't think are easily answered.  Are we as librarians able to continually research all authors' past statements and actions?  I doubt it.  Do we then rely on news reports and social media to alert us to such problem authors, and if so, is an accusation enough, or do we require a conviction?    If we rely on the court system to judge an author's worthiness,  can we continually monitor all  past and present criminal and civil court cases that involve authors?  Which crimes or offenses are sufficient to require the works to be withdrawn from libraries? Plagiarism?  Sexual harassment?  Theft?  Racist beliefs?  And do we take the cultural context of the author's era or whether an author expressed regret for their actions into consideration when we determine culpability?    Are publishers  the right arbiters of whether patrons should access a book in a library, when a portion of their decision not to publish is likely be based on how the publicity will affect their revenue?   I think we have enough difficulty assessing the content of works, without adding assessments of the content of an author's life.   We should perhaps err on the side of a patron's freedom to read.

------------------------------
Melita Tunnicliff

Original Message:
Sent: Apr 29, 2021 02:50 PM
From: Martin Garnar
Subject: Publisher decision to pull Philip Roth biography out of print

Hi Allison,

The Intellectual Freedom Committee has started work on a questions and answers document on the topic of problematic authors to address  the questions you have raised.  This work has just started and we are in the process of compiling questions to include in the document, so if you or anyone else has questions you'd like to see addressed in this document, please let me know by either listing them on this thread or sending them to me directly.  We'll provide an update on where we are in the process of writing this Q&A in our report for the upcoming Annual Conference.

Best,
Martin

------------------------------
Martin Garnar
Director, Amherst College
He/Him/His

Original Message:
Sent: Apr 29, 2021 10:09 AM
From: Allison Durner
Subject: Publisher decision to pull Philip Roth biography out of print

Hello all.

Hachette's decision to pull Blake Bailey's biography of Philip Roth out of print due to the author's history of sexual assault and inappropriate relationships with students brings to question for me, what is our responsibility as librarians and paraprofessionals in maintaining books in collections that are no longer supported or printed by the publisher because of allegations of sexual impropriety or other reasons, such as racism.  Do we support the material for the content, or remove the item due to the beliefs or behavior of its creator?  This seems to be an increasingly relevant topic of discussion in light of the environment of society and the world today.

What are your thoughts?

Allison Durner
Library Assistant, Reference
Library Associate, Circulation
MLIS Student, St. John's University  

------------------------------
Allison Durner
Library Assistant
St John's University
Division of Library & Information Science
------------------------------

Exactly Kevin.

------------------------------
Elizabeth Holmes
Head of Infrastructure & Content
Elizabeth Holmes
Newport RI
(401) 841-4307
elizabeth.holmes@usnwc.edu
The views expressed are my own and not those of the US Federal Government.
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: May 03, 2021 11:31 AM
From: Kevin Randall
Subject: Publisher decision to pull Philip Roth biography out of print

When a publisher decides to publish, or to withdraw, any product, that is a decision made for commercial reasons: will offering this product be to our benefit or to our detriment? The final decision is likely the result of weighing various factors, but maybe could be boiled down to a simplistic "How much money could publishing return to us, how much will we have to pay out if we withdraw, what is the effect on our corporate image either way?"

A publisher's decision should have NO bearing on a library's decision to retain or withdraw something from their collection. What the library should consider are questions about the value of the product as an information resource for the community that the library serves. If a book was acquired because the library believed the information it contained was valuable to the community, does that value immediately disappear if the publisher stops publishing it? Is the information contained in the book no longer valid because of something revealed about the author--something that is apparently wholly unrelated to the book itself?

------------------------------
Kevin Randall
Principal Serials Cataloger
Northwestern University Libraries
He/Him/His

Original Message:
Sent: May 01, 2021 11:48 AM
From: Kathleen McCook
Subject: Publisher decision to pull Philip Roth biography out of print

You said: "Are publishers  the right arbiters of whether patrons should access a book in a library, when a portion of their decision not to publish is likely be based on how the publicity will affect their revenue?"  What a lucid summation.

Over the last few weeks I've been going over my old class notes and making  posts about censorship and Freedom to Read at substack.
In John Milton's day a writer couldn't get a license to be published w/o meeting gov't requirements.
In Australia  for decades books were  banned at customs.
In the Philippines under Martial Law there could be no books that criticized the government.

