Shifting Gears - Library Policy Overview
Shifting Gears - Library Policy Overview
Library policies, how they affect our books, and how we are moving forward.
We recently requested a few Brave Books as purchases for our local libraries, which started a dialogue. We will share what we learned here. If you would rather skip all the technical stuff about why we are focusing on certain books, you will find towards the end of the page our current recommendations for library purchases.
Montgomery County Library Policy
The current library materials selection policy has been in place for decades and was last modified in 2006.
We have been told that the library relies primarily on reviews from the following professional journals to make selections: Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, Booklist, Library Journal, and Publisher’s Weekly. They focus on materials that have more than one positive review and have won literary awards. The library also looks at books featured on recommended reading lists from professional organizations.
Donated books must meet the same requirements, and most donated books will be sold in the Friends of the Library Bookstore. The proceeds will go to buy new books or pay for educational programs.
However, according to the policy on their website, under item #6, there is the statement, “Some materials are considered because of widespread or local demand.” Therefore, if enough people request a book, it sounds like they may consider it. Also throughout the written policy, but especially under item #6, there is an understanding that various views should be represented.
“In addition, as the social and intellectual climate of the community changes, material which originally was not selected for purchase may become of significant interest. Such materials will be reevaluated on a continuing basis.” - #6. Selection criteria
Also,
“This responsibility includes having materials on the various sides of controversial questions. The library provides a forum where individuals can examine issues freely and formulate their own conclusions.” - #4. General guidelines for selection
Over the next few articles, we will make a case that there is a need in our library to provide a different viewpoint on some issues in the children’s department and how we believe that void would best be filled.
More information regarding the selection policy can be found here: Home - Policies - New - Montgomery County Memorial Library at Montgomery County Memorial Library (countylibrary.org)
What books do not meet the journal review standards?
Brave Books, Tuttle Twins, The Green Ember, Imagination Station books, Dead Sea Squirrels, Sugar Creek Gang, God Smuggler (Young Readers Edition), and more do not currently (yet) meet the journal review requirements.
Rush Limbaugh’s books, the Rush Revere Series, do not meet these standards, so why are they in several of our libraries? We believe this is because his books were on the New York Times Best Seller list for a long time, AND he won the Children’s Choice Award (author of the year) in 2014. This possibly forced the library’s hand. (We wonder if there was a local effort to get these books into the library, and if you were a part of that, we would like to hear from you.)
Unfortunately, self-published books like Brave Books, Tuttle Twins, and The Green Ember Series, are not eligible for these awards. These award organizations will not consider publishing numbers unless they come from specific approved distributors and publishers. This is unfortunate since these books are wildly popular in the homeschooling and conservative community.
(In the meantime, this means we continue our efforts to host story hours with these books especially as they are not freely available in our libraries.)
Who are these literary journals?
(We will explore Kirkus Reviews here.)
Kirkus Reviews charges for their reviews:
Are Kirkus reviews worth the money for indie authors? ALLi investigates (selfpublishingadvice.org)
Many Conservative authors aren’t reviewed at all, but here are a few who are. It’s not pretty.
HITLER'S LAST DAYS | Kirkus Reviews
KENNEDY'S LAST DAYS | Kirkus Reviews
RADIO'S GREATEST OF ALL TIME | Kirkus Reviews
RUSH REVERE AND THE FIRST PATRIOTS | Kirkus Reviews
We will let you research the others. They do appear to be left leaning. Some are behind a paywall but not all.
Who is the library administration accountable to?
This was an important question for us. Is the library accountable to voters or to an elected official? If so who? Listed on the library website is the library administration. Included in this list is the commissioners court who are elected. https://countylibrary.org/about
Commissioners Court
County Judge - Mark Keough
Precinct 1 - Robert C. Walker
Precinct 2 - Charlie Riley
Precinct 3 - James Noack
Precinct 4 - Matt Gray
I called Judge Keough’s office and confirmed that he is responsible for the library system. I was also told that when the current director was hired, in her interview she said that she believes books on all sides of the issues should be in the libraries…
We hope that the library will become more balanced over time. While at the South Branch, I was not able to find anything by evangelical authors. However, we did find a biography about Jesus called Jesus of Nazareth, Teacher and Prophet by Ramsay M. Harik. In this book Harik suggests that Jesus was not the Messiah and did not think of himself as the Messiah either. We could not find an evangelical book about Jesus that shares the standard biblical belief about who Jesus is.
