Library Journal breaking the news
Fri 28 Apr 2006, 1:40 pm
I spent the morning in high dudgeon about this news item from the LibraryJournal.com “Breaking News” feed dated today, April 28, 2006: Colorado Legislator Would Ban Library Purchase of Books in Spanish. It was actually worse than the headline suggests, as it would ban the purchase of most materials in any language other than English by Colorado public libraries.
I say it “was” worse because the measure failed on Tuesday, April 25, or three days before the LJ story came out (see the Denver Post, English-only measure fails).
Thanks for keeping me up-to-date, LJ!
Here is the passage that stood out to me:
“(b) NO PUBLICLY SUPPORTED LIBRARY SHALL, EITHER IN CONNECTION WITH THE LIBRARY SYSTEM AS A WHOLE OR WITH REFERENCE TO ANY PARTICULAR BRANCH LOCATION OF THE LIBRARY, PURCHASE ANY PRINTED OR ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS, PUBLICATIONS, OR OTHER
MATERIALS IN A LANGUAGE OTHER THAN ENGLISH; EXCEPT THAT THE REQUIREMENTS OF THIS PARAGRAPH (b) SHALL NOT RESTRICT THE PURCHASE OF EITHER TEXTBOOKS OR RELATED INSTRUCTIONAL
MATERIALS USED FOR THE PURPOSE OF TEACHING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE OR REFERENCE MATERIALS PUBLISHED IN A LANGUAGE OTHER THAN ENGLISH.”
So in other words, a public library could not purchase literature written in foreign languages, etc.? That would be incredibly ignorant. Fortunately this bill was voted down by a partuy line vote of 6-5. It is hard to believe even the most conservative, xenophobic Republican legislator could support this bill. It should have been laughed out of committee.
Comment by Stephen — May 2, 2006 @ 7:42 pm
Stephen, before I had realized that the bill was already dead, I was planning to point out to my legislators that the bill would forbid libraries to buy copies of the Bible in Greek or Latin or Hebrew (along with everything else). I also like that it would have allowed for buying instructional materials in foreign languages, but not any actual material for those students to read as they conducted their studies.
Comment by Steve Lawson — May 3, 2006 @ 6:45 am