Anne Ordway – Elected Barrington Area Library Board Member
“Dear Editor,
I’m hearing Book Banning is a topic of conversation in the upcoming April 4, 2023 elections for the Barrington School & Library Boards. In my time on the library board, no parent or patron has approached the Barrington Area library to ban a book. Parents with concerns about books in schools view a public library different than a school library.
I ran for the Barrington Area Library Board in 2021 and won a seat on that board. I ran because I am a frequent user of the library and closing it to the public for an extended period of time piqued my interest in library leadership. We have current Library board members who want to do something about misinformation. How exactly is misinformation to be defined? Labeling what one doesn’t want to hear as misinformation is censorship and has no place in a public library. At no time would we want a librarian to claim something is full of misinformation and then deny a book to a patron, or refuse to order a book for the library.
To assure The Barrington Area Library stays relevant, open, and with materials to offend everyone, I recommend voting for Chase Heidner, Kristin Cunningham, and Kelly Dittmann for the Barrington Area Library Board Trustee positions.
Thank you,
Anne Ordway – Elected Barrington Area Library Board Member”
Trained librarians possess the highest level of critical evaluation skills and strong guidelines for selecting materials for a library collection. Those skills should be embraced by trustees and the community. There is a difference, often just a nuance, between misinformation and falsehood. I agree that libraries should contain a wealth of diverse viewpoints, enough to offend everyone as you say. Diversity of materials is different than promoting or including information that contains provable lies (i.e. the holocaust was real, just one among many conspiracies that circulate).
You want us to believe that the librarians who are still sitting behind plexi-glass, masked up and wearing a rainbow lanyard have the highest level of critical evaluation skills?
Surely Ms. Riebok made a typo when she wrote, “Diversity of materials is different than promoting or including information that contains provable lies (i.e. the holocaust was real, just one among many conspiracies that circulate).” Surely she meant to write that Holocaust deniers are spreading misinformation and that Holocaust was indeed real.
So we’re supposed to believe that “trained librarians possess the highest level of critical evaluation skills” but they’re unable to come up with a simple rated G-R system for books? Ok, sure thing.
Who are the librarians and what is the hiring process for them? At least one used to be a barista at Starbucks. I never heard her speak of any special training when she left there for the library. She told us she just wanted better hours.