This posting by a librarian, responding to a patron's objection to the book mentioned in the title of this blog posting, is a very well reasoned response that highlights the raison d'être of a public library.
I especially liked this quote:
I fully appreciate that you, and some of your friends, strongly disagree with its viewpoint. But if the library is doing its job, there are lots of books in our collection that people won't agree with; there are certainly many that I object to. Library collections don't imply endorsement; they imply access to the many different ideas of our culture, which is precisely our purpose in public life.
And this one, too:
... our whole system of government was based on the idea that the purpose of the state was to preserve individual liberties, not to dictate them.
The post is a good read. I recommend it.
