West Bend library board goes completely 'round the bend

The West Bend library board is meeting tomorrow night to decide whether to hire their own attorney to fight open records requests.

The extremely short notice is troubling. On the agenda is to hire an outside attorney - someone other than the city attorney - to represent the Library Board. The reason is because some of the Library Board members were not happy with Mary Schanning’s advice (West Bend’s City Attorney) that they must disclose their emails regarding the public library’s business.

Owen Robinson has the details on why this will just lead to an ugly mess.

All this because the board wouldn't agree to merely move some books from the youth section of the library to the adult section, even though they were clearly inappropriate for children. Now the library board finally found something they don't want people to read - their e-mails.

West Bend aldermen refuse to confirm library board appointments

West Bend Aldermen voted against confirmation of the re-appointments of the libary board members after their "stonewalling" over keeping sexually graphic material in the library's youth section. The vote against approval was 5-3.

Alderman Vrana began the conversation stating his disappointment in the library board's handling of the issues concerning inappropriate materials in the youth section of the library. He felt that it should have been handled swiftly, and never should have come this far.

Alderman Turner agreed with Vrana and said he felt the citizens of the City of West Bend had been "stonewalled," and the length of time that had passed in trying to resolve this issue was not acceptable. He stated that he felt the citizens should have had the opportunity to meet with the library board long ago.

Alderman Hutchins agreed with Aldermen Turner and Vrana, stating his disappointment with the handling of the issue as well.

You may recall that the sexually explicit material required a warning to parents not to bring their children to hear it discussed at a public hearing.

I'll repeat what I said then.

Here's a clue for librarians and library board members. If you can't discuss the books in front of children, then you shouldn't be making the books available to children.

It appears to be a lesson the West Bend aldermen took to heart.

Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?

Blogger Owen Robinson decided to risk his innocent ears to attend the meeting about the controversial "Young Adult" books at the West Bend Library.

I admit that I’ve been a bit tepid on this issue, but I’m off the fence now. Basically, there are a bunch of books in the 11-17 year-old section that have explicit passages about sexual acts. Until the meeting, I was uninformed as to how explicit they were. But frankly (if you are under 18, please click away now) I was a bit shocked to hear passages from these teen books referring to “sucking dick,” “anal sex,” and “how to give a great hand job.” Don’t get me wrong… I’m not a prude and I am not personally offended by these subjects, but I certainly don’t think they are appropriate for a 14-year-old to be reading about on their own.

Owen reminds his readers that the request is not to ban the books, only to move them to the adult section.

Meeting unsafe for children

In about 20 minutes, residents of West Bend will be meeting to discuss the appropriateness of some of the books in the library.

The meeting will be in the school gym at Silverbrook Middle School at 6:30 p.m.

Parents are asked not to bring their children because of the nature of the discussion.

The meeting was originally scheduled earlier in the month, but the turnout was so big that it had to be rescheduled and moved to a larger location.

Yes parents are asked not to bring their children "because of the nature of the discussion" about books in the Young Adult section.

Here's a clue for librarians and library board members. If you can't discuss the books in front of children, then you shouldn't be making the books available to children.

The books in question supposedly address "teenage homosexuality." The graphic sexual nature of some of the material is what has caused the concern, leading some to even describe the material as "pornographic." I will guarantee you some idiot tonight will stand up and say some variant of, "If this was heterosexual porn you wouldn't be objecting to letting your kids see it."

Something to add to your calendar this morning

Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner and State Representative Bill Kramer will be at the Waukesha Public Library (aka the Taj Ma Larry) for a town hall meeting at 1:00 PM today. The massive explosion in federal and state spending will be the main topic today, although I'm sure both Sensenbrenner and Kramer will have more than a few things to say about Governor Doyle's taking of the money for the Real ID program.

As both the Badger Blogger and Lakeshore Laments reported, the state has been collecting the $10 fee per driver's license to institute the federally mandated Real ID. Now Doyle's raiding the money for the state budget.

Glenn Frankovis at Badger Blogger:

Jim Doyle has decided that he will not budget any money to comply with a federal anti-terrorism law even though the state has been collecting a $10 fee per driver’s license to do so for over one year amounting to about $12.5 million so far. Why? “Doyle said he expects the law to be overhauled now that his fellow Democrats control Congress and the White House”, or to put it in the new motto of the Democrat Party, BECAUSE WE CAN!

From Kevin at Lakeshore Laments:

It’s no secret to any Wisconsin political watcher that Governor Jim Doyle - a wholly owned subsidiary of WEAC - has hated the REAL ID Act from Day One. The only shocker is it’s taken him this long to finally attempt to worm his way out of it.

The fact he’s screwed the lot of us by taking the already paid fee money and is re-routing it for other budgetary purposes shouldn’t shock anyone. After all, this is a man who’s literally rewritten more laws with his powerful line-item veto than anyone in state history.

There’s two ways this will be handled. One will be either the Department of Homeland Security declaring the State of Wisconsin is in non-compliance, calling down the thunder if/when Congress lacks the time to make the changes Doyle believes are coming down the road.

The second is Jim Sensenbrenner raining down fury, because Doyle’s messing with one of his babies.

Library etiquette

Lon Ponshock hears that ringing sound and unfortunately it's not tinnitus. It's a cell phone in the library:

Now fast forward to the library situation in which a normally quiet place, where ideas are shared, is now occupied by the repeated and insistent ring tones, followed by an inane conversation about sanitary products or some other tripe. And this in an abnormally loud voice to get through bad connections, accompanied by a little self- performance so that everyone knows the reply about this or that is 'critical.'

The rude will take advantage of a situation if not confronted. The rude understand obsequiousness, and they know they can push their luck as far as it will take them. The result is that library staff must take damage control measures-- putting out the fires of cell phone abuse which are either reported or observed-- rather than making a policy of preventive maintenance whereby the problem does not get out of control in the first place.

Had I known the Appleton library had no policy on cell phones in the library, I might have avoided some embarrassment.

Still, there is definitely something uncivilized about a cell phone conversation in the middle of a library. Where I was embarrassed about receiving an emergency call, I doubt many people are, especially those younger than me.

Of course, perhaps I'm immune to embarrassment. I was somewhat bemused to see that someone visited my site after a search for, "underwear in library." I would imagine, but cannot swear, that most libraries have a policy of appearing in only your underwear. Please don't report back on your experiences.

Wasting away in Menomonee Falls

I'm at the library in Menomonee Falls, my home for the next several Saturdays, doing some research. Don't ask. Anyways, today has been a bust as my cell phone keeps ringing.

The first two times I took my cell phone to the lunch area they have on the 2nd floor to argue with the caller. Don't ask. Anyways, after the second time the librarian approached me to tell me that even though the lunch area is separated by glass, the false ceiling in the room does not block sound. The sound carried up and across a wonderfully acoustic accomodating ceiling in the main library to librarian's desk halfway across the building. She was very nice about it, especially when I apologized.

Now, let me get this straight. The architect who designed this library did not take into account that people eating their lunches might disturb those who are trying to work and read in a library?

They also have a nice balcony area for eating and whatever. Unfortunately, it's never open. I asked the librarian when they were planning on opening it and she told me, "When it's nice out."

"It's nice today."
"When it gets into the 70s maybe."

Since she was nice enough not to throw me and my constantly ringing cell phone out, I decided to let it pass.

It looks beautiful outside.

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