"... talk about a time when a book or author that made headlines affected you personally or your work" (Cataldi).
Bill Cosby: Comedian, educator, convicted felon.
In the past 7+ years of working in the children's departments of public libraries, I have not been asked for items related to Mr. Cosby. By the time the revelations about his behavior came out, he was on the waning side of his career, but held in high esteem for his contributions to children's education and American comedy.
Almost daily I come across Cosby DVDs or beginning readers that used to bring back fun memories only to look at them now with repulsion. The children who see his books today may not associate them with a TV series or "America's Dad," but their parents have probably seen the headlines revealing his history of sexual assaults. I looked up library materials under the author heading "Cosby, Bill." Our catalog showed an inventory of 21 items. Only one of those items was currently checked out. It was a beginning reader ironically entitled, My Big Lie, from the series, Little Bill Books for Beginning Readers. I would need to access and study library statistics to discover if circulation of his materials changed after the scandal broke and/or after he was indicted and convicted.
Name recognition in politics, sports, and the arts can influence votes or attendance, and attract avid fans or detractors. Oprah's Book Club recommendations drove sales of lesser known authors to best seller status (Butler). When I attended the 2017 ALA Annual Conference, Sarah Jessica Parker and Hillary Rodham Clinton filled auditoriums for their talks (Liao). Would Bill Cosby's children's books be in publication if he wasn't a celebrity? Would they be on library bookshelves if he were a convicted child molester? Can the merit of his books and shows be considered separately from his character?
Inclusion or exclusion of materials requires consideration of a library's collection development and management policies. I wonder how many librarians have removed materials authored by Bill Cosby because of his conviction, or if those materials have been weeded because more popular books and shows required the shelf space. Banning items that are worthy of inclusion, although the collector may feel the author is not, is a dangerous precedent to make.
Notes
Butler, R., Cowan, B., & Nilsson, S. (2005). From obscurity to bestseller: examining the impact of Oprah's Book Club selections. Publishing Research Quarterly, 20(4), 23-34. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.
Cataldi, E. (2019). Week Seven Prompt. Readers' Advisory. Retrieved from http://readersadvisoryblog.blogspot.com/
Liao, Angela. (2017) Celebrity book clubs create virtual reading community. Bookstr. Retrieved from https://www.bookstr.com/celebrity-book-clubs-create-virtual-reading-community
Hi Rebecca,
ReplyDeleteYou bring up a fascinating topic with the Bill Cosby issue. I, too, spent ten years working with a children's collection that had many "Little Bill" early readers and DVDs. They weren't flying off the shelves anymore, the popularity waning even prior to his arrests and convictions. A solid case could have been made to weed the materials based on lack of room (our early readers were a large collection running out of space) or just lack of popularity. One of the (many) things that saddens me about this is that the Little Bill books and DVDs filled a multicultural niche in the collection. If I were still working there, I would take a close look at the circulation numbers and then, hopefully, find some other titles to include that filled that niche. I wouldn't consider this to be "banning" the items. If the circ numbers merited continued inclusion in the collection, the items could stay. (I'm about 99% certain that the circ numbers are quite low, as parents are the ones often choosing these materials and they will likely not choose Cosby books going forward.)
(I just did a quick catalog search on the Little Bill series and noted that there are still many holdings for titles in the series. But a look at the number of those items listed as In/On the shelf was at 100%. No items were listed as Checked out.)
Thanks for bringing this up as a discussion!
Laura
I like your point that banning items only on how "worthy" you feel an author is isn't the goal of libraries. It is true that most now view Bill Cosby as a terrible person but that alone isn't a reason to pull his books. For instance I don't really like Dr. Seuss, which is a strong statement coming from a children's programmer and storytime provider. He cheated on his first wife when she was dying from cancer and it could be argued that this is what spurred her suicide. He also created some racist cartoons and propaganda during WWII. This doesn't mean that I'm going to stop stocking the Dr. Seuss books in the children's section. My personal feelings of the author should have no bearing on his contributions to children's literature.
ReplyDeleteBut I had a hard time reading the Underwood article without having these same arguments in my head. Does the person have to be a nice person to put the book on the shelf? If we continue rewarding people who have been accused of sexual harassment, will the behavior ever be curbed? What message is this saying to the people who have been sexually harassed- are we saying talent outweighs your entitlement to feeling safe? There are not easy answers, but I'll be interested to see how it changes Diaz and Alexie's (and others') careers over time. Will they be stocked with a footnote like Dr. Seuss, or will there be a change?
ReplyDeleteThank you all for your comments. This subject could go so many ways. I started thinking about fake memoirs, like Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea, which is still on our shelves in the children's department.
ReplyDeleteI too looked at my library's catalog to see what Bill Cosby items we still had on the shelf. The one I find the most troubling is a children's biography from 2010 called "Bill Cosby: Entertainer and Activist." Obviously, this book would present his character in a much different light than the way he is viewed now. It makes me uncomfortable that kids might read that book, which still paints him as a wholesome father figure...
ReplyDeleteShould the book be removed from the children's collection? It is probably filled with misinformation. Is that enough to justify its withdrawal?
I would hazard a guess that the Circ stats on this particular book are probably low, and we could justify removing it based on lack of demand. If this wasn't the case, I am not sure how the situation should be handled.
Your excellent prompt response stirred a lot of good conversation. This is a tricky subject and there is no definitive steps that can be taken. It's honestly up to each library and it's selecting staff to make the decision best for their community. We still have a few Little Bill items, but all (save one) biographies of Cosby were weeded due to low circs. I have a feeling within a year or two the whole collection will purged of what little remains because like everyone has mentioned, it has definitely waned in popularity. Full points!
ReplyDeleteNot sure if you caught this NPR article, but thought you all would find it interesting. It is talking about Dr. Seuss and not his personal background per se, but his depictions of other races in his books and whether we should still look to the "classics" for our literature (especially with young children). https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2019/02/26/695966537/classic-books-are-full-of-problems-why-cant-we-put-them-down?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20190226&fbclid=IwAR0Zigc-N2qTqFDlD0AMtFvAaNex1X0m9I5-1kZdARFlHq4GRV8bn14XOvU
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