No complaints so far about Dr. Seuss
Library has two of the six controversial books
Two of six Dr. Seuss books discontinued Tuesday by Dr. Seuss Enterprises are in the Peterborough Public Library collection, but have not currently been challenged with being removed from their shelves.
Dr. Seuss, a beloved author of many cherished children’s classics who was born as Theodor Seuss Geisel, has come under fire recently for books depicting insensitive images and wording that may offend some people.
The two books in the Peterborough Public Library’s collection are “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street” and “If I Ran a Zoo.”
The publisher has also stopped publication of “McElligot’s Pool,” “On Beyond Zebra!,”
“Scrambled Eggs Super!” and “The Cat’s Quizzer,” but they are not in the library’s collection.
“We looked in our collection and we have two of the titles, so they would go through the request for removal process,” said Mark Stewart, library services manager.
“When we get a challenge for a book, it goes through the collections committee and it is a bit of a discussion because as the library, our goal is to promote freedom of speech and to promote literacy,” Stewart said.
“Sometimes, we get things that are challenged someone might not agree with, but other people agree with, so we must weigh each request in that balance.”
The library remains a neutral party in the process and fully look at the requests that come
in about certain books, he said. “We have not had anyone come up from the public,” Stewart said. “We saw it in the news, and we thought we better check the collection and see.”
They have not started the process to remove the books from the collection yet or what to do with the titles, he said. “It happens from time to time that people take issue with certain things and we take it seriously, we look at it and we come to a consensus,” Stewart said.
“The library’s mission is to promote the diversity of opinions while also obviously not promoting anything that is not obviously offensive.”
When it comes to understanding past thought processes and understanding where we came from as a society, these books do hold some research potential, he said. “The written word is there, it is things that have happened, there are books that have been written that by modern standards are completely inappropriate,” Stewart said.
“But they are still part of the historical record, so in terms of doing research and understanding past thought processes, yes, they do have research value. But they must be understood in the right context.”
Anyone can challenge any book in the public library collection, he said. As it is not the library’s job to censor people, but to offer books to educate them. “People can challenge any book in our collection obviously and it goes through the proper channel and every library does it that way,” he said.
“It is sort of one of the values of the library that we are not censoring, we are not saying what the public should read and should not read.”
We are not a censorship organization by any means,” he said. “It really is up to the individual themself to decide what they want to read.”
Officials at the local public and Catholic school boards said they are committed to ensuring an inclusive and relevant space for students and are currently looking to see if any of the books are in their collections.
“We are committed to offering culturally relevant and responsive learning materials in our schools and are currently in the process of determining if any of these select titles are available in our school libraries,” said Galen Eagle, communications manager for the Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington Catholic School Board.
“Our schools are inclusive and welcoming spaces for all students,” said Diane Lloyd, chair of the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board.
People interested in the Peterborough Public Library list of books that have been challenged can visit freedomtoread.ca/challenged-works.