`CANNED BOOKS WEEK?'; FRC LIBRARY SURVEY REVEALS CRUCIAL ISSUES

WASHINGTON, Sept. 18, 1995 -- "There is too much concern today over what is 
acquired by libraries and not enough attention paid to the subtler issues 
raised by collection deterioration," Family Research Council Senior Policy 
Advisor Chuck Donovan said Monday. Donovan is co-author of a FRC nation-wide 
library survey entitled "Discarded Images:  Selected Classics and American 
Libraries" released in a joint-press conference with Focus on the Family.

Focus on the Family and Family Research Council joined together to address 
claims that conservatives are preventing Americans from having access to a 
complete literary collection.  Focus on the Family examined an American 
Library Association report on "book banning," while FRC studied a 
representative sample of American libraries to determine what proportion of 
fundamental classics are disappearing from the nation's library bookshelves.

"One of the best places to buy rare and beautiful books these days is the 
public library," Donovan continued.  "This institution, which once saw itself 
as the conservator of letters, seems to have undertaken a vigorous 
housecleaning in recent decades, relieving us of much of the mustiness of the 
past.

"Browse in any large used-book store and note how many classics you come 
across are actually discards from local library shelves.  Have these books 
merely been replaced by newer editions, or are they disappearing -- being 
'canned' -- from the permanent collections of cities and towns?"

The primary purpose of Family Research Council's library survey was to answer 
this very question.

FRC's report closed with a call to action for citizens across America to help 
strengthen and maintain their local library collections because, as Donovan 
noted, "History teaches us that when books disappear, centuries may pass 
before a civilization recovers."