Truth is, censorship or not, the library aides violated library policy, infringed upon the rights of a patron, and were insubordinate. They richly deserved to be fired, and would have been fired in ANY private business.

A public library and a school library are entirely different animals. Public libraries are expected to carry a much wider range of materials than a school library - which is expected to act "in loco parentis" (in the place of the parent) a role that is denied a public library. The library did exactly the right thing.

As a fellow librarian, I am shocked to hear you say you monitor what books the children check out. Sure you can order them and place them in the "appropriate" section. But if you tell a child they can not check out a book, for whatever reason, you are killing that child's interest in voluntary reading. We might lose them as readers forever because of you.

Seriously? "Lose a reader forever?" What about destroying a kids' innocence or messing up their conscience forever? I think that a trained librarian should absolutely have care in guiding a child toward appropriate material. After all, don't we expect untrained cinema employees to keep 5-yr.-olds out of R-rated movies?

Harold, I believe the women have EVERY right to sensor what the children who are coming in and out of the library are reading. If the child had received the material with explicit material, they would have been balmed for allowing the child to check it out.
Everyone needs help, esp int his day and age, with raising a child. Some adults work 2 jobs and, let's face it, really do not have enough time in the day to make a decent meal, not to mention make sure the material the child is reading is age appropriate.
I am amazed at the rebuke theses ladies have recieved when a child cannot rent a game which may have explicit material in it.
Shouldn't the library be RESPONSIBLE for having AGE APPRORIATE material available to the kids. How about geting onto the libraary staff to change the policy for placing items on reserve or checking the items out???
ANd by the way, where were the parents of the child who was checking the explicit material out?

@Krighter:
You are entitled to your opinion, no matter how unconstitutiona l it is. You ask where were the parents. How do you know they weren't there when the hold was placed? What qualifies as explicit is a personal decision. What is explicit to you, may not be for someone else.
Libraries are not responsible for what a child reads. They are responsible for supplying access to materials. What access is given to a child is the parents decision. Most people don't want government entities to do their thinking for them. If you watch the original report on this station, then you know that is the library's policy and it is the policy of most libraries. You are also comparing apples to oranges with video games. A private business who rents them has a different purpose and can set restrictions as they see fit. Those ratings (and those of movies) are recommendations. No one goes to jail if a child was to buy an MA game. The parent is not reprimanded if they were to take their child to an R rated movie.
It is the mark of arrogance to think you or these ladies should make decisions for others, especially when you don't even know the circumstances of others. What if the parents of these girl knew what she had on hold? What if the parent used the child's card to put a hold on the book for themselves? Did anyone ask these two employees to do what they did? (The answer is "No"). I don't understand why a parent who works 2 jobs is suddenly disqualified from making decisions for their child or the implication that if they did they are not meeting some standard others set. Age appropriate is an individual decision.

"where were the parents of the child who was checking the explicit material out?" - Maybe the parents approved of the material - and therefore it was nobody's business what the kids checked out - in fact, denying them the material was an infringement on their rights.

Krighter, I find your comments extremely disturbing. As someone who works in a library it is absolutely NOT within my rights or anyone else's to censor material. I doubt anything would have happened to those ladies had they allowed the child to check out the graphic novel, because the parents most likely weren't monitoring what their child reads and would have never had a clue what she had checked out, which is solely their responsibility and NO ONE else's. 'Everyone needs help' is a very poor line of reasoning. Monitoring your own children is the responsibilty of parents, and does not lie within the scope of job duties for a professional librarian. Having children is a choice. The level of attention a parent pays their child is a choice. Having children can be difficult at times, but the parents chose to start a family and thus it is their responsibility to look after that family and not expect other members of the community to do it for them. As far as libraries being responsible for providing age appropriate materials, well, they do. It is the responsibility of the citizenry to determine for themselves and their own children what is age appropriate on an individual basis. I'm sure there are 'cozier' or 'family friendly' materials available at the Jessamine library. You're insinuating that the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was all that was available to this girl or that the library staff suggested it to her, or that she was required to read it along the lines of a school assignment, none of which appear to be the case here. It's a real shame when people aren't held accountable for their own choices or the choices of their children, and blame is placed on a third party like a library, although I suspect these ladies knew the potential repreccusion of their choice in preventing the girl from reading the book and were doing this to draw attention to a standard library policy at most institutions in the hope of getting it replaced by a stricter, more despotic policy that would be more closely aligned with their own personal beleifs. That's just speculation on my part, but it is food for thought.

I heard an interview with a children's author yesterday followed by an interview with a woman who runs a blog exploring children's books. This woman had trouble with some of the themes in Jeff Kinney's books. I can't believe the extent to which some adults feel they MUST protect the children. Part of Life is growing up and making your own choices. Adults are there to protect but also to let learn on their own. I have read some of this particular series. If you call this pornographic I don't know how you let your children leave the house. Maybe you don't!