Just to play devil's advocate here....really, every library and bookstore censors, becauae they can't buy every book. The person in charge of buying chooses which books fit the nature of their library, or which they consider appropriate. A reviewer suggested that my book was old-fashioned ( a polite term for sexist in this case) because I said most children are homeschooled by their mothers, and those mothers do most of the housework. (I didn't say that was right, just true.) That doesn't bother me, because my book overall will appeal more to conservative readers than liberals, so her recommendation that the book only be placed in libraries in conservative communities is probably true. However, if a library says, "Well, we aren't buying that book--it's sexist."...isn't that censorship? But how can it be avoided? They have to choose what they think their readers want. It would probably be a waste of money to put my book in a very liberal neighborhood.
Where do you feel the dividing line is between censorship and selection? How does a library decide whether it is censoring or choosing? This has always been an interesting question to me. It sometimes seem we call it censorship if we like the book, and choosing if we don't. (Presuming, of course, it isn't accompanied by a book burning. Then the answer is pretty obvious.)
