Turns out they were a publicity stunt put on by the government.

Those books are still on our shelves. But that information is about as true as Powerball strategies…. Is it actually censorship to pull a book that’s a hoax?

(We do have comparatively more useful books on gambling which I don’t like but I’m ok with having because I believe they’re factual)

We all know that the lottery is not a way to make money, but I’m guessing a lot of your library users play the lottery and would therefore find the book of use. Just because I personally don’t like the lottery doesn’t mean I, as a librarian, can pull that book from the shelf. Just my opinion!

I’m of the opinion that a book should be removed due to a lack of circulation, being old, or the material in it outdated. Requesting books be removed due to objections to the content is a slippery slope.

Yet really: beating the odds at Powerball is at base a stupid premise. Should we censor stupidity? Possibly not. Probably not.

But should the taxpayer dollar actively support stupidity? Well…it already does. All those state lotteries, Powerball included, are supported by the taxpayer, who profits mightily from them. Indeed, this book will redound greatly to the taxpayer benefit. So that argument doesn’t hold water.

Overall, I guess I come down in favor of stocking the stupid book. Annoyingly enough.

I understand what we mean though. Should we really be censoring what people read, then putting books with bad advice on the shelves?

I don’t think we should. A bad personal finance book can be just as damaging to some people as a book on terrorism.

And lets face it, if someone wants to blow something up, they’ll find out how to do it whether they can get a library book on the subject or not. I really hate any censorship in reading.

I’ve read some weird books when I was younger, and I let my son read what he likes – even Marilyn Manson stuff. We don’t have to agree with what we read – the more we can read and learn and make up our own minds about stuff the better. It helps us make sense of the world.

This is not to suggest that removing “Huckleberry Finn” and “Catcher in the Rye” from school libraries is a good idea. The people who suggest and/or agree to that are knuckleheads. But it’s not banning and it’s not censorship.

However, when you say it’s not circulating much, it doesn’t do your case much good that someone has the book out right now. Obviously, it’s circulating a little, so I wonder how honest you’re being with yourself on that score. (I am reminded of when I got out Finnegan’s Wake from my local library several years ago, I was the first person ever to take it out though it had been in the library for at least thirty years. I don’t think they ever considered pulling it off the shelves.)

The book is probably terrible and, moreover, if you’re right about how old it is, it’s probably out of date even if it had good advice (the odds to Powerball changed a few years ago). But you’re not quite correct about Powerball. While the odds don’t change and there is very likely no number-picking strategy which could possibly succeed, there is one important variable which does change. The jackpot changes and, before they changed the odds at least (I don’t know about now), there were times when the jackpot occasionally reached such a high level that buying a Powerball ticket could have a positive expectation, i.e. the present value of a ticket was likely worth more than the $1 you paid. I still wouldn’t recommend bothering to buy even at those times since the variance is absolutely enormous so this is a super high-risk investment. It is also at least theoretically possible that the Powerball people are not as smart about rotating their machines and adjusting them as they ought to be, i.e. it is within the realm of possibility that some of their machines (or the balls used in them) are biased and that this can be used to a gambler’s advantage. I seriously doubt this, but it’s not impossible. So it’s not the case that nothing useful can be said about Powerball. As I said, though, the book you’re talking about is likely fraudulent.

Racer has a good point. When we take on the role of being a guardian for the public at large, our “scope of responsibility” is so blurred.

Some guardians may do things that they think is right, while the “guarded” will scream their heads off.

The best is to leave the book as it is, unless it violates the library’s older books to make way for newer books rule or something like that.

Anyone who read that book and invests his money in Powerball would probably have already wired all his money to the Nigerian Prince who has US$200m in a secret bank account.