Some newspapers' interpretations of the Museums Libraries and Arts Commission's (MLA) report on Handling Controversial Material in Libraries, published yesterday after a consultation period, claim that the MLA is instructing public libraries to shelve copies of the Koran on the top shelf. The report says nothing of the sort; it include in an appendix, without comment, an incident in Leicester where a few Muslims complained about the book being shelved in its proper place, some taking it on themselves to move copies, with the result, perhaps at odds with their aim, that readers would not find it. The example seems to me to have been included as an illustration of the ways in which special interest groups may try to exert undue influence over library policy and practice. I have heard in my career anecdotes of Muslims who have objected to female library staff handling copies of the Koran.
The shelving of religious books, as with any other type of material in public libraries is usually determined by the classification system used which, though not its primary purpose, provides a logical shelf arrangement. The privileged place of religion in the Dewey Decimal Classification reflects the classification's historical and geographical origins in nineteenth century America: a whole class, the 200s is devoted to religion, subdivided, which seems to me, in this most secular and rational of countries, to be overstating the place of religion in modern life. I much prefer the approach of the Soviet classification, developed at the Lenin Library, which relegated religion to a much more logical place, with superstition and folklore. But, if we're stuck with Dewey, as I suppose public libraries are for the foreseeable, then there is no justification for taking material out of sequence to pacify vociferous god-botherers, and I very much doubt if any of my colleagues would give any such request the time of day.
Read the report here (PDF): http://www.mla.gov.uk/news/press/releases/2009/~/media/Files/pdf/2009/ControversialMaterialReport
