Monday, November 9, 2009

Jessamine County Public Library Back Story

Link to November 8 Lexington Herald-Leader article, "Child protection or censorship? Library employees lose jobs over book".

Excerpt: It all started in the fall of 2008, and she [Sharon Cook] is still doing it. The proof is in her knapsack, in a bright yellow flexible file folder, hidden from ppSrying eyes. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume IV: The Black Dossier. It has pink and yellow highlighter tags sticking out, marking the pages that contain explicit sexual content.

It is the Jessamine County Public Library's copy, which she has checked out and not returned. She is being fined 10 cents a day for her breach of library contract — and for her moral stand.

She was, she says, simply appalled that a child could find a book that contained so many outright visually obscene graphics in the Jessamine library where she worked. So nine months ago, she challenged its right to be included in the collection, and when that failed, she simply checked it out herself.

Apparently, JCPL allowed unlimited renewals on books.

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