Library staffer fired after being accused of burning Trump, Coulter books

[DonViejo]

BY DOMINICK MASTRANGELO - 02/17/21 08:04 AM EST

A staffer at a library in Tennessee was fired this month after being accused of burning books by former President Trump and conservative pundit Ann Coulter.

Cameron Williams was suspended in December after he allegedly posted video to his Instagram page showing him pouring lighter fluid on the Ann Coulter’s “How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must)” and Trump’s “Crippled America,” before burning them in his backyard. Williams at the time reportedly blasted “FDT,” an anti-Trump rap song by artists YG and Nipsey Hussle.

Williams, a local Black Lives Matter activist, was asked by the Chattanooga library late last year to clear the shelves of any old, damaged or untruthful books.

“This is not the precedent on how this stuff is handled,” Williams told The Washington Post. “To be frank, it’s because I’m a community member that’s been speaking for the betterment of Black people for several years.”

more
https://thehill.com/homenews/539149-library-staffer-fired-after-being-accused-of-burning-trump-coulter-books

[jimfields33]

1. I doubt the ALA would even condone this

Burning books is a “no no” know matter the subject matter especially for a librarian.

[BeerBarrelPolka]

2. I agree with you

[Renew Deal]

3. What is the librarians version of the death penalty?

[Hugin]

4. In modern times?

Maintaining the card catalog to make sure everything is properly listed in the Dewey Decimal System. ALL HAIL MELVIL DEWEY!

[NurseJackie]

6. As a volunteer, one of my jobs was maintaining the card catalog.

Very tedious work.

[Hugin]

9. Armed only with an IBM Selectric typewriter and a dial telephone?

My sympathies, NurseJackie.



All kidding aside, even armed with the power of the Internet Web, it took me an hour to find an on-demand video I was COVID craving the other day. It was buried way down in the "The's".

[exboyfil]

5. We have a slot at our recycling center for books

Since these books were considered excess, would it have been ok to video himself sliding those books down the slot?

I deposited some of my MBA books down that slot. They had no economic value, and I wasn't even going to use the material again. I kept my Economics and Finance books though.

[lastlib]

19. For those insomnia nights, right?

I can't think of any subject drier and more brain-numbing than economics. I've taken economics and linear algebra; linear algebra was much more exciting.

[Klaralven]

7. The problem is the "clear the shelves of any old, damaged or untruthful books."

Libraries must periodically "weed" the collection in order to make room for new books. But "untruthful" is usually not a criteria for removal. That is more a criteria for deciding whether to acquire a book in the first place.

[USALiberal]

8. Good, burning books is never a good idea! Nt

[Thtwudbeme]

16. You know all those crappy paperbooks you have lying around?

The ones that the used bookstores won't take?

I have tossed many of those right into the fireplace.

I am a librarian.

We need to get over the "burning books" shit. It's been almost 80 years since the Nazi's did that- back then, it meant something.

[obamanut2012]

22. 100% this

Burn the books, toss the books, recycle the books, weed weed weed.

[cwydro]

26. That's a shame.

Those books should be donated to a prison, a hospital, plenty of places take them.

[Thtwudbeme]

27. No, there are NOT "plenty of places that take them." That's what the public thinks

All those crappy books--- the old yellow paperbacks that you take to Goodwill? They walk them right out to the trash.

Prisons? They have librarians (wish I had gone that route- the pay is fantastic-- that's why you never see those jobs come open)...those librarians take your 1985 paperback copy of "Gone with the Wind" or whatever, and walk it right to the garbage.

The public library? OMG, they HATE getting your old books.

Only donate books that are in good shape, or relatively new. They are like clothes-- no one wants your ratty old bathrobe, no matter how "good" it feels to you to "donate it."

[Retrograde]

35. I volunteer for the local Friends of the Library

Last edited Wed Feb 17, 2021, 07:46 PM - Edit history (1)

We do publish a list of things we don't want, but if someone brings in a box of books we'll take it and say thank you. The sorters will immediately consign most magazines, AAA Tour Guides, and Reader's Digest Condensed Books to the large recycling bin.

Decent books are put on display for sale in the main room. If they don't sell after a reasonable time, they get moved to the bargain room where they sell for $1 each for hardbacks, $0.50 for paperbacks. And then it's "Free Night": first local schools get a crack at what hasn't sold that month, and then the general public gets to browse through the leftovers. Every few months, the nice people with the big truck will come and load up the books we literally can't give away and take them somewhere up north, where they'll live a happy life on a big farm with others of their kind (or get pulped).

