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Londonistan Flap Explodes in BrooklynBrooklyn (N.Y.) Public Library has been accused by Encounter Books publisher Roger Kimball of a left-wing selection bias because it declined to acquire the publishing house’s controversial title Londonistan by Melanie Phillips until the adult books’ selector had consulted reviews from reliable professional sources.In an August 2 posting on the New Criterion literary magazine’s Armavirumque blog, Kimball quoted an e-mail from Adult Selection Coordinator Wayne Roylance to a BPL patron requesting Londonistan that the library “doesn’t add a nonfiction title to the collection (and especially one that is potentially incendiary) unless a review from a trusted source (professional journals) can be found.” Kimball went on to blast the library for declining to buy Londonistan—whose book jacket argues that “London has become the European hub for the promotion, recruitment and financing of Islamic terror and extremism”—while acquiring Empire by Michael Hardt and “Italian terrorist” Antonio Negri, and Toni Bentley’s “paean to sodomy” The Surrender: An Erotic Memoir. According to BPL spokesperson Stephanie Arck, the library got its first inquiry about the book on July 26 and within two days had “received the information that we required for a book to be considered for material selection.” Emphasizing that the library placed its first order for the book July 31, two days before Kimball blogged his complaint, Arck told American Libraries, “We have since placed additional orders for the book because we received additional inquiries for holds.” Posted August 4, 2006. |
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