With the start of the school year having just begun, school librarians have been putting in

immense amounts of time to prepare the library for the return of students. Many students have realized that some of their favorite novels have been taken off the shelves and instead placed on a donation cart. These donation carts are filled with books that are given the title “banned” due to their explicit content. School librarian Debby Helmkamp states that in order for a book to be “banned” it must contain foul language, sexually explicit scenes, political topics, religious viewpoints, violence, racism, or the use of drugs. “We ban books to protect students and make sure that we are operating within the guidelines of Hudsonville High Schools policies of appropriate reading material “, said Helmkamp.

With the removal of numerous copies the library is granted the funds to access more novels, yet is hesitant due to checked out copies not being returned to their rightful owners. For example, Helmkamp claims that over the course of the last school year 50 to 100 copies of novels had been stolen. Price wise, these lost copies add up to a total of $906, with student fines totalling $2,888 unpaid. These fines continue to pile up as copies remain unreturned, which leads to conflicts that students and librarians have to face.

When it comes to the copies that are returned, many are brought back in a condition nowhere near the way they were when checked out. Although vandalism is not one of the number one issues, there have been a few instances that left librarians horrified: intense water damage, coffee stains, gnawed pages, pages loose or missing, and the regular rips and tears. Beyond these instances there was one time in particular when a book was returned in a condition damaged beyond repair and the student had to pay the consequences by doing chores around the Media Center.

Besides caring for books, the librarians also attend to multiple students a day regarding personal issues or simply someone to chat with. “The way I see my role as a librarian is to build lasting relationships with students”, states Helmkamp, ̈I am not their teacher, and that in itself opens up opportunities for students to come to the library, have a place to unwind, be themselves and lose themselves in a book or do homework and just feel good about themselves. ̈ Without the safe space of a library these relationships may not have nourished between student and librarian. ̈When students graduate and leave our school, I hope they can say that they always felt comfortable in the school library, whether it was to choose a book, study, talk or just hang with friends, ̈ said Helmkamp.