On the 1st of May, Cumberland Council was asked to vote on the immediate removal of books about same sex marriage from the city’s library service. After a narrow vote (6-5) to proceed, less than three weeks later the motion was tabled again and voted down 12-2. After having the initial proposal rejected, the member proposing changes requested that instead they be moved to an ‘adults only’ section of the library. After this was also rejected, they proposed that the book that initially sparked the debate, Holly Duhig’s Same-Sex Parents, be moved to the ‘adults only’ section of the library. This proposal was also summarily rejected.
The entire debacle highlights why policies and procedures are such important ‘checks and balances’ for librarians in general, but especially those tasked with resourcing the children of the twenty-first century.
This was a debate instigated and fuelled by councillors – not librarians, not parents, not any stakeholder in child development, but fundamentally politicians. The politician tabling the motion was lobbied by a party known for its conservative stance on many social issues. None of those involved are beholden to Ranganathan’s laws, nor are they formally versed in the many and varied benefits in children seeing themselves (including their family structure) represented in publicly available resources. As such, their assumption that they can immediately pass and enact policy without this knowledge denotes a chronic lack of understanding as to the informed approach librarians take towards collection management, and deselection in particular.
On a semantic level, the Cumberland Library Strategy 2024-2027 was approved by the council as a complete draft in 2023. In its summary, the final item states that the strategy should enable the library to ensure that services and collections are responsive to the diverse Cumberland community (2023). To include an amendment that directly contradicts that explicit statement cannot be said to represent the community’s diversity.
From a procedural point of view, it is disappointing to see a politician supporting the practice of bypassing existing processes. Former mayor Steve Christou stated that the initial complaint seeking his attention came from ‘one disgruntled parent’, which suggests they did not first approach the library to address the inclusion of the resource with the professionals who manage the collection (or if they did, they did not then follow up via appropriate procedures), nor did Mr Christou refer them back to the appropriate channels by which to formally lodge their concerns.
That said, given that the Draft Strategy closed for community consultation in February, and Mr Christou saw fit to advocate for the amendment to be immediately included and enacted in May, perhaps I should not be so surprised that due process was not followed.
References:
Cumberland City Council (22nd January 2024). Library Strategy 2024-2027. Cumberland City Council. https://cumberland.engagementhub.com.au/library-strategy-2024-2027#:~:text=The%20Library%20Strategy%202024%2D2027,connection%20to%20the%20Cumberland%20community.
Kallos, D. (14th May, 2024). Cumberland City Councillor Steve Christou Addresses Controversial Book Ban. Neos Kosmos. https://neoskosmos.com/en/2024/05/14/news/australia/cumberland-city-councillor-steve-christou-addresses-controversial-book-ban/
Lock, S. and Mitchell, A. (18th May 2024). Cumberland Council backflips on gay book ban after fiery protest erupts outside emergency meeting. The Nightly. https://thenightly.com.au/australia/nsw/cumberland-council-backflips-on-gay-book-ban-after-fiery-protest-erupts-outside-emergency-meeting-c-14684075