Stephen Weiner, director of the Maynard (MA) Public Library and author of The 101 Best Graphic Novels, wrote to The Comics Reporter:
By removing the book from the collection without at least further discussion, the public library acted cowardly and missed an opportunity, through communal dialogue, to educate the community and let it grow.
On his site, author Paul Gravett posts a number of reactions, including this one from the publisher, HarperCollins.
As a publisher, we are dismayed that a county library would deny its reading public access to one of the few English-language histories about Japanese comics — a topic that is currently of great public interest. We urge the County to reconsider.
And from Tangognat,
I’m glad to see that people are protesting the removal of the book. It seems to me like the normal review process for the library was bypassed so someone could indulge in some political posturing. I’ll be interetesting to see if the library responds to any complaints about the removal of the book, but I’m not holding my breath.
More reactions:
It can’t all be about manga
Sci Fi Weekly (third letter)
And for those who think that “adult” books should be sequestered from the rest of the collection, a Kansas state librarian offers a taste of the good old days:
One of the first public libraries I worked in over 30 years ago had several shelves in the staff workroom where “dirty” books were housed. These books were ones that the library director deemed important enough for the library to own, but objectionable enough to not shelve in the stacks. I innocently asked the director once about the circulation of these materials. She replied that the books were hidden in order to protect patrons and that “people who want to read those kind of books can ask ME for them”.
This post is in response to a bill, recently passed by the Oklahoma House of Representatives, that would require libraries to house “all children and young adult materials that contain homosexual or sexually explicit subject matter” outside the children’s and young adult sections and institute a policy that would limit those materials to adults only. The mind boggles.
[...] * the excellent MangaBlog collects a variety of reactions and more importantly, plays reporter, clearing up an inaccurate report that the disputed book had been shelved in the Young Adult area (and as a side effect, demonstrating the flaws in doing all your research on computer without talking to anyone involved). 2 comments so far [...]