Fishers, Indiana Library Actually purchases a "Black" book!

Chapter 3 in my ongoing exchanges with the Hamilton East Fishers, Indiana Library.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Fishers Library actually expended someone's funds to purchase the book "Soaring on the Wings of A Dream" by Ed Dwight the first black astronaut.  Normally when I do a search request  and see that the library does not have a book by a black author or on a topic related to black people, the library has resulted to getting the book for me via interlibrary loan rather than going out and buying the book for their holdings.  I am currently reading  "Before the Mayflower" by Lerone Bennett, Jr. courtesy of a loan from Grace College to the Hamilton East library.  The college and theological seminar is located in Winona Lake, Indiana.  I admit I had no idea the college existed prior to receiving the book.

Once I saw the library had purchased Ed Dwight's book, I did wonder why Hamilton East could not have purchased "Before The Mayflower".  I am halfway through Bennett's book and it is very educational regarding the experience of black people in this country from the early days of the 1600s on forward.  So why would Hamilton East want to deprive the citizens of Hamilton County of such knowledge?  Well it might be because some of the information in the book does not present European Americans in a very positive manner. For example, I never heard of  the Fort Pillow massacre where Confederate troops slaughtered black troops who had surrendered at Fort Pillow, Tennessee during the Civil War.  I don't think there would be much celebration of the Confederate flag if stories such as what happened at Fort Pillow were part of the history told in the American educational system.  Well, I take that back.  There might be more celebrating!

So congratulations to the Hamilton East Library for doing your part to keep purity of actions as the false landscape of European American history.  I am enjoying Bennett's book and am thankful that Grace College had the courage to purchase the book for it's holdings and was willing to loan it to the resource rich Hamilton East library.

As I come across more titles and topics by minority authors, I will be nominating the books for purchase by the Hamilton East library.  European Americans need to be given the opportunity to learn the truth about racial issues in this country.  Keeping such books away from white Americans only maintains the status quo of ignorance towards other races and their experiences in these United States of America.

Fishers, Indiana - Public Library With Limited Books by Black Authors - Part 2

Approximately a year ago, I commented on the lack of  books related to African Americans and the experiences of African Americans in the United States.  Well not much has changed in a year.

I recently sought to find the book "Before The Mayflower" by Lerone Bennett Jr.  in the Fishers, Indiana library system.  My search request came back with the results that the book was not in the holdings of the Fishers, Indiana library system.  I queried several other books by black authors with "no results" being the result when I pressed "search".  This prompted me to write a letter to the head of the library as follows:

Hello, Over the past year I have periodically sought books either by African American authors or on topics related to African Americans. On several occasions the library obtained the materials for me via an inter library loan.  I'm thankful for those efforts. Recently I did several searches for the following materials:

1.  The book "Before the Mayflower" by  Lerone Bennett Jr. 2. The book "Blood in their Eyes" by Grif Stickley and 3.  Looked up a book on Ed Dwight the first candidate to become a black astronaut.

On each occasion the search turned up no results.  So I am concerned that the library's offerings are not as diverse as it could be under the published guidelines.  I understand the community does not have a large African American population, but the information available in the books are a source of knowledge to help educate other races and cultures regarding the experience of African American's in this country.

I did comparable searches under such topics as "Ku Klux Klan", "White nationalism" etc. and offerings immediately appeared.  I would like this matter brought to the attention of those responsible for procuring materials for the library.  If needed a resource from the African American community should be contacted to see what are the basic offerings the library lacks regarding the African American experience and interests.  The Board of Trustees appears to suffer from a lack of diversity to fully understand the need for diverse materials.

I also noticed a reference that a group called Friends of the Library also contributes  funds to library operations?

Thank You

Mr. Arnell Hill

The response I received said the following:

Dear Mr. Hill:

I appreciate that you have taken the time to provide this feedback.  It is very valuable.  I will share your concerns and suggestions with our Resource and Access Services staff who are tasked with developing our collections.  It is important to us that our collections are current and reflect the interests and needs of our patrons. 

Do I expect the collection of the library to change?  Nope.  Fishers, Indiana is definitely a majority European American based community.  Diversity is not a strong point of Fishers, Indiana.  Of course Fishers will occasionally feature a black music group at some activities and events.  Also an athlete is always welcomed for display.  That is the reality of some European Americans.  African American athletes and entertainers matter.  Ensuring books by African Americans exist in a library's collection, does not matter.  In terms of a welcoming environment, Fishers really doesn't have a lot to offer an African American family interested in African American culture.