We Were Censored!

How do you know when it’s spring in the library? Answer: when you start getting bombarded with questions about the location of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition. Each year it presents a mystery. While its arrival date is not on my personal horizon, it is for many patrons. So I start asking questions myself. Does anyone remember seeing it in our box in the mailroom? (Some years it gets borrowed before coming across campus and appears a week or two later.) Has it been checked in as arriving? Did anyone put it out on the shelf? Is this a year when we will never see it? And, for all of you who accuse us of “censoring by losing,” we do put it out on the shelf even though its existence there is always short-lived.
As the annual mystery began this year, the new edition of Library Journal provided us an answer. The headline reads “Swimsuit Issue Denied to Libraries” (April 1, 2007 edition.) Apparently, Sports Illustrated decided not to ship the edition to 21,000 classrooms and libraries. They arbitrarily made the decision without giving the subscribers an option to receive or not to receive. After much criticism from librarians who thought that they should decide whether to display it, hold it behind the desk, or throw it in a drawer, the magazine decided that those who did not receive a copy could request one. Here at the Pesky Library, Meredith called the magazine and the edition is on its way. Of course, for us the perennial mystery will once again play out – Has anyone seen it yet in our box in the mailroom?