In the past few months I've gone through banker's boxes of book club editions of 1960s historical novels, yellowing paperback copies of 70s best sellers with their pages falling out, boxes of books so moldy and water damaged I refused to look past the top layer, ancient chemistry textbooks, and -this week's find - 12 volumes of California property statutes from the early 1900s. None of them are going to last long: with Project Gutenburg and Google Books most of the content of old books is being preserved and physical copies aren't as critical as they once were. I do collect older books in some areas myself, but there's only so much room.

[Thtwudbeme]

37. I am sorry. I don't know why people donate crap like that. The old "someone will want it!"

is wishful thinking.

I understand this is an issue with clothing also.

[Retrograde]

39. Every so often, a real treasure pops up

We do occasionally find something worth while in the donations: these get consigned to an auction site, since we are in this to make money, after all. My husband once found a rare edition that eventually sold for something in the low thousands. And as long as they're in good shape, people will grab some best-seller-of-the-past if it's cheap enough. Art books sell as long as they have pretty pictures: buyers dis-assemble them for other projects (I have come to hate art and photography books: they're heavy, and odd-sized so they don't fit well into our boxes).

[Thtwudbeme]

40. Oh, I know. I found a first edition Tarzan

For free. Someone didn't know what they had.

Yeah--- 15 years of librarianship and I have found ONE book that was worth keeping.

You know what those "I'll grab anything" people do with old, crappy books? THROW THEM OUT.

[Klaralven]

28. Books are consumables for the most part

If you buy a book in an airport bookstore, that you spend a few hours reading for entertainment on the plane, it's unlikely to be one you want to keep.

So when you get to your destination, you toss it, instead of carrying it around.

You are paying the $15 for the entertainment, just as if you bought a couple of movie tickets. The book is not an heirloom or cultural treasure.

[Polybius]

30. I never destroy things

I give them to the poor or put them on Craigslist, for free. I guarantee someone would take them.

[Thtwudbeme]

33. I am sure "the poor"

love getting your old, worn out mess.

[Polybius]

34. I hope so

I give them my clothes with bleach stains too. In my mind they say "Thanks, it sure beats being naked."

[Thtwudbeme]

38. oh my god, please stop

Seriously.

If you won't wear something because of stains, it's not noble to think someone is so low they would.

Give money, or something of value instead.

[Polybius]

41. Not in my case

If something has a small bleach stain on it, millions would take it in a heartbeat. I’m not talking holes or stains all over, or old undies. The clothes that I give are not worn out.

And if they don’t, they don’t. I usually put in the poor bin or to a family that I know. Homelessness is a real problem out here. Many I see are wearing clothes that are literally falling apart. Also, sometimes my church or Salvation Army comes knocking on my door, and so far they have taken everything that I’ve given them. Do they throw out some things? Perhaps. But my piece of mind is knowing that I didn’t.

I’m also an extreme possessionist. I hate throwing out anything. I almost feel bad for the item in question.

[Thtwudbeme]

42. OK- a small bleach stain, I get

I thought you were talking about old, raggedy clothing.

[Polybius]

45. Oh I would never

Glad we're on the same page. I would never give raggedy clothing.

[JHB]

43. That's a completely different context

Tossing them in your fireplace, privately, is mundane waste disposal.

Public displays of burning books (and other media) as if purging evil, like what the Nazis (and plenty of others since), and what this guy was doing on a small scale, are a whole different animal.

[Bettie]

10. You don't burn books

I have a couple of close friends who are librarians, that is their first rule: never burn books.

[Thtwudbeme]

15. I am a librarian. ? Seriously? A "rule?"

If books are destroyed by fire, water damage, puppies chewing on them, or spilling hot chocolate on them, the rules are the same.

I have never, in my entire professional career heard a librarian state, "Burning books is one of my #1 rules."

[Bettie]

17. They don't believe in burning books

If you want to quibble about language, fine.

They don't believe in burning books, not even the ones they disagree with the content of. There are other ways of dealing with objectionable content, usually education based.

If you want to be all angry about one comment, go for it.

[Thtwudbeme]

18. Bettie, I am not going "all angry."

I am saying that every library in this country has rules about destruction of books checked out.

