Tuesday, February 20, 2007

How many anti-Bush books does one library need?

While browsing the new book shelves at the Upper Arlington Public Library today I glanced through the 973.931 section. In the Dewey classification system this is "Administration of George W. Bush, 2001- ." On the shelf were 1) Pretentions to an empire, 2) Impeachment of George W. Bush, 3) Static; government liars, media cheerleaders and the people who fight back, 4) Voting to kill, 5) U.S. v. George W. Bush, 6) How Bush rules, 7) Vice; Dick Cheney and the hijacking of the American presidency, 8) The architect; Karl Rove and the master plan for absolute power, preceded by two Clinton books, a his and hers (positive, glowing) in 973.927.

Just out of curiosity, I went into the stacks and checked this class number--the Bush years. There were 4 packed shelves, about 30 books to a shelf (ca. 120 books), and only four were positive, balanced or fair to the President of the United States. Some titles had multiple copies. Within this class are also the books on 9/11, ranging from touching to wild to absurd, John Kerry's campaign hype, a bio of Tommy Franks, an anti-Bush women title and two on Hillary Clinton, but compared to the anti-Bush tirades, they don't account for much space. Included in the stacks were items like Gore Vidal's Dreaming War, Woodward's Plan of attack, and James Bovard's Bush betrayal. The previous 5 shelves (ca. 150 books) covered the presidencies of Carter, Reagan, Bush 41 and Clinton (973.926-973.929).

Someone at UAPL REALLY believes in the power of print, because I'm guessing that well over half of the voting residents within our city limits are Republicans. I used to be a Democrat--voted right across the street from the library at St. Mark's Episcopal, and I never ever had to wait in line. Those poor poll attendants looked like the Maytag repairman. Now I'm a registered Republican voting at a Catholic church further north, and there is always a wait. So it appears that either the director or her bibliographer-in-charge of current events thinks if they just buy enough anti-Bush titles they can move this white, suburban, business class community on the edge of the University to the left. Meanwhile, they aren't serving the people who vote on their bond issues.

Book banning begins with the publishers, then moves to the reviewers at LJ, PW and NYT who act as gatekeepers for the public, and then on to the libraries where the few conservative titles that squeak through are carefully scrutinized to make sure they are safe and politically bland.

3 comments:

Ladybug Crossing said...

The liberal media want to make sure that we republicans know our place. I am originally from New England and I was one of a handful of republicans who lived in town. I never had to wait for a machine!!!

It's so sad that the media think it is okay to blame GW for everything including the hurricanes and tornados! He doesn't have that kind of power!!

Anonymous said...

I was just browsing the catalog and I counted about 20 pro-Bush books.

I also noticed that the number of anti-Clinton books outweighs the number of pro-Clinton books, by a large margin.

Could it be that books trashing a President, any President, are more popular than positive ones?

Publishing isn't ideological. It's financial.

Norma said...

Chuck, I congratulate your library skills at being able to negotiate the turn-key UAPL catalog--or taking the time to do so. Obviously, you working librarians have more time to kill than we retired librarians. What it probably means is that the pro-Bush books, if they exist, are checked out and the multiple copied titles are languishing on the shelves while people line up for the conservative titles. I, however, was the person standing in the stacks gazing at a huge number of anti-administration books. Also, UAPL has 2 branches, and the other Bush titles, if they exist and are not a myth like man made global warming, may be at the north branch.

To some degree you are right about the publishers--they know much of their market is libraries, and know what they will buy.