The work that has been done by ALA-- such as "Your Right to Know: The Call to Action" (American Library Association, 1992)
--is at odds with any decision to let a publisher or government cancel a library's capacity to provide books that readers might want.
The Censor's Library Lost History of Australia's Banned Books
The Untold Story of Imelda Marcos 


------------------------------
Kathleen de la Peña McCook
Distinguished University Professor
School of Information
University of South Florida

Original Message:
Sent: May 01, 2021 11:26 AM
From: Melita Tunnicliff
Subject: Publisher decision to pull Philip Roth biography out of print

This raises a lot of questions that I don't think are easily answered.  Are we as librarians able to continually research all authors' past statements and actions?  I doubt it.  Do we then rely on news reports and social media to alert us to such problem authors, and if so, is an accusation enough, or do we require a conviction?    If we rely on the court system to judge an author's worthiness,  can we continually monitor all  past and present criminal and civil court cases that involve authors?  Which crimes or offenses are sufficient to require the works to be withdrawn from libraries? Plagiarism?  Sexual harassment?  Theft?  Racist beliefs?  And do we take the cultural context of the author's era or whether an author expressed regret for their actions into consideration when we determine culpability?    Are publishers  the right arbiters of whether patrons should access a book in a library, when a portion of their decision not to publish is likely be based on how the publicity will affect their revenue?   I think we have enough difficulty assessing the content of works, without adding assessments of the content of an author's life.   We should perhaps err on the side of a patron's freedom to read.

------------------------------
Melita Tunnicliff

Original Message:
Sent: Apr 29, 2021 02:50 PM
From: Martin Garnar
Subject: Publisher decision to pull Philip Roth biography out of print

Hi Allison,

The Intellectual Freedom Committee has started work on a questions and answers document on the topic of problematic authors to address  the questions you have raised.  This work has just started and we are in the process of compiling questions to include in the document, so if you or anyone else has questions you'd like to see addressed in this document, please let me know by either listing them on this thread or sending them to me directly.  We'll provide an update on where we are in the process of writing this Q&A in our report for the upcoming Annual Conference.

Best,
Martin

------------------------------
Martin Garnar
Director, Amherst College
He/Him/His

Original Message:
Sent: Apr 29, 2021 10:09 AM
From: Allison Durner
Subject: Publisher decision to pull Philip Roth biography out of print

Hello all.

Hachette's decision to pull Blake Bailey's biography of Philip Roth out of print due to the author's history of sexual assault and inappropriate relationships with students brings to question for me, what is our responsibility as librarians and paraprofessionals in maintaining books in collections that are no longer supported or printed by the publisher because of allegations of sexual impropriety or other reasons, such as racism.  Do we support the material for the content, or remove the item due to the beliefs or behavior of its creator?  This seems to be an increasingly relevant topic of discussion in light of the environment of society and the world today.

What are your thoughts?

Allison Durner
Library Assistant, Reference
Library Associate, Circulation
MLIS Student, St. John's University  

------------------------------
Allison Durner
Library Assistant
St John's University
Division of Library & Information Science
------------------------------

I completely agree Melita. It is not our job to assess or to pass judgement on the author's actions/life.  The content should be our only concern for the many reasons you have mentioned above.  If we start doing this where in the world will it end?  Who's definition of what your life and actions should look like will be used? etc......

------------------------------
Elizabeth Holmes
Head of Infrastructure & Content
Elizabeth Holmes
Newport RI
(401) 841-4307
elizabeth.holmes@usnwc.edu
The views expressed are my own and not those of the US Federal Government.
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: May 01, 2021 11:26 AM
From: Melita Tunnicliff
Subject: Publisher decision to pull Philip Roth biography out of print

This raises a lot of questions that I don't think are easily answered.  Are we as librarians able to continually research all authors' past statements and actions?  I doubt it.  Do we then rely on news reports and social media to alert us to such problem authors, and if so, is an accusation enough, or do we require a conviction?    If we rely on the court system to judge an author's worthiness,  can we continually monitor all  past and present criminal and civil court cases that involve authors?  Which crimes or offenses are sufficient to require the works to be withdrawn from libraries? Plagiarism?  Sexual harassment?  Theft?  Racist beliefs?  And do we take the cultural context of the author's era or whether an author expressed regret for their actions into consideration when we determine culpability?    Are publishers  the right arbiters of whether patrons should access a book in a library, when a portion of their decision not to publish is likely be based on how the publicity will affect their revenue?   I think we have enough difficulty assessing the content of works, without adding assessments of the content of an author's life.   We should perhaps err on the side of a patron's freedom to read.

------------------------------
Melita Tunnicliff

Original Message:
Sent: Apr 29, 2021 02:50 PM
From: Martin Garnar
Subject: Publisher decision to pull Philip Roth biography out of print

Hi Allison,

The Intellectual Freedom Committee has started work on a questions and answers document on the topic of problematic authors to address  the questions you have raised.  This work has just started and we are in the process of compiling questions to include in the document, so if you or anyone else has questions you'd like to see addressed in this document, please let me know by either listing them on this thread or sending them to me directly.  We'll provide an update on where we are in the process of writing this Q&A in our report for the upcoming Annual Conference.

