Recently, we received an official censorship request, asking us to remove an item from the library. The book is "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl"  by Jesse Andrews published in 2012, added to the library collection in April of 2013. The book is shelved in the Teen fiction section. Copies are owned by Princeton, Oshkosh, Montello, Neenah, North Fond du Lac, Ripon, Wautoma, and Oakfield libraries. "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" has been checked out 19 times here. It was listed by the American Library Association as #7 in the list of most challenged books in 2021. The book was made into a movie, released 2015. We also have the movie on DVD.

As per our official collection and censorship policies, the request for censorship went before the Library Board.
The Library Board voted not to censor the book, and also voted to endorse an open letter written by Library Director Laura Skalitzky:

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November 1st, 2022

In regards to the request to censor the teen fiction book “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” and have it removed from the Princeton Public Library:
 

Having personally reviewed the book, I can say that I certainly find some of the content distasteful. The author uses a lot of swearwords, the main character makes fun of everyone including himself in hurtful ways, the book mentions gross bodily functions including diarrhea and nose-picking, dialog includes insulting banter, characters discuss crass and sexist “pickup lines,” etc etc. It is clearly a book that relies on crude humor. However, I do not find that it crosses the line of material that is appropriate for older teens in general.

Furthermore, I believe that the overall theme of the book is a good one. The book attempts to show the harsh reality of a teenage girl dying from an incurable disease, and the various reactions of her friends, relatives, and classmates. In dealing with such heavy subject matter, authors often choose to use very realistic language in order to reinforce the fact that such situations do happen to people in everyday life, and we must navigate them somehow. In addition, as in the real world, the people in the book (especially the teens) are not all morally or emotionally mature. By the end of the novel, the main character has learned something about his immaturity and faces his shortcomings.

I am cautious about purchasing books for young people. However, my position on this book and others is that ultimately, parents must be the judges of appropriateness for their own children. I have known a mother who did not allow her 10 and 11 year old kids to watch the “scary” scenes in Disney movies as harmless as “Snow White.” I have also known some parents to allow their very young children to play extremely violent and graphic videogames. I know some parents don’t allow their children to read classics like “Little House on the Prairie” and “Huck Finn” because they consider those books “racist.” Although you and I might make different choices for these children if they were ours, they are not our children.  I admire Ms. Barzyk's intent to preserve the safety of the teens of Princeton. However, I believe we must allow their parents the freedom to make these kinds of decisions.

Parents are welcome, indeed encouraged, to question their teens and children about the books they are reading. They are free to set rules for their own children about what they can and can’t read. Most importantly, they are free to raise children with the morality and values of their family, religion, and culture so that they are prepared to deal with difficult topics. Far better this, than to attempt to ensure that their children never encounter anything controversial.

I must now touch on current events. Nationally, censorship has been a hot button issue for the last three years. We have seen doctors and politicians censored on social media sites for questioning the narrative surrounding Covid-19. We have seen tech companies and college campuses censor people for “hate speech.” The popular app TikTok has banned videos critical of the Chinese government. Libraries across the country are facing coordinated censorship efforts targeting a wide variety of books. We have seen many classic books come under fire including, in March of 2021, six “racist” books by Dr. Seuss. I have consistently spoken out against these censorship efforts, and I will continue to do so, regardless of which side of the political aisle these attacks come from. I wholeheartedly endorse the American Library Association’s “Freedom to Read” statement, from which I will quote:
 

“Most attempts at suppression rest on a denial of the fundamental premise of democracy: that the ordinary individual, by exercising critical judgment, will select the good and reject the bad. We trust Americans to recognize propaganda and misinformation, and to make their own decisions about what they read and believe. We do not believe they are prepared to sacrifice their heritage of a free press in order to be ‘protected’ against what others think may be bad for them. We believe they still favor free enterprise in ideas and expression.”

Laura Skalitzky
Director

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Follow-up:

The Preserve Your Memories service at the Library
Digitization: VHS to DVD & More

For every year that passes, more memories fade. Some of these memories are in our minds, and we can only preserve them by sharing them with others. However, some memories are trapped in fragile physical objects, like old photographs and VHS tapes. These are memories that we can save-- and even make more shareable. 

The Princeton Public Library would like to assist people in preserving their memories by scanning in their old documents, photos, VHS videos, and floppy discs. These items will be converted to computer files and put on flash drives for people to take home.

There will be a small charge to cover the cost of supplies ($2.50 for each flash drive and fifty cents per DVD). 

Flash drives, also called USB drives or thumb drives, can be used in any modern computer. Files can then be transferred from the flash drives to the computer, email, Facebook, online photo albums, etc. Flash drives can also be taken to any photo printing kiosk, and photos can be printed from them. In the case of videos, people can choose to have a DVD made instead of having it stored on a flash drive.

This project will run from November 7th - November 19th.
Due to the anticipated high demand for this service, we ask that people limit the number of items they bring in.

