Reconsideration Recovery

Last week, the local newspaper ran a story about a reconsideration request at my library. The only problem with the article was that at least nine pertinent pieces of information were left out of the story. The result? At least a few citizens thought the library was "censoring" books and "banning" them from teens after my library board voted to recatalog a book that had previously been cataloged as "young adult fiction" to "adult nonfiction." No matter that the book, The Notebook Girls, had previously been miscataloged (the book is actually nonfiction) or that many libraries already have this title as adult nonfiction, or that the book has powerful information for adults, or that anyone with a library card can check out any materials from anywhere in my library.

The American Library Association picked up the story--linked it (with no explanation) on their weekly "American Libraries Direct" update. I contacted ALA, who was quite responsive and wrote a follow-up as this week's "Inside Scoop" story. Thank you, Beverly Goldberg!

See the link to ALA's "the rest of the story" at this link:

http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/inside-scoop/when-good-deed-meets-bad-press