Best,
Martin

------------------------------
Martin Garnar
Director, Amherst College
He/Him/His

Original Message:
Sent: Apr 29, 2021 10:09 AM
From: Allison Durner
Subject: Publisher decision to pull Philip Roth biography out of print

Hello all.

Hachette's decision to pull Blake Bailey's biography of Philip Roth out of print due to the author's history of sexual assault and inappropriate relationships with students brings to question for me, what is our responsibility as librarians and paraprofessionals in maintaining books in collections that are no longer supported or printed by the publisher because of allegations of sexual impropriety or other reasons, such as racism.  Do we support the material for the content, or remove the item due to the beliefs or behavior of its creator?  This seems to be an increasingly relevant topic of discussion in light of the environment of society and the world today.

What are your thoughts?

Allison Durner
Library Assistant, Reference
Library Associate, Circulation
MLIS Student, St. John's University  

------------------------------
Allison Durner
Library Assistant
St John's University
Division of Library & Information Science
------------------------------

I looked at Library Thing. 

I use it for teaching to give students an idea of the popularity of authors (assuming if people go to the trouble to add a book it gives a sense of a books's impact).
Many, many people have added books by Roth and Bailey including the Blake bio of Roth.  Blake has also written bios of Cheever and  Yates. If the publisher has withdrawn a book does that mean libraries should withdraw all books by the author?
Bailey's bio of Roth is #1 on Amazon for author biographies.
My opinion--as always--is let the reader decide. In this case many readers have decided they want to read the book. They can also decide not to read the book.​
I bought the bio when it first came out because I think Roth's American Pastoral was very good on the VN era and was interested in how he developed it. But I didn't get that far because I didn't like the tone---but don't take the book out of the library. Let the reader decide.

------------------------------
Kathleen de la Peña McCook
Distinguished University Professor
School of Information
University of South Florida
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Apr 29, 2021 10:09 AM
From: Allison Durner
Subject: Publisher decision to pull Philip Roth biography out of print

Hello all.

Hachette's decision to pull Blake Bailey's biography of Philip Roth out of print due to the author's history of sexual assault and inappropriate relationships with students brings to question for me, what is our responsibility as librarians and paraprofessionals in maintaining books in collections that are no longer supported or printed by the publisher because of allegations of sexual impropriety or other reasons, such as racism.  Do we support the material for the content, or remove the item due to the beliefs or behavior of its creator?  This seems to be an increasingly relevant topic of discussion in light of the environment of society and the world today.

What are your thoughts?

Allison Durner
Library Assistant, Reference
Library Associate, Circulation
MLIS Student, St. John's University  

------------------------------
Allison Durner
Library Assistant
St John's University
Division of Library & Information Science
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 4/29/2021 11:09:00 AM
From: Allison Durner
Subject: Publisher decision to pull Philip Roth biography out of print

Hello all.

Hachette's decision to pull Blake Bailey's biography of Philip Roth out of print due to the author's history of sexual assault and inappropriate relationships with students brings to question for me, what is our responsibility as librarians and paraprofessionals in maintaining books in collections that are no longer supported or printed by the publisher because of allegations of sexual impropriety or other reasons, such as racism.  Do we support the material for the content, or remove the item due to the beliefs or behavior of its creator?  This seems to be an increasingly relevant topic of discussion in light of the environment of society and the world today.

What are your thoughts?

Allison Durner
Library Assistant, Reference
Library Associate, Circulation
MLIS Student, St. John's University  

------------------------------
Allison Durner
Library Assistant
St John's University
Division of Library & Information Science
------------------------------

I have considered and/or tried to apply the following in the case of books with problematic authors (and content), and have had this happen both with new information about a (popular/well regarded in the field) author coming to light (verified pedophilia), and in modern re-interpretation and contextualization  of known behavior (assisted suicide vs killing someone in a vulnerable physical position).

• add an informational bookmark/slip into the book that contextualizes the work for the intended audience. This can also be part of the electronic record. Usually include the rational for retention. "This book was purchased prior to the current information coming to light, and is being kept available to library patrons so that they can make their own decisions about the work without materially providing support to the problematic author." (note that if the work is published as part of the authors estate, the financial support might well be going to the victims of the author's abuse, but it might also be going towards other less remediatory places, and every dollar another wound).
• If the collection supports deep scholarly work on the topic, or missing the work would cause a serious collection gap, then maintaining a copy might materially assist in some future. if not:
• simply do not replace the book if lost/damaged/gets earmarked for weeding due to lack of use.

Not a perfect solution, but one that co-exists with providing materials already paid for to an audience that might want/need it.
-Simran

------------------------------
Simran Khalsa
Librarian
She/Her/Hers,They/theirs,/They
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Apr 29, 2021 10:09 AM
From: Allison Durner
Subject: Publisher decision to pull Philip Roth biography out of print

Hello all.

