Date: 31/19/2023
Presenter: Susan La Marca, Executive Officer SLAV
Format: Online
Time: 1 hr
Organisers: SLAV
Level: SLAV members: Teacher Librarians and library staff/ administration in Victorian schools
Subject Area: Reading programmes, children and young adult literacy, access, censorship
Objective: Orientation with current children’s and YA book club programmes facilitated in school library environments
Reason for attending: Comprehension of reading trends, potential expedition of book clubs in the FHS and public library environment, understanding of internal and external issues and challenges.
What was learnt: The SLAV webinar introduced a diverse range of guest speakers with experience in successful establishment of eclectic and interesting reading discussion groups.
Christine Peters, Project Officer of Public Libraries Victoria (PLV) initiated the event with presentation of the “Big Summer Read” (BSR), a statewide initiative to promote reading for pleasure over the summer school holidays. The programme aims to reduce the “summer slide” in which developing students (especially from economically disadvantaged backgrounds) potentially lose reading proficiency and literacy skills through extended inactivity. To encourage holiday participation the Big Summer Read engages children and youth through competition with valued prizes. Through promotion of the BSR public libraries are benefitted via incentive for community literacy, patron engagement and increased loans.
Teacher-Librarian Susan O’Malley described the parent and child book club instigated within the elementary grammar school library she manages. The participants are encouraged to read together as families then share questions and motivations as a forum. This practice creates inclusion of parents within the student’s literacy and school experience and has been successfully operating for six years.
Karys Mc Ewan, a school librarian, children’s author and Children’s Book Council of Australia Victorian Branch Vice President discussed her school writers club which has constantly increasing membership.
Barbara Cousens, Library Manager of Cranbourne Secondary College (CSC) facilitates a student group who take part in the CBCA Sun Project Shadowers’ Choice Awards. For two years the collective has participated in shadow judging the shortlist for the Older Reader’s category, experiencing valued opinions, text analysis and response, teamwork and communication skills.
Children’s author and winner of many YA writers’ awards Shivaun Plozzer shared her latest publication “Meet me at the Moon Tree” and conversed on her inspirations, engagement with readers and forums, and determination for relevant freedom of information in youth access.
Finally Head Librarian Kelsey Peterson introduced her “Banned Books Club” for year nine to twelve students at a prestigious grammar academy. The group’s purpose is to read and review YA literature that has been challenged and prohibited over time, especially in the USA. Their discussions are founded in intellectual freedom, individual rights and rising censorship due to controversial topics including LGBTQIA, racial diversity and morality issues, and the consequences on young Australian readers.
Relationship to work or study
I was introduced to many previously unfamiliar children and YA books and authors, increasing my repertoire of readers advisory material in both my school and public library employment. The facilitation of reading interest groups has instilled new ideas toward potential programming for patron and community engagement.
The resounding outcome however emanated from the latter two speakers. A seed was planted from which I wanted to learn more about censorship, rights and freedom of information practices in Australian youth literature. These concepts are directly relevant to YA information requests and reference interviews towards appropriate material within CSU’s INF211: Information Sources and Services; INF210: Collections; INF330 Library Services for Children and Youth; INF205: Literature and Other Resources for Children and Youth and INF329: Leadership in Library services for Children and Youth.
As further professional development activities I decided to examine Plozza’s dissertation on censorship in Australian young adult literature “The troll under the bridge: should Australian publishers of young adult literature act as moral-gatekeepers?” (2015) and view former executive director of the American Libraries Association (ALA) Tracie D Hall’s webinar “Dangerous Ideas: The Right to Read Freely” (2023) presented by the State Library of Victoria. I also set myself the task of reading several of the “Top 13 Most Challenged Books of 2022” as presented by the ALA to try to comprehend censorship further, supported by appraisal of “Brought to book : censorship and school libraries in Australia” (Williams & Dillon, 1993) and International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) “Guidelines for library services for young adults” (2020).
My intention is to utilise comprehension of censorship issues and familiarisation of text to engage students in future reading discussions, clubs and potential school presentations founded in their own intellectual freedoms and rights.
References
American Library Association (ALA). (2024). Top 13 most challenged books of 2022. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10
International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. (2020). Guidelines for library services for young adults. https://www.ifla.org/files/assets/libraries-for-children-and-ya/publications/ya-guidelines2-en.pd
Plozza, S. (2015).The troll under the bridge: should Australian publishers of young adult literature act as moral-gatekeepers? http://www.textjournal.com.au/speciss/issue32/Plozza.pdf
Williams, C.L & Dillon, K. (1993). Ch 6: Preparing for the censor. In Brought to book : censorship and school libraries in Australia. In CSU Library for ETL503. https://primo.csu.edu.au/discovery/delivery/61CSU_INST:61CSU/12131784960002357.