Death of the Printed Word?

The CPSIA, a law intended to protect our children from lead and phthalates (a chemical that makes plastics soft), has taken a wrong turn and I am especially concerned with its decree that books printed prior to 1985 should NOT be available to children. In response to my previous blogs, I have heard some sad and alarming stories reflecting the repercussions of this mandate.

But what if this is the beginning of a trend? The CPSIA tells libraries they must "sequester" these children's books--keep them, but not let them be available to children. Then, Half Price Books removing half their children's inventory and the resulting lack of availability to foreign buyers who rely on these sources for children's books.

Taken a step further, we have the story from Australia, where the library management decided they were no longer a "research" library, but a "lending" library and removed all books printed prior to 2000.

Yesterday, the top news story was about the newspapers that are going out of business. The great San Francisco Chronicle, once owned by William Randolph Hearst of newspaper fame.

It makes me wonder if we are seeing the beginning of the end of the printed word. Hopefully, it will be a long road, but the prospect of my children's children getting all their reading material off the internet or their iBooks saddens me deeply.

Compare the incomparable photographs of Life magazine to the video clips from cell phones we are seeing on our news. Yes, it's instant. Yes, it's there. But it's hardly art; hardly memorable.

Besides the loss of the leisure of reading a good book, the smell and feel of paper between your fingers, the suspense of turning the page, and the lovely illustrations that can only be fully appreciated in printed form, what pitfalls lie before us?

Eventually, will we have a central online library? Who will control what we see? How much easier to track who is reading what--our own government wants libraries to provide this information to them today, but libraries have fought to protect our privacy--our freedom of reading--preferring to provide the information only where a lawful warrant is provided.

If centralized, how easy to eliminate what is embarassing or block what is unflattering. It's happening today. Type "Tiananmen Square" in a search engine in China and you will see a list of travel highlights but no mention of the massacre of July 5, 1989.

These things may not come to pass, but it is worth considering the ramifications if this were to happen.

Hopefully, our children won't be looking back on history and thinking 'I wonder why my parents didn't try to stop this from happening?'

Half Price Books Unstocks CPSIA Children's Books

In response to my previous blog on the CPSIA law banning the sale and distribution of pre-1985 books to children, I have received the following note, printed verbatim and with permission:

I have experienced the severity of this issue first-hand. I run the children's section at Half Price Books (a used book store, for those of you who don't know, though most of the kids books are new- remainder or overstock from publishing houses that we buy and sell at a discount), and a few weeks ago we had to purge anything and everything from the section that could potentially contain harmful levels of lead. Fortunately, the Powers That Be deemed any ink used on paper to be safe; in other words, plain ol' books are fine, and we can keep selling them.

As many of you know, however, kids books often come with all kinds of extras: markers, lights, sounds, mirrors, toys, etc. The criteria we were given for what books we needed to pull from the shelves included many of these extras. Specifically, we were told to pull anything that was made in either China or Mexico that contained metal, painted wood, or mirrors.

Initially, it didn't seem like this would have much of an impact on the kids section, but as I went through my section pulling everything that was potentially harmful, I soon realized that this was going to decimate my section. My display tables were over halfway empty, and there were half-empty or completely empty shelves all throughout the section. We had to get rid of some really wonderful books and kits, including a stack of about ten Disney DVD board games that we had just received not a week before. The kids cooking shelf went from being packed full to only having half a dozen books left, all because most of the cookbooks were spiral-bound with metal.

We didn't throw away the books; we packed them all up and sent them to our district warehouse. The books will be tested for lead levels, and we might get back the books that are considered safe. As for the rest of the books, Half Price Books will try to get reimbursed by the vendors and publishers who sold the books to us.

I've spent the last few weeks fervently trying to rebuild the children's section, but, despite the volume of children's books that are sold to the store, it's been a slow process. I still have empty shelves that used to be full, though the section doesn't look quite so emaciated anymore.

The day that I had to get rid of all those books was one of the roughest days I've ever had at work. The kids section is my pride and joy, my baby, and I had to not only watch it get torn apart- I had to do it myself. It was heartbreaking.

From Jackie (who wrote from her Etsy shop at EasyOnTheEyes)

CPSIA and Vintage Children's Books

I just ran across a box of my childhood books. Precious volumes with lovely illustrations, the smell of vintage paper, memories of my grandmother who gave me many of them...and illegal to share with children.

These books were all published before 1985 and according to the CPSIA there is lead in the ink that is dangerous to children. And, as a matter of fact, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) has done lead testing on these books and determined that it is within the stated CPSIA standards. BUT despite that, according to the law, such books may not be sold or even given away to children. In fact, they really aren't supposed to go to adult collections because they are CHILDREN'S books, and therefore at some point they might be read by children. God forbid.

I guess I wasn't in the habit of eating books when I was a child, but, except for the cardboard books geared for infants and toddlers, I haven't ever seen a child chew on a book. This I've seen with my own eyes at the library...but, then I think there is a much more likely danger of these children catching a cold or the flu from their teething on these public books.

As far as I know, there's never even been a study to determine if these books have ever harmed a child. I had lots of them and I'm considered pretty smart. I'm an artist and have my own business. I guess that means both my left AND my right brain are working well.

But, sadly, bookstores are throwing out their vintage children's books. Thrift stores will no longer accept contributions of these books. The libraries are, for the most part, still in shock.

Oh yes, the CPSIA offered a reprieve of one year. For now, they aren't going to require the books to be tested for lead (which destroys the books), but they're still liable for the lead content and can be prosecuted, if not by the federal government, then our state governments.


So, in a way, I guess an aspect of George Orwell's, 1984 has come true. In one year, our government may just have us burning all those pre-1985 children's books.

Shame on them.

If this concerns you, please write your federal legislators, requesting them to save these books from the CPSIA. Here are links to your U.S. Congressional Representatives and Senators.

And, please, share this information with your family, friends, and associates, so that they can add their voices to saving the books.

Here are links to my (January) blogs on other aspects of the CPSIC (yes, unfortunately, there's a lot more to this law).

* How will the CPSIA affect you?
* DATELINE February 10, 2009: Ham Sandwich Lunch Soars to $10,080.

Update 2/25/2009--I've been getting some marvelous responses offline. Here are other sites these folks have shared with me that discuss the issue:

* American Library Association
* Parentdish

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