[In which it pays to have a tightly-written Selection Policy & Acquisition Procedure, and preferably in the English language….]

Last Friday afternoon, we arrived in the Lending Library to (6) boxes of books c/o the NE Mobile Book Fair, faithfully delivered by the Property Department to the Library’s reference room. For the next two hours, we checked titles against the packing list, and assigned each item a Dewey number (Yes, we use Dewey, sue us) and a destination (PC Cabinet, Oversize Reference, Self-Help, etc.) 152 books received, along with 21 CDs and 1 DVD. Nothing was lost, nothing was stolen.

And this time out, no material was challenged.

One of my clerks balked at the health book entitled Viagra & the Quest for Potency. “Why would they let this in? Don’t they know we’re not supposed to engage in unauthorized sexual acts?” (Which is true, according to 103 CMR 430, “Disciplinary Proceedings.”)

“I didn’t buy it to encourage sexual acts, you dodo. Men happen to be interested in the drug and what it purports to do.”

“They’re interested in it, all right!”

“You can’t get the drug, so it’s informational only. It’s a reference work, for Pete’s sake.”

“You mean ‘For peter’s sake!’”

Incorrigible.

There were also more than a few juvenile comments from clerks about the title Great Speeches on Gay Rights. I’ll spare you these, which were mostly directed at each other. Mostly.

The same clerk balked at 63 Documents the Government Doesn’t Want You to Read.

“I can’t believe they let that in here!”

“Why wouldn’t they?”

“Because they’re the Government!”

“I’m the Government, too, and I bought the thing. Besides–Don’t look now– but the Governor signs your paycheck, too.”

“I don’t work for The Man; I work for myself!”

“That reminds me of my favorite Pride and Prejudice line: ‘You think that, Jane, if it gives you comfort.’ “

 

Surprise is also expressed by the same clerk – a voracious reader and dystopian prophet – over the title The New Jim Crow.

“You can’t tell me they know what this book says & they still let it in! “

“It’s a popular sociological text. What’s the problem?”

“Yeah well, it may be popular but it slams the government. Either they haven’t heard of it, or this is a mistake.”

“You must not know this but, by policy, the DOC can’t exclude political opinions that are critical of the government. Even if the Bundle Room officer read the thing and disagrees with it, it has to come in. And are you forgetting that we got this for one of the law clerks a few months ago through ILL?”

“I remember. I assumed they missed it because of normal DOC incompetence!”

Incorrigible.