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OPINION
Whose House Is It?
The Bulletin | Feb. 20, 2014
STAFF EDITORIAL
Last week, the Kansas House of Representatives passed a bill that would have not only encouraged discrimination against homosexuals, but would have legalized it. House Bill 2453, passed 7249, was called the “Religious Liberty Bill,” but it really aimed at taking away the rights of gay Kansans by sanctioning discrimination. The bill stated that, “No individual or religious entity shall be required by any governmental entity to do any of the following, if it would be contrary to the sincerely held religious beliefs of the individual or religious entity regarding sex or gender: provide any services, accommodations, advantages, facilities, goods, or privileges; provide counseling,
how dumb do they think we are? We know that it’s not because of businesses that the bill was suddenly overturned. Who knows what would have happened if the nation would not have cried out in opposition? Although now the bill is considered “dead,” it shouldn’t have gotten as far as it did in the first place. Just because the bill doesn’t use the word “gay” doesn’t mean it is any less antigay. We wish our lawmakers would say what they mean, instead of using overly-broad language in hopes that we wouldn’t notice. We seem to be moving backward in terms of equal rights. We fought this battle over 50 years ago with Civil Rights,
and it seems that this issue of discrimination keeps cropping up again and again. If you have any doubts about how unfair this kind of law really would be, just replace “sex or gender” with “color.” Kansas has become a banana republic of a state where basic human rights are endangered. Who are these representatives who claim to represent us? How could 72 of
ter World Books, the dean told me Monday that Betty Norpage 1 ton, the library’s bookkeeper, beautiful, it has to be weedwas in communication with ed so the unwanted plants the business office and Better do not take over the rest of World Books was currently the maintained ones. As with being looked into. gardens, libraries also have to McCoy, a well-known be weeded, to make room for writer, often uses books and newer content and dispose of materials in the library withoutdated sources. out checking them out. An Weeding, or culling, a liirreplaceable set of materials, brary has to be a difficult task. the Emporia City Directories, What books are to be kept? were found missing from Which ones are to be weeded shelves by McCoy, who freout? I am certainly not brave quently uses the century-old enough to put any book on a collection in his work. With chopping block, yet it must be this example of the library done in order to keep our lioverlooking such priceless brary up-to-date and as useful materials and sending them as possible to patrons. to be weeded, I worry that The William Allen White other important materials Library’s weeding has been and books are being slated for ongoing but really gained weeding simply because they traction in October. Usually, a haven’t been checked out in list of the books up for weedthe past 15 years. ing are given to faculty for During a meeting with the their input on what they think dean a week before mine, Mcshould stay in the library. The Coy asked if there was any whole university works toway to stop the destruction of gether in this process to make the books while other alternasure the students have the nectives, including Better World essary materials to help them. Books, were looked at. He was Unfortunately, this series of told there was not. And so the weeding seems to have been destruction continues. being conducted in shadThe fourth floor, now a desows. There has yet ignated “quiet zone,” to be a list produced is the only floor left of the books up for which houses books. weeding, and a list Because of its potenof books which have tial to become a learnalready been deing commons, the stroyed is impossible books on this floor to produce right now are being “squished” because, according to among other books. John Sheridan, dean I am not opposed to of University Librarhaving another area ies and Archives, it where students can does not exist. The go to study, but if it books which have comes at the cost of already been weeded destroying tens of have been torn apart thousands of books, with box cutters I say look elsewhere and are being tossed for the new learning away. In trash cans. commons area. Like garbage. Typically, the liWhen I saw these brary and other facpoor, mutilated ulty work together to books in person, decide which books my stomach turned. to weed. However, They were scattered this cycle has been far in a huge pile, some from typical. Though already destroyed, Books being “weeded out” scatter room 218 of William a list of books slated and others awaiting Allen White Library. Fifty thousand of the library’s for weeding has been the same fate. Across 500,000 books are up for weeding, according to John requested multiple from them stood the Sheridan, dean of University Libraries and Archives. times since October, BRIANNA HENSHAW | Courtesy Photo trash cans where one has yet to appear. these books’ fallen This means that the brothers had been laid to rest. by the business office there faculty, who normally have a The scene was very much like was a chance the library could say into what books are