New College of Florida, the state’s formerly top-notch liberal arts college that Ron DeSantis decided to turn into a rightwing mediocrity factory, was the site of a good old fashioned book purge Tuesday. A truck carted off Crom knows how many discarded library books in a dumpster, including books and other materials from the college’s now-defunct Gender and Diversity Center (GDC), which was closed after the elimination of the Gender Studies department last October by DeSantis’s handpicked board of trustees for the college.
The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports that
Video captured in the afternoon showed a vehicle driving away with the books before students were notified. In the past, students were given an opportunity to purchase books that were leaving the college's library collection.
A few hundred books from the GDC collection that had been dumped on the pavement near the library were rescued by the Social Equity Through Education Alliance (SEE), a bunch of troublemakers who urge Floridians to fight back against the state’s weird Christian Nationalist turn by voting in school board and other local elections. SEE executive director Zander Moricz told WTSP-TV the book purge “is just a new low. It also, beyond being evil, beyond being stupid, is wasteful and does not make sense.” Yup, that’s DeSantis’s Florida all right.
Nathan March, a spokesperson for New College, insisted in a statement that the books being trashed were simply removed from the library as part of routine maintenance of its collection, mostly, although sure the stuff from the GDC had to be trashed because the gender studies program was terminated by good decent Godfearing people (we are extrapolating on that last bit).
The New College Library is following its longstanding annual procedures for weeding its collection, which involves the removal of materials that are old, damaged, or otherwise no longer serving the needs of the College. This process is carried out by professional Librarians trained to assess the collection. A library needs to regularly review and renew its collection to ensure its materials are meeting the current needs of students and faculty.
March lied that Florida law prohibited selling or donating the books because they were purchased with state funds, although the snotty woke reporter at the Herald Tribune went and dug up silly statutory language saying that ACTUALLY, New College could also get rid of its castoff books by “selling or transferring the property to any other governmental entity ... private nonprofit agency ... (and) through a sale open to the public.”
March added that because “Gender Studies has been discontinued as an area of concentration at New College,” the books from the GDC, which were mostly donated in the fist place, were “moved to a book drop location by the library where they were later claimed by individuals planning to donate the books locally.” Wasn’t that nice? There again, however, the Herald Tribune had to go and point out that there was no notice to students or faculty that the books had been piled on the pavement, and that New College’s “move-in day isn't until Aug. 23,” so if the books hadn’t been noticed, they may have sat out in the sun and rain (or been tossed?) if nobody had noticed them.
Before Thursday's board of trustees meeting, Amy Reid, the faculty chair and representative on the board, said she hadn't heard about the disposal of books. When shown photos and videos, she was visibly shocked. She said when you throw away books, you also throw away democracy.
Meanwhile, on social media, DeSantis spokesthug Jeremy Redfern was simply delighted by the news, tweeting, “Putting gender studies books in the garbage? Great job, [New College of Florida] (applause emoji.)” DeSantis comms director Bryan Griffin also celebrated the move, tweeting the New College statement saying everything was normal and adding that “the gender studies books ARE getting dumped because that propaganda is no longer offered at” New College. For good measure, he asked whether Herald-Tribune reporter Steven Walker might “have some sort of bias,” reposting Walker’s Twitter bio, because only a weird groomer freak would include “he/him,” haw haw!
So, look: we do understand that libraries regularly “weed” their collections to remove worn and outdated books, and that often the discards may have been replaced by newer editions on the shelves.
That said, there’s nothing made up about DeSantis’s very public war on what he considers “woke,” especially at New College, and no reason to take these rightwing culture war creeps at their word, especially as it applies to the casual tossing, with no notice, of the books from the Gender and Diversity Center.
And voters are getting increasingly sick and tired of a minority of rightwingers trying to bend the USA to their weird Christian Nationalist ideology. We’re betting the next state elections in Florida will reflect that, although DeSantis and crew still have two more years to piss off normal people even further.
Previously:
[Sarasota Herald-Tribune / WTSP / Tampa Bay Times]
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*raises hand*
As someone who worked in a public library in Tennessee for almost 20 years AND who has more than passing familiarity with academic libraries (hello, PhD IN ENGLISH), I can justifiably say the following:
1) Yes, weeding is an ongoing process in libraries BUT
2) Unless the book(s) are LITERALLY falling apart, they are never ever TRASHED. In fact, book sales of weeded materials comprise a fairly large portion of the library's budget simply because they can still make money even after they are discarded and
3) Collection Development people are WELL AWARE of this and set strict parameters on what can and cannot be discarded. Weeding isn't an overnight process. Any books that are considered for discard have to be authorized before they can be removed from the library system, precisely for the reason that they are still the library system's property and, by definition, the public's property (and that includes academic libraries). And furthermore,
4) Even though departments can (and frequently are) dissolved for numerous reasons, including bigoted assholes who think things like Gender Studies isn't a "valid" line of study, this does not give administrators carte blanche to go into libraries and discard entire sections of the collection. That's not their fucking job because, simply put, THEY'RE NOT LIBRARIANS.
Since the strength (which doesn't necessarily equate with size) of library collections is a HUGE part of accreditation, New College will be lucky if it can get accreditation from any academic accreditation board for this bullshit. And if they lose accreditation, New College diplomas will be worth less than the prizes that come out of a Cracker Jacks box.
Somewhere Ray Bradbury is shaking his head and muttering, "I warned you people."