Forum - View topicNEWS: Washington Library Responds to Complaint About Child Borrowing Yaoi Manga
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ljaesch
Posts: 299 Location: Enumclaw, WA |
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I don't think she could have done that. I'm logged into the KCLS catalog as I type this, and I don't see how she could have browsed a list of graphic novels by library branch without knowing any titles. The KCLS search is set up with four criteria you can use to search for items. The first is a drop-down menu that lets you choose whether to search by Keyword, Title, Author, Subject, Series, Call Number, ISBN/ISSN/Other, and Publisher. Next, a drop-down menu lets you choose what format you're looking for (All Formats, Book, DVD, eBook, Music CD, plus a number of others that I don't feel like listing off; however, there is no option here to specifically choose graphic novels). A third drop-down menu lets you choose to search KCLS as a whole, or to search at a particular branch. Finally, there's also a text box that you can use to type in the keyword or title that you're looking for. I was just doing some experimenting, and I don't see a way this girl could have used the online catalog to come up with lists of graphic novels. Maybe she was doing a keyword search for "hero" and came up with this title, but our catalog shows pictures of the front covers when they're available (and all three volumes of the series in questions do have pictures of the front covers in the catalog); the covers should have tipped her off that maybe this wasn't what she was looking for. If anyone has any questions about the King County Library System and how it works, please feel free to ask. If I don't know the answer, then my husband (who has been a patron of KCLS all 38 years of his life) would probably know. |
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Chagen46
 Posts: 4377 |
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As amazing as it seems to some adults, children are not mentally challenged and are capable of rational thought. |
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Tanteikingdomkey
 Posts: 2346 |
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we don't think that but just because it is likely that she knew what she was getting does not mean that she necessarily did. you can't prove that yes she did know. |
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Fencedude5609
 Posts: 5088 |
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It seems a whole heck of a lot more likely than your assertions. |
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dragon695
 Posts: 1377 Location: Clemson, SC |
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Ok, I am getting a little sick and tired of this. I'm not even saying this precocious girl has a good reason to be checking this book out. Maybe it was an innocent mistake or maybe it was for curiosity or, most likely, it was for more prurient reasons. Who knows? I do know that having free access to adult material was beneficial to me in alleviating my confusion about my bisexual identity at age 11 (I will spare the details). The problem arises because our culture tends to cling to the sex-negative mores of the past, which only serves to punish and not inform. So, I once again return to my earlier sentiments, why the hell is it any of my business or the library's what books a 10 or 11 year old should be read? Also, I reiterate my sentiment that the Dewey Decimal system is fundamentally flawed and modern libraries ought to arrange their stacks by the Library of Congress call numbers, as most university libraries do. Placing it in non-fiction makes no sense and demonstrates one way that the Dewey Decimal is lacking. |
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arromdee
Posts: 71 |
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Some libraries loan out movies as well as books. If the library had loaned an X-rated movie (or even an R-rated one) to a 10 year old do you still believe the family would have no cause for complaint? If not, how is this different?
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ljaesch
Posts: 299 Location: Enumclaw, WA |
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First, KCLS does loan out movies, music, and other things besides books. I'm not sure about how something like this is handled today at KCLS, but my husband was telling me about how KCLS handled a particular book that was released in 1992: Madonna's Sex book. When KCLS got that book into their system, you could only check it out from the branch it was at (in other words, it was a title that you couldn't get through placing a hold for it, it had to be checked out through the library staff, and he believes that you also had to show proof of age before it would be checked out to you). Unfortunately, in this day and age of self-checkout and being able to put items on hold thorough online means rather than through the library staff, I really don't know what kind of safeguards may be in place for the situations you describe. I'm aware of what was already quoted from the KCLS site in this thread, but I will try to find some time later today to go through the KCLS site myself to see if I can find anything else that might address the questions being asked by the poster I'm quoting. EDITED TO ADD: I should probably mention that during the 15 years I've been a KCLS patron, I don't recall ever seeing any X-rated movies on the shelf when I've browsed through videos and DVDs. |
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RyanSaotome
 Posts: 4210 Location: Towson, Maryland |
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They don't carry X-Rated movies, and from what I know about this manga, its closer to an R-Rated movie since it doesn't show any actual penetration. And no, I wouldn't have any issue with them lending out R rated movies to a 10 year old. Not everyone matures at the same rate, and limiting someones exposure to things simply due to their age isn't the job of the library. |
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Fencedude5609
Posts: 5088 |
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Name 5 X-rated movies. Do it. I dare you. |
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ljaesch
Posts: 299 Location: Enumclaw, WA |
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I was just browsing through KCLS' policies page: http://www.kcls.org/usingthelibrary/policies/selections.cfm Here is the most relevant excerpt from that link:
Right in that excerpt, it states: "Notification to the parent or legal guardian of every minor child who registers for a library card regarding the KCLS policy of free and open access, and information about resources to assist parents in guiding their own children's use of library materials and services." In other words, the parents really would have no cause for complaint, because they should already be aware of KCLS' policy of free and open access. And, as stated earlier, KCLS does not appear to carry X-rated movies, so that argument is moot. |
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Gilles Poitras
Posts: 476 Location: Oakland California |
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Libraries are usually looking for material that serves the non-mainstream population of their area. For this reason they will hunt out materials related to ethnic, racial and sexual minorities. When I do my "Anime (and Manga) for Parents (and Other Grownups)" presentation at cons and libraries I always tell parents that ultimately what their kid looks at is their responsibility. I tell them to consider cutting their kids a bit of slack, after all experiencing something vicariously in a book or anime is better than in real life with no knowledge of what is happening. I also encourage them to use content they are not fully comfortable with in fictional works as an opening to discuss such matters with their kids. |
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Gilles Poitras
Posts: 476 Location: Oakland California |
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I did a test and found that I could have used a keyword search for "Graphic novels, Japanese" to get a list of 2,540 titles in the entire system. However as a librarian I knew how to pull up the record for a single manga, look at the details in the catalog record (under a pull down menu) and then use that text for the search. Not something your average library user can easily figure out. |
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ljaesch
Posts: 299 Location: Enumclaw, WA |
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Thanks for figuring that out.  I just tried that myself, and got the exact same result. It doesn't really seem to be in any order that I can easily recognize (i.e. alphabetical).
While it's possible, it seems like it would be a rather time-consuming way (especially for a 10-year-old) to search for potential reading material. |
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batou65
 Posts: 43 |
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Thanks, that was interesting. The only point I want to mention is about graphic novels being filed under nonfiction. Someone earlier mentioned they're in 741.5 because there was no category for GNs, so they labeled them as art. But GNs are almost always fiction. Isn't this evidence that this filing system is obsolete? Surely, for accuracy, the "fictionalness" of a book is a more important factor than the "artisticness" of it. |
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nobahn
 Subscriber Posts: 5124 |
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I asked a reference librarian once about this, and she said that the Dewey Decimal System is used by small libraries, while large libraries (e.g., university) use the Library of Congress System.
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