When I visited the religious section, I found some books by Catholic, Jewish, and mainstream authors, but I did not see any evangelical works. Perhaps they were checked out. We hope so.
I also found three books by the author Alex Gino that contain propaganda about Gender Theory, Critical Race Theory, and Intersectionality. There will be another upcoming substack about concerning books, but I mention these here to say, I have not seen any children’s books that look at the other side of these issues.
Where do we go from here?
We have already contacted some publishers to let them know about the library policies.
For now, we will focus on books that do meet the library’s requirements. We have found several books that aren’t overtly Christian, more “Narnia-like,” that have good reviews, and we believe we could get them into the libraries. These are listed below.
(We are not giving up on Brave Books or The Tuttle Twins books, however, because we believe these books do meet the selection criteria for diverse views, and we will be making the case for this over the next few weeks.)
Reviewed books:
Link to suggest a purchase: Home - Suggest a Purchase - Montgomery County Memorial Library at Montgomery County Memorial Library (countylibrary.org) You will need to submit a separate form for each book. (In the meantime, you can request a copy from Harris County by placing a hold.)
The DreamKeeper Series:
The DreamKeeper Series has glowing reviews and are well loved by kids. When you are requesting them, please copy and past review links into the comments for the librarians.
The Dragon and the Stone, The Dream Keeper Saga Book 1 by Kathryn Butler.
ISBN: 1433579472
https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781433579479
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/kathryn-butler/dragon-and-stone/
The Prince and the Blight, The Dream Keeper Saga Book2 by Kathryn Butler.
ISBN: 1433579510
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/kathryn-butler/prince-and-blight/
The Third Book hasn’t been published yet, but its worth a shot.
Lost in the Caverns, The Dream Keeper Saga Book 3 by Kathryn Butler
ISBN: 1433587785
The Wingfeather Series:
Next, the first book in The Wingfeather Saga qualifies. After that, we cannot find any reviews. The first book is also in one area library, the Stewart Library in Montgomery. Also, note that searching “Wingfeather” in the library catalogue does not give you this book. We believe most people aren’t finding it and have heard from people who ordered it from amazon after not finding it in the catalogue. You must either search the author or the full title.
On the edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness :by Andrew Peterson (Wingfeather Saga book 1)
ISBN: 0525653562
https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781400073849
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/andrew-peterson/on-the-edge-of-the-dark-sea-of-darkness/
(This series is so popular that it was crowd funded for an animated series. We think this is good reason to have all the books in the library. Maybe mention this in the comments.) Here is the information on the rest of the series:
North! Or Be Eaten: The Wingfeather Saga Book 2: by Andrew Peterson
ISBN: 0525653570
The Monster in the Hollows: The Wingfeather Saga Book 3 by Andrew Peterson (The Harris County copies currently have 16 holds.)
ISBN 0525653589
The Warden and the Wolf King: The Wingfeather Saga Book 4 by Andrew Peterson (The Harris County copies currently have 12 holds.)
ISBN 0525653600
The Wilderking Trilogy:
A delightful medieval retelling of the story of King David, The Wilderking Trilogy is currently in the New Caney Library.
The Bark of the Bog Owl (The Wilderking Trilogy Book 1) by Jonathan Rogers
ISBN-10 : 0805431314
THE BARK OF THE BOG OWL: Book One of the Wilderking Trilogy (publishersweekly.com)
The Secret of the Swamp King (Book two of The Wilderking Trilogy) by Jonathan Rogers
ISBN: 0805431322
The Way of the Wilderking (Book three of The Wilderking Trilogy) by Jonathan Rogers
ISBN: 0805431330
Did you find more books that qualify? Let us know in the comments!