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“Lucky” Librarians March 1, 2007

Posted by sbrisco in : Community , add a comment

The recent controversy among librarians (and apparently the media) has been over the Newbery Award Winning title “The Higher Power of Lucky” by Susan Patron. Even though the controversy began over the use of a single word, the discussion has evolved into a serious debate between librarians over the difference between censorship and selection. With many librarians stating that they won’t censor the book but rather choose not to select it, others are simply refusing to buy the book. Still others report that they won’t support the book if it becomes a challenged title in their libraries for fear of losing their jobs….What?

Perhaps it is time to ask some important questions.

If you are a librarian who understands the responsibilities of the job(and the risks involved), do you bend to public pressures to remove titles (or not select them) because of what “might” happen or do you truly accept the responsibilities that most librarians have been taught regarding the right to read and the right to access information?

In this matter, we are talking about a “word” in a book…in many books that are challenged, we are talking about words, actions, or ideas that are considered “wrong” by those whose opinions are
different from those expressed in the book. When this happens we allow for a process to occur in which we review the entire work to determine if it there is merit…. is it worth retaining? Most of us will select materials based upon written reviews in professional sources and develop our collections based upon our instructional curriculum and the community standards; however, if collection development is done based upon the fear of losing our jobs or if we allow others ourside of our profession to make those selections for us through intimidation, then we need to take a hard look at ourselves and our profession.

Part of every graduate level course in library science is the study of censorship and those who attempt to censor information. When we bend to the pressure to remove a book for fear of “losing a job” or “losing a paycheck”….I really wonder if our profession has lost one of the most important aspects that we so desperately need in a democratic society? If we do not stand up and defend the rights of others to access information, if we do not defend the freedom to read, then, in my opinion, we do not need to be in the profession. Anyone can retreat in the heat of battle…but who among us now has the professional stamina to continue to defend the rights of others who cannot fight this battle at this moment in time? What will be lost if we continue to retreat? Today it may be “Lucky”…but tomorrow it could be YOUR favorite book…or more importantly, our nation’s most important liberty…the freedom of choice.

Having a job is important, supporting the curriculum is important, but beyond that is the ethical responsibility of preserving what we, as librarians, are called to do….provide access to information and defend our professional choices based upon a selection policy that reflects the standards of our community. If you have selected a book because of professional reviews that also reflect a part of the curriculum (as a Newbery title would be), then be strong enough, be professional enough, and be prepared enough to stand up to protect your professional decisions against the opinions or beliefs of others who want to restrict the access of that information from ALL individuals, rather than just their own children or themselves.

Individuals may choose NOT to read a book within your collection
because of their personal beliefs, but they do NOT have the right to
restrict EVERYONE from the accessibility of that material because of

their personal belief. If you have selected this book (or any book)
for your collection based upon the professional reviews and your curriculum guidelines, then you must also accept the responsibility as a professional librarian to defend it against the
questions, opinions,and criticisms of others who do not want it within your collection.

If you do not stand up to protect the right of access to information,
then there is no need for a library…

…so, eventually, you lose (your job) either way.

AASL Draft Learning Standards Wiki

Posted by Laura Pearle in : Community , add a comment

In order to recognize the changing role of school library media programs now and in the future, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), is developing new learning standards for school library media programs. On March 1, 2007, AASL is launching an interactive wiki about the new standards and invites members to make live changes to the draft document.

http://wikis.ala.org/aasllearningstandards

The AASL Learning Standards Rewrite Task Force has presented two drafts to the profession for input and comments: the first one in November 2006 and the second one at the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Seattle in January 2007.

“The task force invites everyone interested to participate in creating this important document for our future,” said Gail K. Dickinson, task force co-chair. “We urge those who have already provided feedback on past drafts, as well as those who have not had a chance to comment, to use the wiki and add their ideas to the draft.”

In addition to the draft for edit, the task force has posted two additional versions of the draft learning standards as read-only supporting documents. They are available on the wiki page.
http://wikis.ala.org/aasllearningstandards

The AASL Learning Standards Rewrite Task Force will be following the progress of the draft and will carefully consider all edits and suggestions when the editing period ends on March 15, 2007. General comments may be sent to learningstandards@ala.org.

The members of the AASL Learning Standards Task Force include co-chairs Gail K. Dickinson and Cassandra Barnett, Eugene Hainer, Melissa P. Johnston, Marcia A. Mardis, and Barbara K. Stripling.

State Book Awards

Posted by ayucht in : Check this out! , 2 comments

Do your state associations (library, reading, etc.) give annual book awards?
How are the titles selected… and then announced?

Example: The Garden State Book Awards from the Children’s and Adult/Young Adult Sections of the New Jersey Library Association.

What are the award winners in your state?

Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?

Posted by mkowalsky in : Community , add a comment

A new television game show on FOX can be both a teaching tool and a humbling experience for its audience. “Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?” hosted in prime time by comedian Jeff Foxworthy, proves to be both ironic (even my household audience got less than 50% correct!) and alarming (you can win $50,000 for knowing that the sun is the closest star to earth, or that mixing red and yellow in equal parts yields orange). Students from San Diego and Los Angeles are the 5th Grade Team that helps the adults “peek” and “cheat” when they don’t know the answers, which is quite often (more than you’d imagine).

One of last night’s questions was a true or false one: “Fiction books are not assigned numbers in the Dewey Decimal System.” The right answer given by the show was “False.” All five of the 5th grade students got this question right, and the adult contestant guessed and got it right also. But much discussion has ensued among librarians on the show’s message boards about how fiction books in elementary school are categorized with letters and not numbers, therefore making the correct answer “True.” What do you think? Do fantasy and mythology, great literature, or riddles count as “fiction books” in this instance (”False”)? Or would the “3rd Grade Reading” category in which this question appeared necessitate an answer from practice, not from AACR2 (”True”). You be the judge — give your comments here!