Censorship. It's an ugly enough word to make anyone shudder, especially in relation to banning books (at least for us).
If you haven't yet heard of the #amazonfail movement you're either
1) in a chocolate-bunny-induced coma, or
2) don't own a computer.
Either one of those and you probably won't care about this post. However, there are many people that are up in arms about (what seems) Amazon's censorship on some books the company deems questionable.
To give some background, a few days ago authors and readers started to notice that some of their favorite books were no longer showing up on Amazon searches. In brief, the books had been deranked by Amazon (and books with no rankings don't show up on Amazon). The reason? Amazon categorized them to have "adult content" (a definition of which no one seems to be able to extract from Amazon). Some of the books had gay and lesbian content. Some were romance novels. Some were young adult books. The LA Times did a great article on this. Head on over for the full details.
Anyway, the word spread quickly online via Twitter and the #amazonfail movement was created. Now we're hearing a lot of grumblings about people boycotting Amazon.
The unlucky victims in this?
Independent bookstores who use Amazon as their vehicle to sell books - either via an Amazon webstore or individual listings on Amazon.
Why do we care?
We're one of them. Our website is run through Amazon as a Webstore and it's our main venue for selling books.
After initially building a site and then realizing that it was going to take time-consuming conversions to work with our POS software, we had to make a switch to an Amazon site. And here we are, an Amazon seller.
And now we're stuck in the crossfire.
You wouldn't know that our site is an Amazon store until you get to checkout, where you're asked to login to your Amazon account. Now we're being told that people aren't going to buy from Amazon, which ultimately means they aren't going to buy from us.
We understand how upset you are. We disagree with censorship, too. It doesn't matter if you agree or disagree with the content of these books. We aren't asking you to discard your views and disregard what Amazon is doing. What we do ask is that you reconsider your boycott when shopping with independent bookstores, like us, who run their site through Amazon out of budgetary necessity.
There are other ways to fight this (just Google #amazonfail and you'll find pages of ways or visit this blog - Warning: the blog contains explicit language). And just maybe these other ways won't sacrifice the unassuming independent bookstores for a decision over which they had no control.
Showing posts with label Banning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Banning. Show all posts
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
What's all the hoopla about banning children's books?
You may be hearing a lot of information (and misinformation) about your library getting rid of children's books or your local used bookstore or thrift store no longer taking or selling kids books.
So, what's this all about anyway?
Background
In February 2009 H.R. 4040, the Consumer Protection Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), went into effect. H.R. 4040 establishes consumer product safety standards and other safety requirements for children's products (especially lead-based products). The legislation works to ensure safe levels of lead and phthalates (a substance added to plastics to increase flexibility) in all products manufactured for children under the age of 12.
After February 9, 2009, all manufacturers, providers, sellers, and resellers of children’s products targeted at ages 12 and under are required to test their products for safety and unit label each product as safe. Even if the products are made from all-natural materials or if there is documentation from a manufacturer or seller stating that the items are safe, the products must still have costly unit testing and certification for each item intended for children 12 and under.
What does this have to do with children's books?
The government has deemed that any children's book printed before 1985 may have unsafe lead levels in the ink used to print the book and therefore cannot be sold to children without the proper lead testing. If the seller is caught selling books to children under 12 without the proper testing costly fines are involved.
The lead testing may be costly per unit, so many stores, libraries, and thrift stores are simply getting rid of the books instead of taking the chance on being fined.
You mean some people are throwing out books? Isn't this overkill?
Yes. Many stores, libraries and resellers have already disposed of thousands of children's books.
Yes, we believe this is overkill and a travesty.
Does this mean that we can't find any children's books before 1985 on The Book Blues webstore?
No. You can still find used children's books (1985 and before) listed under our children's collectibles. As defined by the government, The Book Blues can sell these books as collectors items. They are intended for collectors use only and not for children under 12.
Does The Book Blues believe that these books are a threat to children?
It is our personal belief that these books do not pose a threat to children. Lead paint, if it exists at all, has been shown to be negligible in books. This means that your child would have to ingest an unrealistic amount of the book in order to be affected. We have found no documented children's injuries or illnesses due to lead paint poisoning from books.
Not only that, we let our child still "read" and play with books printed before 1985. And sometimes we even find them in her mouth.
*gasp*
You will need to make your own determination if the books you have in your house printed before 1985 are suitable for your child.
You can read more about the CPSIA and children's books on our site.
So, what's this all about anyway?
Background
In February 2009 H.R. 4040, the Consumer Protection Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), went into effect. H.R. 4040 establishes consumer product safety standards and other safety requirements for children's products (especially lead-based products). The legislation works to ensure safe levels of lead and phthalates (a substance added to plastics to increase flexibility) in all products manufactured for children under the age of 12.
After February 9, 2009, all manufacturers, providers, sellers, and resellers of children’s products targeted at ages 12 and under are required to test their products for safety and unit label each product as safe. Even if the products are made from all-natural materials or if there is documentation from a manufacturer or seller stating that the items are safe, the products must still have costly unit testing and certification for each item intended for children 12 and under.
What does this have to do with children's books?
The government has deemed that any children's book printed before 1985 may have unsafe lead levels in the ink used to print the book and therefore cannot be sold to children without the proper lead testing. If the seller is caught selling books to children under 12 without the proper testing costly fines are involved.
The lead testing may be costly per unit, so many stores, libraries, and thrift stores are simply getting rid of the books instead of taking the chance on being fined.
You mean some people are throwing out books? Isn't this overkill?
Yes. Many stores, libraries and resellers have already disposed of thousands of children's books.
Yes, we believe this is overkill and a travesty.
Does this mean that we can't find any children's books before 1985 on The Book Blues webstore?
No. You can still find used children's books (1985 and before) listed under our children's collectibles. As defined by the government, The Book Blues can sell these books as collectors items. They are intended for collectors use only and not for children under 12.
Does The Book Blues believe that these books are a threat to children?
It is our personal belief that these books do not pose a threat to children. Lead paint, if it exists at all, has been shown to be negligible in books. This means that your child would have to ingest an unrealistic amount of the book in order to be affected. We have found no documented children's injuries or illnesses due to lead paint poisoning from books.
Not only that, we let our child still "read" and play with books printed before 1985. And sometimes we even find them in her mouth.
*gasp*
You will need to make your own determination if the books you have in your house printed before 1985 are suitable for your child.
You can read more about the CPSIA and children's books on our site.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
