I was at the library yesterday and when I was looking over the new releases, I was shocked to see How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got A Life on the shelves. Why was it there? Is there no library policy about plagiarized material?

I brought this up with the librarians. The first one I spoke to had only vaguely heard of the whole debacle, so she asked her higher up, who told me that they hadn’t made a decision about whether they would pull it or not yet but that there was (apparently) no formal policy.

I’m not shocked that they’ve made no decision–I can understand that a decision on pulling a book needs to take time and that as the guardians of books, they must be careful. What I don’t understand is how there is no policy in place about ADMITTEDLY plagiarized material existing in a library. Should there not even be an insert from the library alerting readings to the goings on in regards to the book? Something?

My concern is that it is just out there on the shelves for anyone to read and it feels not right to me that it should be given this privelege. In fact, it feels wrong. All wrong.

What do you think? Is this book in your town library? Do you think it should be? Does your library have a policy about plagiarized material? I’m truly curious.