benone of those Sarah Mclach- donate the weeded books to eficial to their students and lan American Society for the them and still be within the should be kept on the library’s Prevention of Cruelty to Ani- confines of the law. shelves, are not being consultmals commercials where you Apparently there is some ed in any way, and books that immediately turn the chan- confusion between the busi- may prove to be invaluable to nel once you hear the song to ness office and Dean Sheridan, a field of study very well could avoid seeing the poor, helpless who stated the business office be cut apart with no say from animals. had told him there wasn’t the instructors on campus. A long-winded yet conge- enough time to work with In addition to the list, faculnial man, the dean invited me Better World Books because of ty across campus are usually to his office Monday to talk the accelerated timeline of the asked if they have any interest about this latest weeding. The fourth floor remodel, which in the books slated for weeddean told me the books’ pag- has yet to produce any final- ing. If so, the chosen books are es are being recycled, but the ized plans. relocated to different departcovers have to be trashed. Though he had told fre- ments around campus, or put I spoke with Washburn quent library patron Max up in displays, like in the cases University’s library to see McCoy, associate professor lining the hallways of nearly what they do with their weed- of journalism and adviser of every building on campus. ed books. They donate them The Bulletin, that the business I asked the dean about the to the Topeka Public Library office had said there wasn’t lists of books up for weeding for book sales. Other books enough time to work with Bet- and why the university fac-
ulty had yet to receive them. He responded that that responsibility was left up to the library faculty, who used their best judgment and academic freedom about which books to weed. The dean quoted me that 50,000 of the library’s half a million books were up for weeding. In a meeting with McCoy just a week before, that number had been 100,000, or 20 percent of the library’s collection. Either different people are getting different answers from the dean, or the number has been reduced. The criteria for books to be weeded are as follows – any book that has not been checked out since 1999, books with multiple copies, and any book that has a large amount of dust on it. This “dust test” has proved a useful tool, according to the dean. It saddens me deeply to think our library is using dust as a measure of the value of a book.
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adoption, foster care and other social services; or provide employment or employment benefits, related to, or related to the celebration of, any marriage, domestic partnership, civil union or similar arrangement.” In America, this kind of discrimination has not been legal since the hard-fought Civil Rights movement. It’s no secret that Kansas isn’t exactly Greenwich Village, but even this bit of proposed legislation was enough to shock the state. House Bill 2453 was stopped dead in its tracks, due to a national wave of criticism. The Kansas Senate made it clear that the bill wasn’t good for Kansas because it wasn’t good for business, and that it would never become law. But
are recycled, and books that nobody wants end up in the trash. At the University of Kansas, some books are donated for a public book sale. Others are given to Better World Books, a company that works with librarians nationwide to rescue books from landfills. The company sells the books and gives a percentage back to the library. Whatever books they don’t sell go to nonprofit organizations around the globe to increase literacy in second- and third-world countries. The company also donates a book for each book purchased and has set up scholarship funds for increasing literacy. The business office here at ESU informed me that they are currently in communication with Better World Books. According to Kansas state law, because the library’s books were acquired with government money, the library itself cannot sell the books. However, they can be donated to charitable non-profit organizations (501C3). Although Better World Books is a forprofit organization, I was told
DONOVAN ELROD | The Bulletin
them vote in favor of this bill? Proposed laws like House Bill 2453 are offensive, no matter what your sexual or religious orientation.
In fairness, a book with a good amount of dust on it probably is a good indicator that it has not been used in some while, but who’s to say what the next generation of students will find valuable or useful? McCoy had seen Kansas history books being destroyed on the second floor of the library. Obviously a 1980s book about computers would be irrelevant today, but history books are timeless. Could not these books have been housed elsewhere than a garbage can? In fact, McCoy, and Susan Brinkman, assistant director of the Center for Great Plains Studies, have volunteered their help in weeding and housing books and to prevent their destruction. Their offer was unanswered. They also asked the dean for a list of books that were up for weeding and were told they could
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ADVISER
Max McCoy Associate Professor of Journalism Department of English, Modern Languages and Journalism