LIMIT PER PERSON:
4 VHS tapes
4 floppy discs
4 documents
40 photos

We understand that people may have many more photos they wish to digitize, so we are willing to teach them how to scan more photos on our equipment themselves. Paper copies of photos (NOT on photo paper) can be printed at the library for minimal cost: each 8.5" X 11" sheet of paper is ten cents for black and white, twenty five cents for color. 

The Preserve Your Memories service will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis. Processing time may take up to two weeks.

Part of the long wait time has to do with limited staff, but it is also because any VHS tape takes as many hours to convert as there are hours of footage on the tape. The library will call people when their items are ready to be picked up. Some of the equipment the library will use to convert memories will be borrowed from the Winnefox Library System, so we are unable to extend this service past January. However, if there is enough demand, we may offer this service again at another time.

Although we will take the utmost care with any materials entrusted to us, we require people submitting items to sign a form with a waiver releasing us from liability for damage done during the scanning process. The form also guarantees that you are not submitting copyrighted material for us to copy/digitize. We cannot and will not copy Hollywood movies and other protected works. This service is strictly for people's personal memories.

We encourage people to tell us about historic family photos and documents that may be of interest to the Princeton Historical Society. We can help make digital copies of these, at no charge, to give to the Historical Society for their collection. The Historical Society will want to be able to contact people in order to document the full stories behind the photos.

Check out our upcoming events!

Click HERE for a printable PDF of December events.

Public Notice:

The Princeton Library Board Meeting will be held at the library
424 W. Water St. Princeton WI 54968 at 6pm on Monday, December 5th, 2022

Library Board Meeting Agenda 

• Call to order

• Roll Call of Members

• Approval of Minutes from November

• Friend's Report

• Director’s report
     - Review & approval of bills from November

• Staff disciplinary procedure

• Budget Proposal for 2023

• Front door repair/replacement quotes

• Adjournment

The next meeting will be at 6pm on Monday, January 2nd, 2022. The Library Board usually meets on the first Monday of every month at 6pm. 

You may need a library card to access some of our resources. If you don't have one right now, go here to get one, free: https://vulgus.winnefox.org/onlineregFAQ.html

Overdrive is our most popular online resource-- download ebooks and audiobooks for free!
If you have a smartphone or tablet, download the Libby App. 
All you need to do is sign in with your library card number and PIN. Your library card number is all the numbers on the back of your library card, with no spaces. Your PIN is four numbers, the last four numbers of the phone number you gave us when you signed up. Books are available for all ages, and we recently added many more titles. You may have to wait to download some books, but others are available 24/7. J.K. Rowling recently released the audio and ebook versions of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for unlimited checkouts with no waiting until April 30th.

Need financial assistance? UW Madison has put together a great list of resources.

Do you have a young student at home? Check out Story Time Online, KidLit TV, Scholastic's Learn at Home, a list of 30 online "field trips" with live cameras or virtual walk-throughs, a sample daily schedule for kids, a great list of resources at Read Wonder & Learn, Live Learning videos with LivBits, Mystery Science lessons for grades K-5, and 1 Hour Coding for Kids for K-9th grades. Finally, here's a HUGE List of at-home educational entertainment resources, including live webcams, activities and more.

Do you have an older student at home?
Check out the Winnefox Tech Skills Center, where you can learn technology skills at your own pace by watching these video tutorials on popular software and computer basics.
You should also visit our Research Page for more great links, including homework help, genealogy resources, automotive repair guides, Consumer Reports, language learning, and lots more.

Want more free ebooks?
Sesame Street is offering some free ebooks for kids right now.
The Internet Archive's Open Library has textbooks, classics, and even some juvenile chapter books like The Giver by Lowis Lowry, The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, and Matilda by Roald Dahl.
 Open Culture has a nice list of older classics.
The National Emergency Library is a collection of mostly older non-fiction books that supports remote teaching, research activities, independent scholarship, and intellectual stimulation.
Project Gutenberg has over 60,000 titles (mostly older).

Forgot to grab a free copy of our Book Page magazine? Sign up to get a digital copy.

Need to connect with people digitally? Here are some resources for online meetings:

• Microsoft Teams https://products.office.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software
• Facebook Live https://www.facebook.com/facebookmedia/solutions/facebook-live
• Google Hangouts https://gsuite.google.com/products/meet/
• Zoho https://www.zoho.com/meeting/
• Zoom https://zoom.us/
• Join.me https://www.join.me/

The Winnefox digital resource collection has hundreds of free Gale Courses on almost everything. From accounting to photoshop, alternative medicine to web design, you can advance your career, build your resume, or just learn a new hobby!

    - 375+ interactive online courses, available 24/7.
    - Courses run for six weeks.
    - New sessions begin every month.
    - Taught by college instructors who are experts in their field.
    - Certificate of Completion awarded.
    - Students who have enrolled in a course must log in and VIEW (not complete) lessons one and two within 13 days after the start date of the course, or they will be automatically dropped.
    - Students who are dropped from a course will be able to enroll in the course during a later session.

Click here to view courses.