We welcome intellectual diversity at the library. The recent article “Conservative Authors Have No Voice At the Sherrod Library” is misleading and based on several factual errors.
The author of the piece did not contact a library faculty member for information about our purchasing policy and therefore could not present an accurate picture of our acquisition policy. A little effort would have shown that our book-ordering practices are standard for four-year universities, that the comparison with the Northeast State library is inaccurate and that the liberal books mentioned by the author were gifts to the library which were not purchased by us.
Sherrod Library operates under different constraints than Northeast State in purchasing books. As a four-year research university library, Sherrod has significant financial commitments to electronic databases, journal subscriptions and other non-book materials.
In addition, our professors must produce specialized research and we support their work with collection acquisitions. Whatever money is left over is given to purchasing books that support the curriculum. There is no money to support general collection building.
Northeast State has fewer non-book expenses to incur and little costly professorial research to support. Therefore, Northeast State has sufficient funds to engage in general collection development. ETSU does not.
The author of the opinion piece singles out Molly Ivins, Al Franken and Michael Moore as examples of liberal books in our collection. I contacted our acquisition librarian and asked for the provenance of the books. The fact is that these books were donations to Sherrod and were not purchased with tax money.
Perhaps a book-loving conservative would be so kind as to donate some of their material, as the book-loving liberal did.
It is gratifying to the library to be recognized as an important cultural institution. An open society thrives on the free availability and dissemination of ideas. I encourage everyone interested in furthering this goal to contact your representative and ask for greater educational funding.
Charles Allan

Author