The Case For Clean Up Ida Rupp
What is the real question to be asked on explicit books in the children's section of a library?
Clean Up Ida Rupp
Ida Rupp's section for children is filled with abhorrent books. These books are undeniably so because they feature depictions of sexual acts. A child, by definition, is not sexual because he is at an age society has deemed too young to start a family. If the proponents of leaving books containing sexual things in the children's section were serious they would have to defeat this point; to which I say "bring it on". Further, if they grant me this point, then a book mentioning sex and promoted for children is a crime against humanity and arguably rape. While I agree wholeheartedly with most of the list Clean Up Ida Rupp is advocating be restricted, I think that is the easy route because no sane person can legitimately defend the opposing position. Therefore I am going to take a different tack here because the opponents are not truly serious and do not have a philosophical principle defined enough for me to argue with. Rather the real debate is "what should be in a library" not "what should not be in a library."
What should be in a library?
A library has limited space, this is a fact of reality and plainly obvious. However, have you ever considered that since the advent of the printing press put expensive scribes out of business in the 1500's the price of writing is nearly to the point of free? There is now more options than ever before to stock a library with, and these options are cheap, compared to when libraries began. On top of this we have recovered many works of history that even contemporaries of their own time did not have access to. According to the Library of Congress in 2022 they had 175.77 million items recorded of which 24.49 million were books.
I was recently researching self publishing a book and it is amazing how easy it is to get added to the 24.49 million books. Anybody can get their work published and can even make money selling only 50 copies. I am not saying this is a bad thing though, in fact I think the ease of publishing has actively worked for the good. These books should be freely sold and traded in the private market. There should be nothing banned between merchants and customers, however a merchant is well within his rights to not sell something vulgar just as I have the right to not shop at Barns and Nobel because they place witchcraft books front and center. However a public library is something different because of the public part. A private library with a fee to join I would argue is similar to a book seller but a public library is supported by my tax money.
The Telos, the purpose of a library
Telos is a Greek word for end or purpose, it is one of the four parts of causality. Something is caused by its end, for example this article is caused by the end of attempting to persuade the voters in the jurisdiction of Ida Rupp and dare I hope others around this great nation of ours. What is the end of libraries in general and public ones in particular?
Pause and reflect on that questions as I relate a relevant story from my childhood here. As a homeschooled child between 3rd and 9th grade I had to read a book called "Carry on Mr. Bowditch". This story was about an American named Nathaniel Bowditch who literally wrote the book on navigation (all USN ships carry a copy of his book, "The American Practical Navigator"). While fiction for children the biographical information is mostly accurate. Including a key moment when young Nat is forced to quit school and given into indentured apprenticeship in order for his younger family members to survive. While in service to a Salem ship's chandler he impresses distinguished members of the community with his mathematical ability. They proceed to give him access to their private library made up of books captured by privateers from the British. He borrows, among other things, Newton's "Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica" to teach himself navigation. He is surprised to discover that it is in Latin; he ends up translating Newton himself using a Latin to English dictionary, an English Bible, and a Latin Bible. Could you walk into a modern library and teach yourself from a primary work such as this? In fact how many primary works can you even find in a library? Is there even a translation of Newton in the main branch of Ida Rupp? In the online catalog you can order it from another library but Ida Rupp does not have a physical copy of one of the foundational works of modern mathematics!
Why tell such a long story? Well fair reader the above is the purpose of libraries! The library serves as a store of knowledge from the past being handed down to us. Mr. Bowditch in 1790 reads a book from 1687 that ends up defining the rest of his life. The Salem Library cost money to join and Mr. Bowditch only had access because of the charity of the owners. A public library is public because the more fortunate are forced to pay "charity" in the form of taxes (if forced though is it really charity? Charity is love which needs free will). The books contained in the library must serve this telos, the goal of handing down knowledge from the past to the present. For this reason a preference must be given to books older than the patrons. If a current work survives the marketplace of ideas then it becomes at least a candidate to be in a library.
Criteria for selection of books
Simply giving a preference to old books does not make a library good. Because, just limiting to older than 100 years there is a lot to pick from. Additionally contemporary works cannot be ignored, a preference for old works does not mean an exclusion of everything recently written. The collection must cover the collected knowledge of mankind and not everything written is truly knowledge. Knowledge is only when reality and intellect correspond, this means works that are true in the deepest sense. This same collection must also contain fairy tales and myths in the largest and oldest definitions of the terms. Often a fairy tale contains more useful truth than any modern scientific text book. Finally the works of fiction that speak most to the human condition and therefore the most beautiful and well written creations by authors greater than I ever will be. The only exception to these rules should be local authors. Even if their works are terrible they need to be kept somewhere so that they are not lost, just in case another comes along like G.K. Chesterton to make his name by writing reviews of terrible books.
This is only a start, there needs to be a long discussion about these things. The sexual books in Ida Rupp children's section self evidently do not belong there, the debate about them is useless because the opposition is not making a serious argument. I intend to continue making the serious argument on the criteria, time permitting, for what belongs in a library up to the election. After the election, there needs to also be a discussion about how quiet a library really should be, the epistemological problem of e-books, and a theory about how the architecture and design of libraries could be improved.