Controversial Issues: First Meeting

When Kate and I met in the “Chit Chat Coffeehouse” in The Commons, we had a preliminary discussion about the issue of sexuality as it relates to library collections. She and I agreed that it is important for library collections to include works relating the range of human sexual identities. We discussed the fact that since Asheville is a politically progressive community with a higher-than-national average of LGBTQ citizens, that one would assume that the school (my focus) and public (Kate’s focus) libraries here would be more open to having a collection that reflects the population. I told Kate that my experience with school libraries, though limited, indicated otherwise: that books addressing LGTBQ issues are not often a part of the collection. My discussion with Kate prompted me to want to ask all of the people I know who work in the public school system to participate in an informal survey. Does their library carry, for example, “Heather Has Two Mommies?” We left our meeting with the plan that we would each snoop around and do a little informal research (I, in the schools, she, in the public libraries).