Florida: Brevard County Libraries Remove Erotic Best-Seller ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’

UPDATE (May 10, 2012): ’50 Shades of Grey’ won’t be coming to some libraries (via CSM)
UPDATE (May 10, 2012) How Libraries in Wisconsin, Georgia and Florida are Dealing With 50 Shades of Grey; Comments from Random House, the Book’s Publisher (via AP)
UPDATE (May 10, 2012): ALA’s Office Of Intellectual Freedom Issues Statement on “Fifty Shades of Grey”
UPDATE: The NY Times is Now Running a Story About the Library Removing the Title
From Florida Today:

The erotic “Fifty Shades of Grey” apparently is too blue for the Brevard County Public Libraries system.
The wildly popular first installment of a titillating trilogy by British author E.L. James, “Fifty Shades” is parked atop every best-seller list in the country, from Amazon to the New York Times.
But the sadomasochistic saga won’t be found any longer on Space Coast library shelves. All of a “handful” of copies were removed from circulation earlier this week.
“It’s quite simple — it doesn’t meet our selection criteria,” said Cathy Schweinsberg, library services director.
[Clip]
“Nobody asked us to take it off the shelves. But we bought some copies before we realized what it was. We looked at it, because it’s been called ‘mommy porn’ and ‘soft porn.’ We don’t collect porn.”

Read the Complete Article
See Also: Use WorldCat to Check Libraries That Do Provide Access to Fifty Shades of Grey
Update (May 8, 2012)
Brevard County Florida Public Library Material Selection Policy 2009 (BCC 73)

Filed under: Associations and Organizations, Libraries, Public Libraries, Publishing