Just stumbled across a case of censorship at my local library.

[ShazzieB]

35. If you're asking about public library boards, it varies.

They are often elected, but in some localities, they are appointed. Where I live, they're appointed by the mayor.

I was a librarian for years, and in my experience, individual requests to remove books from a public libray are usually handled by library staff, following a written policy established by the board. In my experience, such requests were always reviewed and responded to in a courteous manner, but books were almost never removed without an extremely good reason. The complainant was notified of the decision, and if they weren't happy, they could appeal to the board (but I don't recall anyone ever doing so).

In theory, a city council or other governmental body could get involved with censoring books in public libraries, but I never saw or experienced that myself. School libraries are more likely to experience such outside attacks, but I never worked in a school library and have no personal experience with how they operate.

I worked in 2 different public libraries and 2 different university libraries. The librarians I worked with all considered themselves guardians of intellectual freedom. Collection development decisions in all of those libraries were never made lightly and always guided by written policies.

The university libraries I worked in were a different animal, and I never worked in a position that would have involved me in handling a request to remove a book, if any were even made. In an academic research library, censorship is (or should be) an alien concept. Materials are added to the collection because they support the university's curriculum and its mission of supporting scholarly research. Such libraries are bound to contain things that the narrow-minded or ill-informed would find objectionable, but those people rarely stick their nose in the door of such an institution. Or at least they didn't used to, until state governments like Florida's started going batshit, foaming at the mouth crazy!

Discaimer: All of my library experience was a long time ago and some of it may therefore notbe 100% currently applicable.