Ms. Sandra Miranda
Library Director
White Plains Public Library
100 Martine Avenue
White Plains, NY 10601

Dear Ms. Miranda:

I have become acquainted with you continuing correspondence with Mr. Medhat Credi, relative to his offer of a gift subscription to your library of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. I am also aware that your library has refused the gift subscription.

Frankly, I have some serious reservations about your decision. Your letter to Mr. Credi of August 18, 1992 referring to the refusal states that, "Browsing and serendipity are not acceptable subsitutes for subject access." Despite the fact that many magazines in a library are indexed, I fail to see why all magazines need to be. In the same letter, you admit that, "some libraries keep a browsing periodicals collection, often separate form indexed titles, often discarded with greater frequency.

Later on in your same letter, you make this statement: "We do not attempt this, as a periodicals area as large as ours requires tremendous staff time to keep it organized and maintain acceptable of staff assistance."

I question how much "tremendous staff time" would be expended in keeping non-indexed copies of  Washington Report on Middle East Affairs available simply for information purposes. How much "tremendous staff time" would further expended in discarding outdated copies of this report? If you didn't index copies of the report but had them available simply for browsing, you would still make them available for casual readers desirous of acquiring information, though they would not be interested in doing research.

Isn't browsing a way of acquiring information quickly? Can we deny to some library patrons the legitimate right to browse: I am sure that you sill admit that some libraries have browsing rooms set aside for just that purpose. Don't many readers browse through periodicals and newspapers every day and acquire much information in the process, and for whatever purpose they wish? Not everyone comes to a library simply to do research. However, many individuals come to a library to browse through newspapers and periodicals to gain information and to become acquainted with another point of view. Would it be fair for your library to deny them that right? Do you fear adversity if the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs is made available for casual examination by your reader?

I have some trouble with your use of the word serendipity. My Oxford English Dictionary defines this word as, "the faculty of making happy and unexpected discoveries by accident." If you took that definition literally, wouldn't every periodical in a library, either indexed or non-indexed, fit that definition? Periodicals can inform, express opinions, entertain, present various points of view. Any article read in them could be an "unexpected discovery" if the reader gains new information or learns something about a topic or issue that he did not know beforehand, and especially if he or she gained newer insights into a situation, problem, or issue. Unless your library is so totally exclusive or different from others, how can you submit that browsing and serendipity are not legitimate functions? Your refusal to make the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs rightfully available to readers seems specious.

On your shelves at this time you admit that you do have Commentary, Tikkun, and Midstream, properly indexed, of course! Could it be that your refusal to make the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs available even for browsing, might possibly originate from the fact that the publication may not meet politically correct standards, and that it may pose a threat to some segment of your readers?

I equate political correctness with censorship because it favors a biased viewpoint, excludes balance  and objectivity, denies an opposing point of view, and subverts the right to freedom of information to those who do not subscribe to a politically correct view point or persuasion.

As a citizen of this American democracy, I would hate to think that the White Plains Public Library allows on its shelves only those politically correct publications that deal with Middle East issues. How unfortunate it would be if the concept of political correctness extended also to the American Library Association, of which the White Plains Library is a member. Indeed how undemocratic! How regrettable!

Very truly yours,

Edward F. Meany
B.A., M.A.
Teacher of English/Latin
(Retired)