Get this. A grandmother takes her grandson (she’s his legal guardian) into a Las Vegas library and the boy chooses an anime DVD from the adult section entitled Crying Freeman: The Complete Collection which states “Contains extreme animated violence and adult situations. Parental guidance suggested.” on the back. Also on the back is the image of a man holding a sword to a woman’s throat and there’s a nude woman on the front! (I own a copy of this DVD set. The case makes it clear that this is not a film for children.) Boy, checks out DVD with grandmother standing next to him. They take the video home and grandmother is shocked that the library has allowed the child to check out this video. The Las Vegas SUN of course responds with a balistic editorial and their political cartoonist has this to draw two days later. I’m sorry but the library has no right to question the decision of an adult about what they’ll allow their child to check out. The fact that the adult in question didn’t bother to check is hardly the library’s fault. (The fact that this is happening in Las Vegas of all places is just too ironic for words.)
Published by Michael Sauers
Michael Sauers is the Director of Logan Library in Logan, UT. Prior to this he was one of the founding staff and Technology Manager for Do Space in Omaha, NE. After earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany's School of Information Science and Policy Michael spent his first 20 years as a librarian training other librarians in technology along with time as a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, a technology consultant, and a bookseller. He has written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and has published 14 books ranging from library technology, blogging, Web design, and an index to a popular horror magazine. In his spare time, he blogs at TravelinLibrarian.info, runs The Collector's Guide to Dean Koontz website at CollectingKoontz.com, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
Unless otherwise stated, all opinions are my own and are not to be considered those of the City of Logan, UT.
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