An online list claims to give titles of books Sarah Palin wanted banned from the Wasilla, Alaska library. The list is credited to Brian Moses, an Obama fan with a website promoting the Obama/Biden ticket.
Accompanying the list is the allegation that Palin tried to fire librarian Mary Ellen Baker for not supporting her book bans. It reports the town rallied around Baker and Palin launched vendettas against opponents.
List Contains Chaucer and Shakesperean Classics
The list includes a dictionary and Bible, classics Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, two Shakesperean plays, the Harry Potter series, and works by William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, Maya Angelou, Aristophanes, Walt Whitman and Stephen King.
A Sept. 7 request to the Wasilla librarian, answered by the office of Mayor Dianne M. Keller, says the town librarian researched the online list's origin and concludes it is from a website listing books banned by U. S. libraries over several decades.
The mayor’s office cited library policy on “reconsideration requests of library materials, noting “we have no records of any books being ‘banned or censured’ ever.”
Wasilla Library Policy on Reconsideration Requests
The library, part of the Matanuska-Susitna Library Network, claims it keeps challenged materials in circulation until a decision is reached. Library records reflect only four such challenges were processed.
- Pre-1986 challenge to Angel Dust Blues by Todd Strasser. Result: creation of library "young adult” section and placement of book there.
- 1986 challenge of Harvey Allard's Bumps in the Night; remained on shelf.
- 2005 challenge to Jon Steward's America: A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction; remained on shelf.
- 2007 challenge to The Abduction by Mette Newth; remained on shelf.
The policy statement states: “The Wasilla Public Library recognizes the right of every citizen to read and gather information, and his or her right to freedom from censorship by other persons. Many books are controversial...The library holds censorship to be a purely individual matter and declares that while anyone is free to reject for himself books and other materials of which he does not approve, he cannot exercise this right of censorship to restrict the freedom of others.”
American freedom of the press means that, as the list circulated online, people added comments, many of them inflammatory. People influenced by such comments seldom consider who said what and don’t look for motives.
Tracing the Internet Evidence Trail
The Brian Moses website alleges the list came from “librarian.net”. Sound like a credible professional source? If so, one might believe—without proof—that Wasilla officials were putting a good face on a local uproar caused by Palin.
The problem? “librarian.net” is a blog site for librarians. A rural Vermont library consultant put out a disclaimer: “There’s some buzz being generated that says that this post contains a comment that lists the books that Palin supposedly wanted banned. There appears to be no truth to the claim made by the commenter, and no further documentation or support for this has turned up.”
Bloggers pounced on the submitter, requesting unbiased sources. Responsible librarians tried to document the list. As of today (Sept. 9), it appears this came about because of a one paragraph comment in a responsibly-written Times Magazine article about Palin injecting her religious views into her mayoral role.
Someone took that article, blended that paragraph with their negative outlook and spliced to it the legitimate lists of books banned over the course of many years by various U. S. libraries. That had to be a deliberate attempt to discredit Sarah Palin.
The ages-old lesson: Don’t believe everything you hear or read.
A companion article discusses the negative financial impact of the media blitz on Palin's hometown of Wasilla, Alaska.
Rosemary E. Bachelor - Rosemary Bachelor, a prize-winning journalist, has had a career as an editor, feature writer, magazine publisher and author. Her latest ...
