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TO: PARMLY BILLINGS LIBRARY BOARD FROM: BILL COCHRAN, LIBRARY DIRECTOR JIM PETERS, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR RE: STATEMENT OF CONCERN REGARDING MILLIONS MEETING DATE: DECEMBER 11, 2008 Attached is a copy of a “Statement of Concern About Library Resources” submitted by Amy Melnyk. STATEMENT REQUEST Ms. Melnyk checked out the DVD Millions from the Children’s Services area and did not “think this movie was appropriate to be in kid section as there was a scene where boys were on the internet looking at women’s breasts and it showed an up close shot of a woman’s nipple.” She suggests that we “take it out of the kid section & put a ‘parent advisory’ on it.” She feels that the PG rating is deceiving since it “wasn’t a comedy at all” but that ‘it had scary parts where a bad guy kept creeping up on the kid and threatening him.” BACKGROUND Millions, which was released in 2005, is a well-received movie about two young boys, who have just lost their mother, and who happen on a suitcase of cash that falls from the sky as a result of a bank robbery. The film traces their attempts to decide what best to do with it. The Wall Street Journal called it “joyously funny” and a review on Amazon says that the director “takes a simple premise” and “finds something special to say about the hopes everyone has for the future of a changing world.” Other reviews on Amazon also praised the film. The Library would have purchased the film shortly after it was released. It has four copies that have circulated a total of 83 times. Because the film takes place during Christmas, three of these copies are part of the holiday collection and are made available either during the holidays or by patron request. The fourth copy is always available for checkout. Staff at Children’s Services would have purchased the movie based on the subject matter, the fact that the film features two young boys, and because of the PG rating. STAFF RECOMMENDATION Staff recommends that the movie be placed in the adult video collection rather than its current location in the Children’s section, per Ms. Melnyk’s request. Staff from Children’s Services watched the video and did verify some of the comments ---PAGE BREAK--- made by Ms. Melnyk about brief nudity. The film is rated PG, which would normally place it in Children’s Services, but it mentions “nudity” and “mild sensuality”. Ms. Melnyk also requests that a “parent advisory” label be placed on the video. While Library policy requires that rating, warning and advisory labels placed on items by the publisher or an industry group be maintained on those items no matter how the item is processed or packaged by the Library, staff does not recommend ever taking on the responsibility and role for labeling individual items ourselves. This process would be prohibitively time-consuming, as well as putting the Library and City in a vulnerable legal position due to the subjective nature of such labeling.