Mulhern: I share your belief in library neutrality, and I think it's entirely possible that even librarians who scrupulously try not to impose their own views in their work may do so in ways they're not aware of. So, this is just a comment on one of your points: how it might be that there are so few books on Justice Thomas. First, if we include the circumstances that placed Justice Thomas on the Supreme Court, there are actually many books. They may not be about him in a way you're counting, but they're definitely out there. I've used many in my research. Second, if we make the assumption that books of the sort you might count as being about Justice Thomas would be conservative--a fair assumption, I think--it wouldn't be accurate to assume that conservative books just can't get published. Virtually every mainstream publishing house has a conservative imprint, and books by and about conservatives are frequently published. So, why so few books about Justice Thomas (of the sort you would be likely to count)? I don't know the answer to that, but I do research on contemporary conservative thought, and I'm confident it's not because conservatives can't get published. Maybe there are other reasons you're not considering.
I think a more systematic study would turn up more evidence of the same bias. However, without a purpose built web crawler, the data is going to be a bit hard to obtain.
Also, quite vacuous children's bios are coming out constantly, which explains Justice Jackson's high children's numbers. It's just that Justice Thomas has been deemed not worthy of the vacuous children's bio, by some sort of universal agreement.
Out of curiosity I did a search on juvenile books on Clarence Thomas and found three:
Clarence Thomas: Fighter with Words-- published 2003 (dated), with a mixed review from School Library Journal that is listed on Amazon. Worldcat lists it in 140 libraries.
Clarence Thomas: The Things He Learned-- published 2021 by Post Hill Press (independent press). Worldcat lists it in 48 libraries. I couldn't find any reviews.
Wouldn't a better methodology be to find out how many books have been published on each Justice in the last ten years, then see how many of those were purchased by the libraries? If there's no books published on Alito, they can't be purchased. Also, if they were published, but not purchased, why? Maybe because they were "self published" by the Little Brothers of the Nazis after being reproduced on a photocopier. Maybe many of the libraries only buy books reviewed in Library Journal or the budget for biographies has been slashed.
This sounds like a better methodology to me rather than imputing bias somewhere in the chain, at least it would introduce more context and a larger picture for understanding the presence or absence of books about *individuals* within the group of Supreme Court Justices and at least attempt to imagine the motivations for publishing/not publishing and the willingness of authors--scholars, journalists, citizens--for even writing about them.
I would agree with the bias being everywhere. I suggested that the children's department at my library included the book Thomas Sowell - A Self Made Man and Amy Coney Barrett - A Justice and a Mother as there were no children's books (at the time) about either figure. The series of more conservative biographies had been well reviewed in the Wall Street Journal.
The library refused to by either claiming the books weren't critical enough of either person. As of today there are no children's books about Thomas Sowell in this County system and one book about Amy Coney Barrett. Contrast that with 14 books about Ketanji Brown Jackson.
I'm at the point of buying "A Self Made Man" and just donating it to my local library. Their refusal, if they went with it, would really make the point. And If they accepted it, well good, that's progress. (You and I both know the library's objections were specious. They buy lower quality books, all the time, about more popular subjects).
I think that it is very likely that vendors are an important component of the bias. Until recently, I had no idea how far from independent are the choices individual libraries make for purchase.
Excellent article - Thank-you for covering this important topic! :)
Fwiw, I checked to see if the most prominent conservative publisher, Regnery, has a juvenile imprint - They do not, which leads me to believe it's simply a business decision. The good news, however, is that a new imprint, Heroes of Liberty, has started producing biographies on a range of figures, including SCOTUS justices like Amy Coney Barrett -- Baby steps....
They have a biography of Thomas Sowell. I asked my local public library to purchase the book, on general principles, it did not. It would also be interesting to find out whether public libraries purchase books from this publisher at all.
I've seen books like this on the $1 shelf in the lobby of our last library. Not out of date, just not something they want on their shelves, I guess. Maybe someone donated these also.
Thanks for your work on this!
Mulhern: I share your belief in library neutrality, and I think it's entirely possible that even librarians who scrupulously try not to impose their own views in their work may do so in ways they're not aware of. So, this is just a comment on one of your points: how it might be that there are so few books on Justice Thomas. First, if we include the circumstances that placed Justice Thomas on the Supreme Court, there are actually many books. They may not be about him in a way you're counting, but they're definitely out there. I've used many in my research. Second, if we make the assumption that books of the sort you might count as being about Justice Thomas would be conservative--a fair assumption, I think--it wouldn't be accurate to assume that conservative books just can't get published. Virtually every mainstream publishing house has a conservative imprint, and books by and about conservatives are frequently published. So, why so few books about Justice Thomas (of the sort you would be likely to count)? I don't know the answer to that, but I do research on contemporary conservative thought, and I'm confident it's not because conservatives can't get published. Maybe there are other reasons you're not considering.
