David Mills

I am very distraught at the incompetence and idiocy of the employees at our local library here in Huntington, West Virginia. About four months ago, I purchased from Amazon.com $78 worth of books which argue in favor of atheism. Some of these books are familiar to everyone on this board, while other titles are less familiar. Nonetheless, all of these books were brand new. When the books arrived at my home from Amazon, I took the box to the library myself. I asked the lady at the circulation desk whether the library accepted donations. She said, “Of course!�? and thanked me profusely for my generosity.

Four months passed and the books were never placed on the shelves nor entered into the library’s electronic card catalog. Today I asked the whereabouts of the new books I’d purchased and donated. After searching their un-cataloged inventory, the employees told me that the books had probably been discarded!

How F%@$*ing stupid can anyone possibly be?!!!!! Half of the shelf-space in this library is totally empty, and the other half is populated by books that were obsolete decades ago. Most of their science books were published in the 1950's!

As if that weren’t enough to piss me off royally, there’s more. I decided to check out and reread George H. Smith’s Atheism: The Case Against God. I knew for certain that the library did in fact have this book, since I’d checked it out of this same library and read it years earlier. But I couldn’t locate the book this time. It was missing. Perhaps someone had checked it out already, since this book is very popular. I then looked on the electronic card catalog and saw that Atheism: The Case Against God was no longer listed. It too had somehow disappeared from the library!

Did I mention that I live in the Bible Belt? It should be renamed the Ignorance Belt! If left to their own accord, these people would not only continue to burn books, but witches as well.

David Mills

Toto

Libraries have a selection committee that decides which books they will house. It is not just a matter of donating books and getting them on the shelves. (Otherwise you could be sure that there would be libraries full of Christian Bibles and propaganda.)

If you want to get a book on the shelves, even in a liberal area, you need to check with the librarian, make sure the book fits in with their criteria, etc. Otherwise a donation will probably go to their annual book sale.

fast

My neutral question to be taken without insinuation is: "How prevalent is this behavior among 'non-believers'?

Toto

I know of several non-believers who have tried to get specific books placed in libraries. It involved long bureaucratic processes of finding out what the criteria for selection of books are, what the library will accept, etc. The library might have a goal of represented different points of view, and the non believer has pointed out that certain Christian books were represented, how about these other books?

Occams_Razor

Doubleplus scary post. I bellyfeel you. You should lodge a complaint with the ficdep department at the Ministry of Truth...err...I mean the library administration office--not that I think it'll do you any good.

David Mills

What I find so baffling is that this particular library is half empty. It's a typical example of how cities spend millions of dollars for a modern building and nothing for books to put in the library once it's built. If the library didn't want the books I bought, they should have told me to jump in the river, rather than take the books from me, then toss them out. One of these books was an Oxford University publication -- hardly a fly-by-night source.

David Mills

Biff the unclean

I once checked out a copy of Gore Vidal's Live from Golgotha and the librarian took me aside to tell me, "You shouldn't read this book. The author is an atheist you know."

Space Chef

Hmm, my local library has "The 120 Days of Sodom".

PoodleLovinPessimist

Well, at least I assume so. I use the San Francisco Public Library exclusively. I suppose I should check. Any particular books that I can use as a touchstone?

jmem

I hear you. I live in Fort Worth, Texas and I was frustrated to find that I can't get any of the books mentioned on this site at any of the library branches near my house. The precious few books I have found on atheism have been listed at the downtown library and I haven't worked up the nerve to make a spectacle of my interests by asking for them. I can't even find anything at the local bookstores! Atheist is definitely a dirty word here...I have to go online to find both reading materials and people who don't think I eat babies.