Local Library not stocking any GC books

[Dumbledoressecretarmy]

…but is swimming in books pandering to trans ideology. I haven’t been able to find Kathleen Stock’s book, Helen Joyce’s ‘Trans,’ or Abigail Shrier’s ‘Irreparable Damage.’ I have even found this awful looking book aimed at apparently indoctrinating preschoolers: www.amazon.co.uk/Who-Are-You-Gender-Identity/dp/1785927280

But yet not one, far better evidenced, gender critical book. WHSmiths and Waterstones all stock the three GC books mentioned above. If anything libraries, as a public resource, should be even more mindful of providing a range of information to the community that is unbiased and balanced.

Has anyone else found this in their local libraries? I’m so angry and thinking of writing an email about it.

Long- time lurker on this topic.

Had a quick look. We've got Helen Joyce and Abigail Shrier, both as e-books only rather than physical copies, but not Kathleen Stock. We've got 4 physical copies of the kids book you linked to, and heaps of Juno Roche and young adult gender identity books. 11 on page 1 of the search.
So it's better than your library but hardly balanced.

Can’t you just order them all?

You can make requests at mine but no certainty they'll be purchased. I've asked for Stock's.

Order them - and get your family friends to order them.
Librarians have a dubious history of pushing the safeguarding busting drag queen events so am not surprised that they stock books aimed at grooming children.

@WorkingItOutAsIGo I can but I shouldn’t have to. It makes me wonder about the librarian’s doing the book ordering (or their managers).

@MountainWitch its good to hear they have some alternatives at your library but you’re right, hardly balanced! I think I will request some GC books for balance and see where I get.

TO a significant extent library purchases are driven by requests from the community. They should also be driven by what is selling and in the public ye, but that is a little more subjective.

It may be that the person making the choices for your library is outright biased, and it might be that this individual is just very blinkered and doesn't know what is going on outside her bubble. If you have a look at other contentious topics it might give a clue - typically if you have real bias on this topic you will also see it in their purchasing related to race issues. It will be all Kendi and DiAngelo, and nothing by anyone who opposes those views.

But asking for the books you want is really the best thing you can do.

I thought I'd check my own local library service. None of the books you mentioned here are available in my local branch but the catalogue tells me that throughout the network and available to order are:

20 copies of Material Girls'
12 copies of Trans
2 copies of Irreversible Damage
7 copies of Who are you?
2 copies of the Juno Roche book

It's got me thinking about the campaign to send copies of GC books to libraries- I sent a copy of Material Girls to my branch library as a donation, l saw it suggested that it would just be binned, but maybe not?

Our local authority does not accept donations and I think this is common. Books are purchased in bulk and arrive jacketed and stickered ready to go, so libraries don't keep stock of the stationery required.

This also means there isn't a whole lot of involvement from librarians locally about the books that are coming in.

I would second the idea of making requests either in a polite email or in person.

I usually use Libby.

Mine has none of those. It doesn't even have the Robert Galbraith series. Always wondered if that was deliberate.

How many books can you borrow at one time? You could borrow as many of the trans ideology ones, keep them at home, renew as often as you can.

Stop others being infected, if that is a suitable term. The library need not know why you are continually borrowing them.

Or you could just take them out and burn them

‘infected’ ffs. But there’s no transphobia on mums et, is there?

TIL my library card has expired 😆

My library seems to have improved a little over the last 9 months or so, but they are still biased in what they hold.
I've made a lot of requests this month for them to acquire new books and have asked others i know to do the same...I am also doing my best to take out and read the books they do have on the topic, or by GC authors and again encouraging others to do the same. I'm waiting for Why we should all be feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on inter library loan at the moment.
No idea how likely they are to buy what is suggested... we shall see! I will track it over time.

Library/info professional here, although my work has always been in special and academic collections, not public libraries.
My local authority has a couple of these titles, offers ebook versions and access to a wider regional catalogue via which you can request books on interlibrary loan.
Please, please, please request these titles! Funds are short so you need to ask to get.

I work in libraries. Send an email requesting that they stock the book. The more requests the better to prove that demand is there. All library authorities are supposed to be politically neutral and not censor any books, however the profession is completely captured.

"however the profession is completely captured"

Yes, it's very worrying. It's not healthy for places like libraries to be so dominated by one political group.

I'm expecting my boss to retire soon. He probably thinks about himself as a centrist, a bit too the left, very caring, but he's also an older man and a bit traditional. And he has a strong sense of some things being inappropriate.

I'm worried to death he'll be replaced by some up to the moment person who wants to shake things up.

Infected? Sheesh.
Can you imagine the response on here if someone said they were doing that to the H Joyce or K Stock book?!
You don't seem to realise by doing that you'd be doing the exact same as you're complaining about others doing - censoring/not stocking/making books unavailable..,.

I notice the children's book you reference, Who Are You? is available on Amazon, but Rachel Rooney is currently unavailable with no date for it to be available. Amazon appears to have drunk the Kool Aid.

I just bought two copies of Rachel's book from Waterstones online, for my grand daughters when they turn 3 later this year. But no, none on Amazon. 🙄

I was thinking of buying Rachel's book for my DH's great-grand-daughter (he got married for the first time very young!) so will check out Waterstones' website. Thanks.

Thank you for mentioning the Rachel Rooney book, I hadn’t heard of that one! And, it’s another one I can request from the library to be ordered. I’m going to send an email tomorrow and see what response I get. Thank you for all of your advice, especially from library staff. It’s reassuring to hear from people in the library service that are gender critical. The glaring lack of gender critical books and constant rainbow displays make it quite an intimidating atmosphere to request books that don’t bow to the ideology.

Definitely don’t take out the transactivist books and keep them out. It will be assumed they’re popular and they might request more.

And many thanks to those of you making the effort to request the books you do want to read. Every action , however small, adds to the weight of voices.

Until recently, a vocal minority have been very active and have been successful at getting what they demanded. But determined women in numbers can be louder, and louder is what we need to be.

I work in a public library and can confirm that the staff (and even management) have little to no involvement in the new books stocked. As far as I can tell the central supplier orders new stock for the dozen or so libraries in my district based on an algorithm of which books get taken out/which titles are most likely to be popular….however, we do take public orders for books to be stocked and this is probably the best way to make sure these titles are available to the wider community.

As others have said you can recommend things. I was shocked that my local library didn't have either the Joyce or Stock books, but I recommended them both only last night, and have just now had an email saying they have bought the Joyce one. Not sure whether it's hard copy or e-copy, but that's not the point!
It's Lewisham, but part of London Consortium btw. I do thin, there's action in numbers, and ultimately you can and should complain to the Council about this. Libraries are funded by them/us and not stocking stuff for political reasons (unless it's Mein Kampf!) is not on. Also, many Councillors are GC and this is an easy thing to support.

Also, make sure you start requesting the new Hannah Barnes book: The Travesty of the Tavistock; not out until 23 Feb.