Illinois has become the first state to legislate against the banning of books in public libraries, a practice that has been on the rise across the United States as conservatives look to suppress some books dealing with race, history and LGBTQ topics.
Would you buy a neonazi manifesto?
I doubt it. It’s not a blanket “buy everything” policy; we do have some standards we abide by like significance and value to the collection, the level of interest the community would have in something, how much it’s been covered beforehand by reviewers or the media in general, etc.
Even if by some chance we actually did bring something like that into the collection, the policy allows for materials to be challenged by patrons. One probably wouldn’t be enough to get something removed, but I imagine something like that kind of manifesto wouldn’t stop at just one challenge.