From driver’s handbook to Dora the Explorer, Toronto library’s 2016 book removal requests
One patron complained the Ontario driver’s handbook was incorrect in stating right turns on red lights were legal.

TheStar.com
March 22, 2017
Sammy Hudes

Oh, so that’s why everyone’s been honking.

For one Torontonian, the Toronto Public Library’s decision on a request last year to remove the Ministry of Transportation’s Official Driver’s Handbook from its collection could explain a lot.

A member of the public urged the library to remove the driver’s handbook until “incorrect information,” namely that a driver can turn right on a red light, was corrected.

It was one of nine titles in the Toronto Public Library’s collection mentioned in a complaint last year, according to a report published Monday.

The complaint was shown the red light by the library.

“The objection was incorrect. That one was a little bit puzzling,” said Michele Melady, manger of collection development. “Maybe they learned something.”

Another criticized the French children’s book L’École Autour du Monde, a translation of World School Day Adventure, which features Dora the Explorer. The book was written by singer Shakira, who is also a character in the book.

The complainant objected to “a blonde woman delivering technology to Third World/underdeveloped areas” and said it “continues to extend the First World saviour narrative.”

The library ruled the book would stay in the French children’s paperback collection, noting its theme is about Second and Third World countries sharing resources and that Western countries are not involved.

“We retained it because of (Dora the Explorer’s) international reputation and she’s extremely well-regarded as a positive role model,” Melady said. “There was no basis for wanting to restrict access to it.”

Just one book was removed as the result of a complaint last year. The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy contained “a number of typesetting and grammatical errors that make the book unreadable,” according to a complaint.

The library agreed to remove the book after librarians reviewed it and found errors throughout, possibly due to the use of automated editing software, which the front of the book references.

Another book, Tintin in America, by Belgian writer and cartoonist Hergé, was moved from the children’s collection to the adult graphic book section after criticism that it stereotypically depicted Indigenous peoples in a derogatory manner.

References to scalping and exaggerated illustrations in the book, originally published in 1932, were deemed inappropriate for children.

But the library rejected calls to remove works such as Caring for Your Baby and Young Child, which a reader asked be removed from the adult book collection.

The complaint was on allegedly incorrect directions on checking a baby’s temperature. The book recommends a rectal temperature reading for infants but references oral temperature checks for older children.

But a representative for the Canadian Pediatric Society agreed with the steps outlined in the book, which is also cited by U.S. government health agencies, according to the library’s finding.

It also rebuffed a request to remove The Santa Trap after a customer objected to “using dynamite to blow up Santa,” in light of the 2015 Paris bombings, and use of the word “stupid,” which is used in the book to describe socks.

“The book tells the story of a naughty child who sets out to trap Santa as punishment for bringing him socks every year, but is caught in his own trap,” the library’s decision stated.

“Santa is not blown up.”