Much concern these days over which books are in school libraries and which are not. It's warranted: the presence of a book in a school library signals something.
But these days hasn't it a diminished importance? When I went to school the library was my source for magazines to read and books to take out. I didn't have other sources, unless my family could subscribe to a magazine or buy the book. My appetite for reading material far exceeded the available money my family could spend.
Today's youth have access to cellphones and printed material on the internet. I realize the material differs from the books whose presence in school libraries is currently questioned, but still.
Back in the day the two sources of perversive material were the library and the mass of rumor and fact passed down from older kids to younger kids. Today it's just a click away.
The bottomline seems to me that those trying to ban books are wasting their energy on the lesser threat, not the major one, while those fighting bans often exagerate the significance of the ban.
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