KKK Video Not up to Par,
Say N.C. Libraries
All four of the North Carolina libraries that received a videotape from local units of an Arkansas-based Ku Klux Klan group in January have declined to add it to their collections. The major reason given for its rejection was its poor technical quality, according to the January 16 Greensboro News and Record.
A panel of librarians at the Greensboro Public Library had initially recommended that the tape be accepted, citing the library’s policy that no material should be rejected because its content is controversial or unpopular. However, Director Sandy Neerman announced January 15 that their final decision to refuse the tape was because it:
- does not accomplish a valuable educational purpose;
- does not satisfy community interest in learning about the KKK;
- is of extremely poor technical quality; and
- does not put forth documented facts and analysis.
“We kept coming back to one bottom line,” Neerman said in the January 16 High Point Enterprise. “We wouldn’t have purchased this video for our community to view. It’s very difficult to hear it. It’s very difficult to see it.”
Kem Ellis, executive director of the High Point Public Library, said the video does not meet minimum technical production standards. Doris Hulbert, director of the University of North Carolina/Greensboro library, stated that the tape was “inappropriate because of the content. It consisted primarily of one individual talking, and it’s poorly produced.”
The video was not formally reviewed at the Forsyth County Public Library because the staff discarded it upon arrival, thinking it was a hoax.
Posted January 21, 2002.
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