According to four professional librarians at the Long Beach Public LIbrary, the library is currently trashing its collection by throwing our thousands (yes, thousands) of books that are in good condition. Library employees have been instructed to lie to the public by telling them that the books are being "recycled" or sold. In reality, almost all of the books are being pulped. This is the very issue over which the head of the San Francisco Public Library was forced to resign a couple of years ago; he was caught throwing many thousands of books into a landfill and would have disposed of more if staff members had not notified the public of what was taking place at the library.

This is outrageous, particularly at a time when the library is telling the public that it does not have enough funds to operate and is demanding that a regressive tax be voted in if people in the Long Beach area want decent library service. Among the books destroyed so fare are a massive number of works on the JFK Assassination that are no longer in print, numerous classic works on the history of California by Carey McWilliams and others, piles of serious novels, and thousands of other volumes that are viewed as not entertaining and therefore do inappropiate in a public library. The assumption is that the average library patron is a semi-literate ignoramous, incapable of reading anything more sophisticated that a biography of Jerry Springer or Paris Hilton.

The director of Main Library told the staff that she sees the old days of public libraries serving as research institutions or places where people can find serious books can be found as over, and that now libraries must compete with bookstores by specializing in "best sellers" (by Tom Clancy, Danielle Steele, and others of that ilk). This, she claims, will make the masses more likely to approve tax increases for the libraries . Apparantly she also thinks it will help guarantee the cushy jobs of people like her.

She instructed the staff never to buy a book that was published before 2005.

Throwing out mountains of books that should be kept by any library worthy of the name or at least given to people who might value and cherish them is destruction of public property; those who order the destruction should be arrested. If you want to make your opinion known visit the library website at www.lbpl.org and let the director know what you think of the library's current "weeding policy."

Have you, or have the librarians you mentioned, contacted the local media (meaning not just the Long Beach Press-Telegram, but also local free weeklies and the LA media at large) about this?

Can you say "Farenheit 451"? (If you haven't read it, or read it recently, it's worth it.)

This isn't just about "old" books vs. "new" books, or intellectual curiousity vs opiate entertainment. Almost undoubtedly, choices are being made around a book's politics. And for those books that might be trashed without an overtly political rationale, the fundamental choice that new is better than old is a blanket condemnation of whatever is old--and dooming us to repeating our mistakes.

Which might be the idea.

Proof? According to this report, the library is *pulping* readable, usable books. Redistributing them might be close to benign--fewer people would have access, but they'd still be out there. Pulping a readable book is modern-day book burning, without the hoopla--the book is gone, it's forgotten, but quietly, without spectacle. But it's not only about the now-gone book. The act of pulping in itself is an act of suppression and thought policing.

agreed

whenever I come across books I always see to it that they are saved from the trash collection (people often leave them behind when they move) and give them to someone who reads and collects books

myself I don't because I have over 10,000 books in my computer which is a virtual library to me

I see many people selling these old library books online. LBPL should put out notices on craigslist (or here) that they will be giving books away.

Still wondering whether the OP or the librarians have tried to contact the local media, distribute flyers, or otherwise publicize this problem (apart from one article on Indymedia). Is this for real? Is the OP still here?

Many libraries practice this method of "weeding" collections, although few, if any, bring the practice to the extreme described here. Los Angeles Public Library, if I am not mistaken, is an exception - large book sales are held at which both individuals and used book store owners can buy to their hearts' content. And not even the most wooden-headed bureaucrat at LAPL would dream of ordering the staff not to buy a book published before 1985.

As for protesting in the Press Telegram, the Orange County Weekly (distributed in Long Beach even though it is in LA County) or some other publication, that would almost certainly have to be done by someone not employed by the library. From what I understand, the Long Beach Library has a very weak union, part of the Machinists Union for some reason. It could offer very little protection to an employee victimized for speaking out on and issue that made for "bad PR."

Civil Service rules would prevent an outright firing, but fascist-minded administrators can find plenty of ways to make life difficult for someone that stop short of canning them.

I have been in that library. It is like taking a time machine back to the 1950's. The internet computers are censored with "filters" that block the most inoccuous web sites. The administrators there will never act like civilized, educated human beings until they are forced to or they are fired.

Anyone can leave an annonymous comment on the Long Beach Press Telegram's speakout line - available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The phone number is (562) 499-1295.

There was never much reason to go into that library other than using the restroom or escaping from the rain; now that they are getting rid of books that are worth reading there is no reason at all. In most cases you would be better off going to the Acres of Books used book store a few blocks away on the corner of Long Beach Blvd. and Third Street. Brainless and Clueless library administrators would be horrified; there are very few books with pretty covers and no staff members with forced, 1950's type smiles that they have obviously been warned to keep on their faces. But there are plenty of books with intellectual, literary or artistic merit, in contrast to that ugly concrete tomb - half of it below ground like Hitler's bunker - that the City calls a library. You might have trouble finding a serious novel or work of political theory at the Long Beach Library, but I guarantee you that soon they will have multiple copies of a book explaining why Brittney Spears cut off her hair.

I'm still waiting for them to get books on the political philosophy of Lindsay Lohan and "How I got on the Cover of Sports Illustrated even though I have no connection with any sport" by Beyonce Knowles.

Someone should tow that crappy library out to sea and sink it; maybe it can serve as an artificial reef and save some endangered ocean species.

Whether the library is singling out leftist books, books critical of the Bible, or other works with heretical contents is something I don't know. But the very fact that these bureaucrats think that it is appropriate to "weed" out books on serious topics and re-orient the collection to Britney Spears, Tom Clancy's militaristic "novels," biographies promoting hero worship of presidents and movie stars, and other corporate sludge is itself an act of censorship. Making American culture even more mindless and vulgar than it already is is just what the corporations would like to see; anything that destroys the power of critical thinking is to their benefit. There is also something called the original mission of public libraries - contributing to the intellectual and cultural well-being of the community. What makes those louts running the Long Beach Library think this has been abolished?