I have not been affected by too many book controversies; the most recent I can think of involve children's titles, and I don't do any children's collection development. I do think it can be a struggle for libraries to balance popular titles with accurate titles. This is especially evident with popular medical books.
A 2014 study found that public libraries were woefully inadequate in answering a reference question to provide information about whether vaccines cause autism (Flaherty, et al.). Further study revealed that over 1400 libraries listed in WorldCat held David Kirby's Evidence of Harm, the discredited book linking autism to vaccines; another 5000 held Jenny McCarthy's books that propagate false health information (Flaherty, et al.). Those titles were widely known at the time of publication and got quite a lot of press.
My library did a complete inventory last year, and I was shocked to find Evidence of Harm still in the collection. It has since been weeded. I do wonder if someone will accuse our library of bias for not having this book, but I don't consider it any different than wedding a book with an outdated map.
Flaherty, M.G.m Tayag, E.K., Lanier, M. & Minor, J. (2014). The Jenny McCarthy conundrum:
public libraries, popular culture, and health misinformation. Proceedings of the Association for
Information Science and Technology. Retrieved February 25, 2017 from
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/meet.2014.14505101102/full
Great prompt response! I definitely remember all the controversy with Evidence of Harm!
ReplyDeleteYes, the autism controversies! The books might be removed but the community of people who believe the cause of autism is due to vaccines is still going strong. I believe that the reason why the PNW region where I resided has a high percentage of parents forgoing vaccines is due to the belief it does cause autism.
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