Brevard County public libraries add "Fifty Shades of Grey" to shelves

The public libraries in Brevard County, FL, initially refused to add the best-seller Fifty Shades of Grey to their shelves. They have recently changed course and will now add the book to their collections. You can read about that update here. 

The book, written by British author E.L. James, is about a young woman who gets involved with a domineering 27-year-old billionaire. Graphic scenes of a sexual nature led library officials to initially consider the book pornographic in nature and not of literary significance. You can read more about the initial decision to ban here and here.

Jonathan Kelley, the program coordinator for the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom, posted about Fifty Shades of Grey on the OIF’s Blog. That blog post is found here. Kelley states: “Recent controversy over the novel ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ has sparked discussion about the line between selection and censorship in libraries. Where selection decisions are guided by the professional ethics of librarianship – which emphasize inclusion, access and neutrality – libraries choosing not to purchase materials that fall outside of their defined collection policies and needs are not censors. Where partisan disapproval or doctrinal pressure guides libraries’ decisions to select or remove materials, then censorship can result.”

What do you think? We would like any feedback you may have, about this or other intellectual freedom issues you may see appearing in Florida libraries. Add a comment to this blog post or email Robin Shader, the chair of our FLA Intellectual Freedom Committee, at rshader@baycountyfl.gov or myself, at zenglish@evergladesuniversity.edu, and the rest of the committee will discuss your comments over email.