A second reaction to your post and the conversation about challenged books: I wish there was a better word than “challenged”, it evokes an image of a duel to the death with swords or pistols not a conversation about the values of intellectual freedom and the hard work we all do to provide access to materials that inform and enrich the lives of our patrons.

Before these decisions are made by the directorial staff, there is not any sort of conversation or action. It seems to me that some libraries are so quick to avoid a challenge that they censor what’s put out on our shelves before something can become an issue. As an MLIS student who currently works in Youth Services, I feel like what I’ve seen in practice is almost in direct conflict with what I’ve been taught in school. In this shakey job market, however, I have to agree with Dances with Books…I’m not ready to give up my income just yet.

I would be curious to know how many of the reported challenges (for the aforementioned survey) have been in Youth Services versus Adult Services.

There are other possibilities. One may be that local librarians have lost respect for the ALA and reporting to the ALA simply would not enter into the equation. The ALA has essentially become another organization that George Soros controls with large donations. For example, the ALA now produces a “privacy” curriculum for school kids K-12–the head of the organization promoting that could not even tell me the author of the curriculum because she did not know. Another example is the ALA astroturfing for Robert McChesney’s Free Press. Etc.

LIB, you even hint at this lack of respect when you say, “Is this because libraries don’t want the professional stigma associated with challenges (especially removals or book-relocations)?” Exactly why should there be a “professional stigma” if one applies library book selection policy? We are all here in the first place because Judith Krug started the OIF then used it to change the way librarians approached children and used professional stigma to force librarians to do what she wanted. Now the ALA has a no holds barred, anything goes attitude toward children, Judith Krug started that, then professional stigma was used to enforce it to the point where today people like you are shocked librarians do not instantly report each and every incident to the ALA.

That could be a possibility.

Further, it is especially sad that the ALA is gaga for book challenges but it does not track nor assist libraries with criminal activity within the library, particularly the kind that may be occurring as a result of ALA policy.