I think a more systematic study would turn up more evidence of the same bias. However, without a purpose built web crawler, the data is going to be a bit hard to obtain.
I might be able to help you with the "purpose built web crawler" if you're interested in developing that thought.
Rust or Python?
Lisp.
Racket?
No. Common Lisp. SBCL
I've built crawlers before.
Also, quite vacuous children's bios are coming out constantly, which explains Justice Jackson's high children's numbers. It's just that Justice Thomas has been deemed not worthy of the vacuous children's bio, by some sort of universal agreement.
Out of curiosity I did a search on juvenile books on Clarence Thomas and found three:
Clarence Thomas: Fighter with Words-- published 2003 (dated), with a mixed review from School Library Journal that is listed on Amazon. Worldcat lists it in 140 libraries.
Clarence Thomas: The Things He Learned-- published 2021 by Post Hill Press (independent press). Worldcat lists it in 48 libraries. I couldn't find any reviews.
Clarence Thomas: Conservative Supreme Court Justice-- recommended in SLJ (https://www.slj.com/story/brilliant-minds-brilliant-lives-biography-series-nonfiction-series-made-simple), published in 2019 by Cavendish Square. Worldcat lists it in 76 libraries.
I could only find one juvenile book on Kentanji Brown Jackson in Worldcat but two others on Amazon.
Further analysis obviously needed. Appreciate your research on this.
I'll give you a link: https://mvlc.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/mvlc/search/results?qu=ketanji+brown+jackson&te=&rt=false%7C%7C%7CSUBJECT%7C%7C%7CSubject . I presume all these books are coming from the book retailers, like Baker and Taylor, most likely.
Wouldn't a better methodology be to find out how many books have been published on each Justice in the last ten years, then see how many of those were purchased by the libraries? If there's no books published on Alito, they can't be purchased. Also, if they were published, but not purchased, why? Maybe because they were "self published" by the Little Brothers of the Nazis after being reproduced on a photocopier. Maybe many of the libraries only buy books reviewed in Library Journal or the budget for biographies has been slashed.
This sounds like a better methodology to me rather than imputing bias somewhere in the chain, at least it would introduce more context and a larger picture for understanding the presence or absence of books about *individuals* within the group of Supreme Court Justices and at least attempt to imagine the motivations for publishing/not publishing and the willingness of authors--scholars, journalists, citizens--for even writing about them.
Bias _everywhere_ in the chain.
I would agree with the bias being everywhere. I suggested that the children's department at my library included the book Thomas Sowell - A Self Made Man and Amy Coney Barrett - A Justice and a Mother as there were no children's books (at the time) about either figure. The series of more conservative biographies had been well reviewed in the Wall Street Journal.
The library refused to by either claiming the books weren't critical enough of either person. As of today there are no children's books about Thomas Sowell in this County system and one book about Amy Coney Barrett. Contrast that with 14 books about Ketanji Brown Jackson.
I'm at the point of buying "A Self Made Man" and just donating it to my local library. Their refusal, if they went with it, would really make the point. And If they accepted it, well good, that's progress. (You and I both know the library's objections were specious. They buy lower quality books, all the time, about more popular subjects).
Would the vendors who send the books be the choke point?
I think that it is very likely that vendors are an important component of the bias. Until recently, I had no idea how far from independent are the choices individual libraries make for purchase.
Excellent article - Thank-you for covering this important topic! :)
Fwiw, I checked to see if the most prominent conservative publisher, Regnery, has a juvenile imprint - They do not, which leads me to believe it's simply a business decision. The good news, however, is that a new imprint, Heroes of Liberty, has started producing biographies on a range of figures, including SCOTUS justices like Amy Coney Barrett -- Baby steps....
They have a biography of Thomas Sowell. I asked my local public library to purchase the book, on general principles, it did not. It would also be interesting to find out whether public libraries purchase books from this publisher at all.
Heroes of Liberty is a good step for publishing but my library refused to even place donated copies from that series into their collections.
Woah!
I've seen books like this on the $1 shelf in the lobby of our last library. Not out of date, just not something they want on their shelves, I guess. Maybe someone donated these also.