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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Buttercup" data-source="post: 1134286" data-attributes="member: 990">Oh, ye most noble and ancient of basilisks, after reading your post, I checked my library's online catalog.  We do indeed have the History of Christian Doctrine, but it's 5 volumes, not 3.  We also have Socts Worthies, but being a revised edition dated 1870, I suspect that it is indeed edited.  I further suspect that the unedited edition would be nearly impossible to find, and quite expensive if if could be.   Materials selection for a public library is a balancing act, as I'm sure you can imagine.  On the one hand, a library wants to purhcase the 'best books' but on the other hand, the library is well aware that most people don't want to read those books.  They want to read Danielle Steel and Howard Stern.  So the selectors have to try to decide what mix will best serve the needs of their clientelle.    The selector also has to be careful to remove their personal agenda from the mix.  Or perhaps I would be more honest if I said "try to remove their personal agenda from the mix" because, as we all know, human beings are subjective by nature, and so the best we can do is to try to be aware of our inherent biases, and not let them rule us when we should be striving for objectivity. Municipalities do indeed have the right to set community standards, and to expect their schools and libraries to uphold them.  In my experience, however, outside of the most extreme examples of behavior or belief, it's hard to get any random group of people to agree what those standards should be.  So in the end, the schools and libraries have to work at that balance I mentioned above.   There was another point related to your post that I wanted to address.  Money.  Resources are indeed finite, be they shelf space or dollars to purchase the books in the first place.  It is much easier to please everyone if the library in question has enough money to buy the books that you want, and the books the little old lady down the street wants, and the books that the nutjob on the park bench wants too.  When there isn't enough money to do all that, most libraries that I've worked at will try to please the largest number of taxpayers.  This means the library will refrain from buying Scots Worthies before it will give up Danielle Steele and Howard Stern.   Things may be different elsewhere, but in the US, pop culture is the engine that drives just about everything.  I'm not saying that's good.  I'm just saying that's the way it is, from where I'm sitting.</blockquote>

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