Anticipated negative comments from borrowers

Why are you cutting staff/hours and yet can buy these, I thought you were short of money, why are you wasting money?

Yes, we are short of money, but we still have a duty to provide a full range of books to all members of the community.

These are books we buy anyway, pulled together to show how wide the range is and hopefully attract new members in order to prevent more cuts.

Libraries have always stocked materials dealing with all kinds of themes. In our modern age these themes need to be even more diverse to reflect our cultures and the pace of social change.

Other alternative collections recently introduced have proved very popular.

N.B if you are specifically accused of wasting taxpayers' money, you might like to tactfully reply that gay and lesbian people also pay their taxes

If the books are directly compared to a title not bought for a reader as being too specialised, these are two different questions. These books will issue to a wide range of readers.

Why are you encouraging filth?  This book makes me feel sick

People have different tastes and different definitions of filth. Have you read them? The one I've just read was a good mystery with no explicit sex. Some straight novels include specific sex, many gay or lesbian ones do not.

The Bible forbids it

The library must reflect our modern/multi-cultural society, of which the Bible is one part.

You are corrupting children/impressionable people

These are not books that can be borrowed on a child's ticket.  People are not being forced to read this literature. It is a matter of individual choice.

Where are the nice/popular/Catherine Cookson books?

We are surrounded by other types of novels. The staff can request any of them for you.

I'll stop using the library

I'm sorry you feel that way and hope you'll change your mind

Are you all gay in this library?

I don't see the relevance of this question. We had a display for Armistice day last year and most of us weren't born in 1945.

What happened to Clause 28, you are promoting homosexuality

See Briefing on Clause 28 for reasons why we are not breaking the law.  In essence we are promoting literature dealing with a way of life and not that lifestyle.

Anticipated negative comments from staff

We don't like these sorts of books here/don't have these sort of people here

How can you be sure? Where prejudices exist people may not feel able to be open. Straight people may also want to read gay and lesbian literature as a way of broadening their horizons.

These books are for the public not the staff.

I refuse to promote this/don't agree with this

It is our job to promote/provide literature to all sections of the community, this is particularly important in rural areas.

We don't have to like everything we provide but we are not censors and should be able to make it available.

It's embarrassing

I think people who are embarrassed will avoid the display, for yourself just treat the books like any others please and any queries in the same way.

Thanks to North Yorkshire Libraries for permission to use these comments.