Do You Have Sex in Your Library?

Mary Jo Heller  and Aarene Storms
flank King County Library Director
Gary Wasdin at a recent conference

Local librarians Mary Jo Heller and Aarene Storms learned a long time ago that nobody wanted to attend a presentation about library mission statements and collection acquisition policies.  

However, they learned that the same presentation, under the title “Sex in the Library,” draws standing room only audiences, and has done so for more than a decade.

Mary Jo Heller retired from the Shoreline Public Schools as Librarian at Einstein Middle School in 2012. Aarene Storms is a Teen Services Librarian with King County Library System at Richmond Beach and Lake Forest Park. The two teamed up twelve years ago to talk about books that may or may not be appropriate for school and public library collections -- and why the needs of each collection are so different.  

The partnership forged between a school librarian and a public librarian is crucial to the dance created by local standards and by budgets. 

School libraries do not enjoy the same amount of funding that King County Library System currently enjoys. In addition to budgets, the workshop focuses on creating an environment where teens develop a relationship with the public library staff as well as their school librarian.  

Librarians Mary Jo Heller and Aarene Storms

Heller and Storms present their balancing act of providing good information to teen readers without unduly violating community standards via an hour-long book talk about steamy teen literature, and where it can — and can’t — be housed in a library collection. When presenting “Sex in the Library” at a school, students are asked to decide whether a book is appropriate for school collections, public collections, or both.  

“The school library supports school curriculum and provides good quality recreational reading,” says Heller.  “But the public library gives access to whatever readers want. Although the audience may be the same, the goal of each library collection is different.”

“That’s why we encourage the school libraries to work closely with the public libraries,” adds Storms.  “That way we can provide students access to everything they need to read as well as everything they want to read.  Our teen readers and their teachers are able to access both collections, and everyone benefits.”

At the original talk in 2003, most students absolutely shunned any books about gay characters, but found fictional violence to be untroubling. Since that initial presentation, local attitudes have changed: 9-11 happened. Students are more aware of their gay classmates. Anti-Bullying campaigns in schools focus on many forms of harassment.  

Today Heller and Storms are finding that violence in books has become more problematic while GLBTQ protagonists in books do not cause a stir — at least, not in Shoreline.

When presenting Sex in the Library at the 2014 Texas Library Association conference, the authors learned that some topics, such as homosexuality and witchcraft, are still barely tolerated in public libraries, and rarely tolerated in school library collections.

Kelly Syhre won a fuzzy, stuffed
bacteria version of syphilis

The Sex in the Library program, while it discusses serious issues, is also fun. Thanks to Secret Garden Bookshop, there are many book give-aways. However, the favorite prize is always a realistic but fuzzy stuffed bacteria version of syphilis.

A recent winner, Kelly Syhre, declared “I had Sex in the Library at a conference, and I came home with syphilis!”

The book, Sex in the Library: a guide to sexual content in teen literature by Mary Jo Heller and Aarene Storms is available via VOYA Press, Amazon.com, and the local Secret Garden Bookshop. Their schedule of upcoming presentations is posted on the Facebook site, Sex in the Library, and they welcome comments via that page.

Look for Sex in the Library in October at the next WALE (Washington Library Association) conference in Chelan or the WLMA (Washington Library Association) conference in Yakima.