Hamilton East Public Library Board President Laura Alerding sent the following statement to The Reporter on Saturday evening. The statement was made in response to public outcry over the decision to move Hoosier author John Green’s young adult novel, The Fault in Our Stars, to the adult section of the library.
Upon reviewing the page(s) of “The Fault in Our Stars” book that were the basis of the Director’s and review staff’s reason to move the book out of the Teen section, I believe there was an error in implementing the Collection Development Policy and that this book should be moved back to the Teen section immediately.
The Board of Trustees will discuss further what went wrong with the review process at the next public board meeting.
I’m thinking the decision had less to do with “an error in implementing the Collection Development Policy” and more about the appropriate/deserved comments from the author along with general public. Rather than put responsibility on the Library Board for a ridiculous policy to start with the board president publicly blames the staff. A demonstration of their lack of leadership. Apparently, the Library Board and president don’t understand a basic leadership principle of praise in public, admonish in private.
The Fault in Our Stars HAS NOT BEEN moved back to its proper location in HEPL. If it were located in Teen Zone (as it used to be), the call number would be either “HS Fiction” or “YA fiction.” As of 2:30PM today, it’s still in adult collection (designated as “FIC” in the online catalog).
Librarians DID NOT make a mistake because they were following the policy written by Alerding and 3 other trustees (which dictates that books with “repeated use of profanity” are inappropriate for the teen area of the library)! It doesn’t seem that Alerding has even read the book, because if she had, she would know that it’s not in compliance with this ridiculous policy. Furthermore Laura Alerding doesn’t have authority to make a unilateral decision to move this title and override the policy, and the board hasn’t voted in a public meeting. If this decision has been made already, then it would seem to be a violation of Open Door Law.
Right on cue – the Library board blaming the librarians for following the policy the board created and the librarians were mandated to follow. How does this make any sense?
Fault lies with the board, not the librarians.