Censorship Issues in School Libraries

This article brings up interesting points when dealing with reading materials in school.

The Information Policy Blog

Censorship Issues in School Libraries
by Shannon Mills

Censorship can occur “anytime a book or other library material is removed from its intended audience”[1]. Libraries often face challenges from patrons who desire to have material they find offensive removed from the collection. 139 challenges to materials were reported in Canadian libraries in 2009 [2], and 348 challenges to materials were reported in US libraries in 2010[3].

Furthermore, an estimated 85 percent of challenges are unreported and receive no media attention[4]. The CLA Statement on Intellectual Freedom claims it “is the responsibility of libraries to guarantee and facilitate access to all expressions of knowledge and intellectual activity, including those which some elements of society may consider to be unconventional, unpopular or unacceptable”[5]. According to Article III of ALA’s Library Bill of Rights, “libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment”[6].

This article discusses…

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Welcome to the Land of I-have-no-idea-how-to-traverse-the-interwebs

This course is going to be equal parts amazing and scary as I have no idea how to work on the internet as a successful human being. My strategy thus far in life has been to randomly click buttons and surf YouTube tutorials until something resembling what I have been instructed to do occurs.

To those of you who have been selected to survey my work, I would like to apologize in advance. And to hopefully put you in an excellent mood while you are marking, here are some happy pictures. (They say that if you force your kidnappers to know you, they identify with you as a person and are less likely to murder or maim you. I figure if I force you to get to know me you will at least feel guilty if you murder my GPA)

So here are a few things to humanize me:

1. I am a real-life person with hopes and dreams and all that…

I recently came back from  Lille, France where I completed an exchange program through the U of A. One day I hope to teach English internationally and this was the first step to determining if I could handle living abroad. I loved everything about the months I spent there, except for my Uni classes, and spent most of my time neglecting homework so that I could travel around Europe.

#2 I have a family…even if they are all certifiable.

Have no fear, we have parents too, it is just that any photos that have all of us in them from this year’s shoot were taken by grandma. So those are all videos of us awkwardly smiling in between telling her to make sure that she switched it to camera mode… oh grandma.

Why we are all squatting in a pile of Kale in the garden I have no idea. Mom took charge at this point and we decided it was safest not to mess with her “artistic eye”.

 

#3. I have other skills that redeem me as a person, even if I suck at computers…

For example, I can find Waldo every time!

 

Ok, so “Skill” is probably an exaggeration. But truly, if you are ever slogging your way through a where’s Waldo, I am the person to call. 100% satisfaction or your money back.

 

Anyway, now that you are hopefully in a cheerful mood, continue on to my modules.

Good luck to you.