Librarian here. This couldn’t be any further from the truth. 99.9% of professional librarians (those with a Masters Degree) understand that their own personal taste, politics, and sexuality have 0 input when selecting books. We buy materials based on how large print runs are (aka market forces and popularity), patron requests and holds, professional reviews, and making sure that the entire library collection is well rounded. Every book has its reader, and you should be able to find books on every conceivable topic.

That said, I have worked with librarians who have refused to buy books based on political considerations. Many refused to buy Rush Limbaugh’s childrens books, for example, because they found him personally repulsive…many were #1 NY Times best sellers…and they had no excuse not to buy them.

And we all have had experiences with conservatives complaining that they’re not enough conservative books in the library. Or that there are too many liberal books. Or that a magazine is it is defending Palestinians over Israelis. Or that certain books are anti-semetic. I’ve also had liberals make the exact same complaints. And each time I would take them to the shelf and count out the liberal bucks versus the conservative books and typically there were a balanced number of each. And they hated me for it.

And don’t even get me started about these fucking library boards. Even during non-political cash flush times, these political bodies attract the worst members of the community. These are the people who love to point out the grammatical and spelling mistakes in the newspaper. Some of them style themselves as government watchdogs and get off by saving the tax paper payers money by getting rid of the library staff water cooler.