Of COURSE we don't believe in it. It's a pain in the ass to replace a book, get the money out of the patron, buy a new copy, and then process it for circulation.

We also don't believe in letting your puppy chew up the new book. Or spilling coffee on them. Dropping them in mud puddles is a bad idea.

But, I very seriously doubt that you have EVER heard a librarian say, "That is my #1 rule when it comes to books!"

The biggest problem is people stealing- after that comes the kids drawing in them with crayons....rain is an issue.

[llmart]

21. Question...

Do you interpret the way you use the word "burn" literally or are you using it figuratively as in "destroy"? I'm a former public library administrator, library board member, and currently a volunteer in a very large public library in their book donation/used book store. I think you would be surprised by the amount of books of all sorts that get destroyed after they are donated. There are various reasons books are destroyed, many of them because of liability issues for the library.

I agree with the other poster who said that in all the libraries I worked, you would never find a librarian state that their number one rule is never burn a book. They may operate under the guideline of "never weed a book based on your personal opinion of it", but that's not the same as "librarians would never burn a book". Would it make you feel better if it was put in the garbage?

As an aside, there's a fascinating book titled "The Library Book" about the major fire in the Los Angeles Public Library in 1986.

[Bettie]

24. They were speaking in a political sense in the conversation I referenced

if you disagree with what is in the book, you don't burn it, you work to refute and educate.

The guy in the OP seems to have burned the books for a political purpose.

But, hey, if others think that burning for the sake of politics is a good idea, by all means, go for it. Many in the past have thought that they could destroy knowledge or opinion through destruction. If that's your position, then you are a very different person than my two friends.

[llmart]

29. OK. That clears it up a bit.

But you stated it very differently in your answer and I think that is why it was confusing.

Presumably it was his supervisor who asked him to remove the books, but I highly doubt a supervisor would use the word "untruthful" as guidance of what to choose. Weeding is usually only done by librarians unless a librarian gives a staffer a list of books the librarian chooses to be weeded, then they are taken out of the online system by a technical services person and discarded. He could be telling the truth that he was told he could take them, but this may come down to his word against the library's administration. From reading another article about this I see he was a part time Library Specialist (not a librarian).

I'm going to err on the side of he probably was the one who chose to remove those particular books and that the word "untruthful" was never used. If that's the case and if he thinks this is a proper way to call attention to his activism, then he's terribly wrong.

[cwydro]

31. I understood exactly what you meant.

As a friend of several librarians, I know they'd agree.

[Bettie]

32. I ignored* them because I just can't with

Last edited Wed Feb 17, 2021, 04:00 PM - Edit history (1)

the purposeful misinterpretation of my words today. I just don't have the energy for that.

I'll undo it in a day or two when I have more patience. Better not to say things I'd ultimately regret.

Thanks for the kindness.

*ETA: Put them on ignore for a few days.

[cwydro]

36. ...

[cwydro]

25. This.

[obamanut2012]

23. Yeah 100% not true

[Turin_C3PO]

11. I understand the impulse

to do harm to anything Trump-related but this is obviously going too far.

[BeerBarrelPolka]

12. Seems

Seems there's been a lot of going too far happening. I agree with you that this is one example.

[Thtwudbeme]

13. I am a librarian- and have not looked to see if this guy is a paraprofessional

If the books were in the collection, and available for circulation, he needs to be fired for destruction of property. He also needs to be fined for the money to both replace the books, and pay for processing.

If they had been weeded, or were his own, I could care less. "Burning books" means very little now, except symbolically for some. Books are mass produced, and I have tossed a few cheap, old paperbacks in the fireplace myself, as there was no point in donating them, or taking them to the used bookstore.

There is no such thing as "weeding for untrue content." There are guidelines for weeding as set forth by local committees made up of librarians, and associations such as the School Library Media Association. Generally, non-fiction is weeded after 5-10 years, as the information in it becomes outdated.

[brewens]

14. That was valuable bird cage liner. I suppose there are enough copies of Donald Jr's books around

though.

[Aristus]

20. I despise those books and the people who typed them,

but I choose not to read them, that's all.

Burning books is the tactic of the enemy. And we are better than that.

[betsuni]

44. Bad! I want to know what idiots write and make fun of it.

I just ordered some used books and one of them is "Our Revolution." I want to know what the idiot who wrote it thinks.