Firstly, I must start by stating that I am not yet working in the library environment so my understanding of how censorship affects the selection, acquisition and categorisation in my school library is extremely limited.

After reading Moody’s paper on covert censorship in libraries it really did resonate with me just how difficult it is, even for the most well-intentioned librarian, to completely eradicate censorship and to develop a school library collection that truly reflects the rights of all to freedom of information. Firstly, it is my understanding that resources are often selected from the promotions and publications of major publishing houses. I think that this is partly due to the fact that most resources acquired in this way is to serve the recreational needs of the school community as opposed to the educational needs or to resource the curriculum. My school library is only a small space so much of the shelving is devoted to fiction books and many educational resources are either purchased in electronic forms or purchased for teachers and stored in their respective faculty offices for use in their classroom.

Another factor that impacts how resources are selected is the limited time given to the teacher librarian to source materials. As we only have two librarians (one who is primary-based and one who is secondary-based), I feel that they do not have the time to peruse alternative book publishing companies to source materials that offer alternative viewpoints on an issue. As stated in Moody’s discussion paper, “you don’t know what you don’t know” so I would question if our teacher librarians are even aware of some of the less mainstream resources available for purchase.

A big consideration in my school that would affect the censorship of books and other resources is the considerations of the School Board and the parent body. My school is a conservative private school and the students and their parents are very much seen as “clients”. Therefore, I think that the purchase of books considered “controversial” would very much be influenced by the ethos and agenda of the Board of Governors and particularly by the fee-paying parents.

I found the section in the Moody article about the inclusion of resources that perhaps include violence or opposing viewpoints on controversial topics such as the Holocaust an interesting one. This section of the paper was disappointingly brief and perhaps raised more questions than answers but did lead me to consider the debate over whether to include these kinds of resources in a school library where students are young, impressionable and perhaps emotionally too immature to fully understand or process the content in some of these types of books and resources.