Hachette's decision to pull Blake Bailey's biography of Philip Roth out of print due to the author's history of sexual assault and inappropriate relationships with students brings to question for me, what is our responsibility as librarians and paraprofessionals in maintaining books in collections that are no longer supported or printed by the publisher because of allegations of sexual impropriety or other reasons, such as racism.  Do we support the material for the content, or remove the item due to the beliefs or behavior of its creator?  This seems to be an increasingly relevant topic of discussion in light of the environment of society and the world today.

What are your thoughts?

Allison Durner
Library Assistant, Reference
Library Associate, Circulation
MLIS Student, St. John's University  

------------------------------
Allison Durner
Library Assistant
St John's University
Division of Library & Information Science
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 4/29/2021 11:09:00 AM
From: Allison Durner
Subject: Publisher decision to pull Philip Roth biography out of print

Hello all.

Hachette's decision to pull Blake Bailey's biography of Philip Roth out of print due to the author's history of sexual assault and inappropriate relationships with students brings to question for me, what is our responsibility as librarians and paraprofessionals in maintaining books in collections that are no longer supported or printed by the publisher because of allegations of sexual impropriety or other reasons, such as racism.  Do we support the material for the content, or remove the item due to the beliefs or behavior of its creator?  This seems to be an increasingly relevant topic of discussion in light of the environment of society and the world today.

What are your thoughts?

Allison Durner
Library Assistant, Reference
Library Associate, Circulation
MLIS Student, St. John's University  

------------------------------
Allison Durner
Library Assistant
St John's University
Division of Library & Information Science
------------------------------

Definitions are continually shifting as history moves along. What is problematic today may not be so next year and vice versa. Respecting  as legitimate the decisions about what is "problematic" (and even flirting with tacitly supporting the reasoning behind the decisions) made by some citation-interlocked confederacy of intellectuals somewhere strikes me as deeply un-Librarian. At the same time, I haven't heard any workable ideas about how librarians can convince publishers to follow through on  a planned work or to keep publishing an existing work that they own the  rights to if the work is done by a writer whose work the publishers have decided to send to the Gulag of Bibliographic Ghosts. Are we in any position to insist that Publisher X or Y really publish a book they change their minds about mid-stream?


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Darryl Eschete
Director
West Des Moines Public Library
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Original Message:
Sent: Apr 29, 2021 10:09 AM
From: Allison Durner
Subject: Publisher decision to pull Philip Roth biography out of print

Hello all.

Hachette's decision to pull Blake Bailey's biography of Philip Roth out of print due to the author's history of sexual assault and inappropriate relationships with students brings to question for me, what is our responsibility as librarians and paraprofessionals in maintaining books in collections that are no longer supported or printed by the publisher because of allegations of sexual impropriety or other reasons, such as racism.  Do we support the material for the content, or remove the item due to the beliefs or behavior of its creator?  This seems to be an increasingly relevant topic of discussion in light of the environment of society and the world today.

What are your thoughts?

Allison Durner
Library Assistant, Reference
Library Associate, Circulation
MLIS Student, St. John's University  

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Allison Durner
Library Assistant
St John's University
Division of Library & Information Science
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I love the discussion that has ensued as a result of your posting.  I don't think it is our job to judge authors.  People should be free to read and examine any published works that they want.  From the standpoint of an academic library, passing judgment is akin to squashing academic freedom.  I'm sure there are many publications in all of our collections which would not stand the test of today's awareness of social harms with regard to the author.   If we started down that road we'd probably have to remove half of our collections.   The purpose of collecting works is to retain the history of thought, not to judge it.  As someone else pointed out, if we start down this road there is no end in sight.    That said, there may be different parameters for consideration for public libraries.

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Pamela Salela
Associate Professor
University of Illinois at Springfield
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Original Message:
Sent: Apr 29, 2021 10:09 AM
From: Allison Durner
Subject: Publisher decision to pull Philip Roth biography out of print

Hello all.

Hachette's decision to pull Blake Bailey's biography of Philip Roth out of print due to the author's history of sexual assault and inappropriate relationships with students brings to question for me, what is our responsibility as librarians and paraprofessionals in maintaining books in collections that are no longer supported or printed by the publisher because of allegations of sexual impropriety or other reasons, such as racism.  Do we support the material for the content, or remove the item due to the beliefs or behavior of its creator?  This seems to be an increasingly relevant topic of discussion in light of the environment of society and the world today.

What are your thoughts?

Allison Durner
Library Assistant, Reference
Library Associate, Circulation
MLIS Student, St. John's University  

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Allison Durner
Library Assistant
St John's University
Division of Library & Information Science
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