[bksvol-discuss] Re: Adult Content
- From: "Sandi Ryan" <sjryan2@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 10 Nov 2012 12:09:15 -0600
I have read BARD books since I was ten, and have never once picked a book
simply because it did or did not have the symbols indicating "Explicit
descriptions of sex, strong language, or violence." I suspect some people use
those designations as a positive reason for choosing certain books, but I have
always believed that if I chose only those books without such designations, I'd
miss out on an awful lot of real life.
Your choice is your own, but I see no reason for Bookshare (or the BARD, for
that matter) to judge the contents of books. It might be helpful for kids and
teens, but in those cases, if the parents are concerned, they should pick what
books their kids can read.
Sandi
----- Original Message -----
From: Ali Al-hajamy
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Saturday, November 10, 2012 12:02 PM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Adult Content
In addition, there is no way that we can relabel all 170000 books currently
in the collection to reflect what kind of language they contain or if there is
violence and sex. I suppose, if you really, really cared, you could create a
program that counts every instance of swear words, and would insert some kind
of label such as "strong language" into the book's metadata, say the short or
long description, based on the number of times it found "obscene" words in the
text, but why do that? If our experience is to mirror that of the able-eyed
user at a bookstore or library, adding such labels would be counterproductive
to that goal, since the sighted don't have giant stickers on their books that
say that a book has swearing and sex. And such a program would only work for
strong language, since different writers use different words to describe
violent and sexual situations. Your best bet if you're sensative and want your
books to be free of that kind of thing is to read reviews and excerpts rather
than make everyone else do the work for you.
On 10-Nov-12 12:51, Roger Loran Bailey wrote:
I will say this again. There is no way possible to know that you will not
like a book until you read it. You might get an idea by reading reviews and
listening to people discuss books, but you will not actually know until you try
it. You should also not expect other people to filter your books for you. Their
opinions of what you will or will not like may not be the same as your own
opinions. For that reason I would suggest that books just be submitted in the
same manner as any other book no matter what kind of language they might
contain. If a proofreader turns out to not like it then that proofreader can
just release it.
On 11/9/2012 8:03 PM, Cindy Rosenthal wrote:
Hmmm. But what about our sensitive members who don't like to read books
with profanity or explicit sex; should we, raher than label them AC, put some
kind of warning somewhere? Does what we put in the Comments section get
attached to the book fle? I'munder the impression that those comments are only
for the book share administrators, e.g. like errors in punctuation and
spelling are as they are in the print book.
I think I have in the past put such "warnings" in the synopsis or
somewhere but told it didn't belong there.
Cindy
On Fri, Nov 9, 2012 at 2:53 PM, Madeleine Linares
<Madeleinel@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi everyone,
I thought it was about time for a refresher course in what we mean by
Adult Content (also known as “AC”). There has been some confusion (off-list)
and I’ve noticed it incorrectly marked in the Approval Queue.
Here is a note from our Collection Development Manager on our
definition:
“Our policy, developed in conjunction with our OSEP funders, is that
there are certain kinds of content -- explicit depictions of sexual acts with
no redeeming social value, as well as extreme and gratuitous violence -- will
require a minor to get an adult guardian's permission to access. As a
"content-neutral" collection, we will never exclude a title for any potentially
controversial or distasteful content, but we will tag some content for adult
(or minors with a guardian's permission) use only. The idea is that parents
can control the access their kids have to content deemed potentially
inappropriate -- but they don't have the right to control or limit access to
anybody else's kids.
The "walking into a bookstore or library" test continues to be a good
one. Could a non-print-disabled kid walk into a good bookstore or public
library and get a copy of this book without an adult being involved? If the
answer is yes, a print-disabled kid should be able to do the same on Bookshare.
We are not interested in placing additional barriers to access for our members
that their peers do not experience. This means we do have stuff available to
members under 18 that has sex, and swearing, and violence, and substance abuse
in it, and that is okay and in keeping with the generally recognized standards
of "freedom to read" policy in this country.
We don't have a perfect implementation of this policy yet -- I see
evidence that we were a little more strait-laced in the early days (and fix it
when I come across it), and our automated filtering from publisher feeds still
needs some fine-tuning. When I'm trying to navigate something particular "gray
area-y" like the steamier of the romances coming in, I ask myself about the
intent -- is the action (even if hot and heavy) designed to move the characters
towards relationship, or is the plot driven only by the need to get body parts
intermingling again? It's the latter that's clearly AC, while the former
continues to be ambiguous. Author intent is, alas, pretty gray-area-y and
subjective itself, but I think it can help separate the sheep from the goats.”
Adult content is confusing and clearly not black and white. Many
romances (such as a lot of the Harlequin ones), though certainly racy, should
not be labeled as AC. A 16-year-old could walk into a book store and buy ones
of those books just as easily as a 38-year old, although his or her parents
might not approve and might consider the content inappropriate. Anyway, just
thought it couldn’t hurt to remind everyone!
Feel free to contact me with questions, as always.
Best,
Madeleine Linares
Volunteer Coordinator
Bookshare, a Benetech Initiative
650-644-3459
madeleinel@xxxxxxxxxxxx
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