TOPEKA, KS — These are trying times for librarians. With the advent of the internet, library workers have their hands full policing what patrons view online.However, just to prove old-fashioned print censorship hasn’t gone out of style, the Shawnee County, KS, Library Board of Trustees for the first time has removed from library shelves books that might compromise children’s innocence.
The Joy of Sex, The Joy of Gay Sex, The Lesbian Kama Sutra and Sex for Busy People were removed February 19th after a woman complained the tomes could be accessed by children. Public outcry ensued on both sides of the issue. On March 19th, the library board agreed to hear comments from 18 supporters and five detractors of the ban.
“It is important that our library remain as a free source of information,” Topeka lawyer Pedro Irigonegaray told library trustees. “Information is necessary for freedom, and without freedom democracy cannot exist.”
Pastor Cecil Washington told the board, “Those restrictions should absolutely remain in place because of the fact that we should be protecting young people who are not equipped to carry, to handle, material like this.”
The board agreed with both sides, allowing the books to remain available for check-out by adults upon request, but leaving in place the ban on bookshelf appearance.
The woman who filed the original complaint was present at neither the February meeting nor the one in March.
Trustees told KSNT Channel 27 News that only nine “expressions of concern” about books have been brought to their attention within the past 10 years. The sex manuals represented the first time the board has acted on one.
