Library book complaint whistleblowing

[TheBookWyrm]

Hello. Fairly regular lurker and NC.

Todayi went to my local library and DH pulled out an inappropriate gender ideology book from the kids section, which toddlers up can access.

The good news is, DH is clearly on it as was horrified by the sexualised content, assigned at birth stereotypes etc. It was clearly designed to lead children to the conclusion they are trans.
I work in education and know this book clearly violates the DfE guidance around sex and gender and would be fairly confident tackling it in a school setting, but I've no idea of the process of Rai it with the library or if I'll just get ignored or doxxed.
I feel hollow because i feel i ignored a safeguarding issue, the book is ßtill there, but have no idea how to navigate it without risking my career. I feel a coward but with my family being so young I cannot jeapodise our future.
Any way I can do this anamomously and it will get looked at seriously?

It´s not up to you to police what books are and aren´t available for others to take out of the library.
You may not agree with it, but that doesn´t give you the right to take the choice away from others who may want to borrow it.
There are plenty of books that make my blood boil, but I choose not to read them.
Respectfully, leave others to make their own decisions.

Yes I agree. The suggestions of book burning etc did not come from me.

The recipient would see it initially, then it would probably be passed on to the team (usually 2 or 3 people) that deal with issues such as complaints, acquisition requests etc on a county level. You would then receive a response.
It is very rare that it goes further than that in my experience.
I cannot see why there would be any risk in this tbh.

I'm pretty sure libraries do have agendas. Our library has various "isn't being a trans teenager great" books in prominent front facing positions.

If you make a complaint its they would have no grounds to report it to your employer. Make it in your name without mentioning your job (e.g. as opposed to letter headed paper from where you work which I presume you aren't planning ). I can't see how there would be any justification to share any information about you (even if they think you are a bigot).

I agree about asking for the book to be relocated. It's the British Library that stocks copies of all books - public libraries select books and should have clear stock selection policies. These should include a duty of care re children's stock. What may be appropriate in a young people's section is vastly different from what is aimed at under 5s.
This book sounds more like pseudo non fiction than a normal picture book so would be better suited to a parent's collection.

As for anonymity - no information about you should be shared with anyone outside the the people you complain to. Don't raise it with staff on the counter they are not the people who select or manage the stock.

What libraries? 🤔

I've a lot of experience in the sector. Items are held in closed stacks eg reference material, unique items & rare collections.

I've never come across books held in a restricted area based on context. Never.

• content - not context

is vastly different from what is aimed at under 5s.

The actual book is aimed at 3 & up.

Yes, it's a pile of shite

But the Library is not necessarily wrong to have included it in this section.

I’d take it home and bin it. Imagine the impact that could have on a vulnerable child.
I knew a woman who used to buy and bin any copies of Gina Ford (leave babies to cry, don’t respond to their needs etc) that she came across in charity shops.

The British Library is woke as fuck. They are fully on board with drag queens in lycra with their knobs visible reading to toddlers and young kids. There's no point complaining about it to a library, the whole sector is lead from the BL and will follow their lead. A complaint will be dismissed as pearl clutching as best, TERF-y bigotry at worst, and some well meaning but misled librarian (again, best case scenario) will probably end up reshelving it more prominently as a result. Or doing a drag queen story time to counter "local prejudice".

Just swipe it and chuck it in the bin.

Seriously, at least get your facts right!

The British Library is the national library of the UK. It's a major research library. It has zero role in the administration of other libraries.

I'm not arguing about the madness of having drag queens do story time ... this does seem to be a thing in the UK ... but it has nothing to do with the BL!

the whole sector is lead from the BL

It's not

CILIP and local councils/authorities have far more sway than the BL as far as public libraries go.

Exactly

Gotta say, I am a very trans supportive person but I don't see the need to raise gender identity with kids under at least about 9 or 10. I honestly think it does more net harm than good - it won't help many genuinely trans people to understand their identity, but it will be misunderstood and cause consternation and distress to children who are not old enough to understand that gender identity is, in almost all cases, a fixed thing. They may internalise it as having to change sex if they want to have a non-gender-stereotypical job, that they can have babies if they change from boy to girl and so forth, because they are too young to understand it and any way that you can try to explain it to young kids ends up re-entrenching stereotypes.

Any proof of drag queens at the British Library? There are no results on google for it, and since you have to be 18+ to access most of the building, they'd be very unlikely to be reading to toddlers.

Also, they're a research library. They don't lead the public library sector.

So, in short, you just made your whole post up.

www.bl.uk/events/family-day-young-rebels

Drag Queen Story Time at 12.00, 13.00 and 15.00

Okay, fair enough, I couldn't find that.

But still, the BL don't lead the public library sector and don't have anything to do with where OP's local library shelve their books.

I've read the thread and had a look at the preview on Amazon.

What is it in the book that is a safeguarding issue, OP? Or not age-appropriate, could you be specific?

Book selection is a varied process. These days a book might not even have been selected by a panel of qualified Librarians from Childrens’ Services. It may well have come in a bundle from a supplier. Or been requested by a borrower and then put into stock (if there is still money in budgets for one off requests).
That’s not to say OP or any other borrower shouldn’t put in a complaint based on safeguarding concerns, but it does depend on how, where and why a book was sourced. It could even be a donation, which wouldn’t necessarily be passed to a qualified Librarian before being added to stock.

A Parental section would be a better place for it imo, if not going down the censorship route.

From what I've been told, some library services buy more of books / subjects that are frequently borrowed, so maybe it's not a good idea to permanently borrow books you don't like, but instead borrow / request books for purchase that align with your preferences, or alternatively shuffle everything with the same subject / Dewey number around on the shelf to get the better books in more eye-catching positions so that other people borrow them?

So young children are encouraged to choose their "gender", from a large number of choices including: “other, both, just me, genderfluid, agender, neutrois, bigender, third gender, two-spirit, nonbinary” etc. And at birth the adults guess the child's sex.
Sex and gender are mixed up as usual.
American propaganda.

I know someone who slips books like Trans or Material Girls or other GC type books into library shelves in the firm belief the librarians don't notice the new "stock".
So "borrow" the book long term and salve your conscience by slipping something more suitable in there.

Wonder what happens if you confuse the librarians more by sticking the bar code tab on the new book?

The library assistants notice the book and computer record don’t match, so they check the badly-peeled and re-stuck barcode and see someone has been playing silly buggers