"Patronizing and Paternalistic"

The title of this posting comes from a statement from ALA President Leslie Burger about Time, Inc.'s decision to not mail its annual Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue to its 21,000 library subscribers. The corporate fathers at Time judged that it might be too racy for libraries! We didn't get our copy here at the DPL, but we just thought it was a fluke. Then we heard that no libraries had received the issue! How dare they make that decision for us?! It is up to each individual librarian to decide whether the bathing suits on display in that SI issue are appropriate for their own library.

After complaints from hundreds of libraries, an SI spokesman admitted, "It was a bad decision...to withhold the issue. We won't be withholding the swimsuit issue in the future." Postcards will be sent to each of the affected institutions allowing us to request a copy of the issue. As for us, well our eagle-eye custodian spotted a copy on our Magazine Swap table and scoffed it up for our collection, so we're all set for now. But I'll still make Time, Inc. send me a replacement copy too!