don't you love it when other people make your decisions for you?

without even consulting you? i mean it just makes your life SO much easier, doesn't it?

Sports Illustrated Withholds Swimsuit Issue from Libraries, Schools — March 8, 2007 ~LIBRARYJOURNAL.com
In an unannounced policy change that already has librarians fuming, Sports Illustrated (SI) decided this year to withhold copies of its risque annual swimsuit issue from classrooms and libraries. SI spokesman Rick McCabe acknowledged to LJ that publisher TIME, Inc., neither offered to let libraries opt out of receiving the issue nor announced it beforehand. Though reader mail doesn't indicate that the issue is any racier than before, McCabe gave this explanation: Over the course of time, we've received feedback from some of those institutions saying it wouldn't be an acceptable thing for them to have or to share with their constituents, and the decision was made that this was one way to hopefully alleviate that issue."

Nor was the publisher able to differentiate among academic libraries, public libraries, and school libraries. "It's done as a block," McCabe said. Those institutions that didn't receive an issue can request it either through a toll-free customer-service number or the web site, he said; already some have done so through their serials vendor. While libraries of all types have suffered from the "Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue disappearance syndrome" and thus kept the issue behind the desk, that doesn't mean librarians wanted SI to stop sending it. Writing on the SERIALST electronic discussion list, Lynne Weaver of Randolph-Macon Woman's College reported that her customer service representative told her that the publisher decided it was inappropriate to send to "institutions." She observed, "It seems to me that if one has a subscription to a title, all issues for that subscription period should be sent. It is up to the recipient to decide what to do with the issue once it is received."

i have always hated it when people tell me what to do, being the semi-rebellious, non-conformist that i am. But it really brings out the protester in me when i'm given the illusion of choice then i have it pulled out from under me. When i was in the seventh (or maybe eighth) grade and my biology class was working on their science fair projects we were given a choice of either going to the school library or staying in the classroom and working there. There were only a few of us who wanted to stay in the classroom which is when my biology teacher unilaterally decided that the entire class was going to the library; which was something that this, hitherto shy, quiet, accommodating student, took great offense to and decided that she, for one, was NOT going to the library, NO MATTER WHAT~you got the Taurus bull, Mister, and she shall not be moved. So, i started my own little protest movement, my point being that he had offered us a choice which he then removed just because he was dissatisfied with the results (i find it at least slightly ironic now that i was refusing to go to a library, of all places~maybe i just sensed i would be spending quite enough time there in future days). I managed to gather quite a little following, because hey, student revolt, and Mr. Biology wasn't sure what to do~i ended up in the Principal's office standing on MY principles, and Everyone Else ending up spending their class time in the classroom debating the issue.

In the meantime our library has to call for our Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition so we can put it on our shelves until some adolescent boy decides to relieve us of it...