Professional development activity: Find, read and analyze a peer-reviewed journal article

Article:Censorship or Selection? Academic Library Holdings Of the Top Ten Most Challenged Books of 2007

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Topic: Censorship

Article Summary

This article is primarily about whether academic library holdings should be censored, or whether it should be up to the library itself to select holdings to preserve academic and intellectual freedom. Unlike schools and public libraries, academic libraries do not have many restrictions and challenges(Best, 2017).

Reflection

I chose this article because of its title.  Why do regular school libraries need to be censored but academic libraries don’t?  Is it because of age?  But why can’t public libraries choose for themselves?  I’m more interested in knowing why there are libraries exempt from censorship than why the research is reviewed in general articles.

I finally understood after reading this article, that the reason why the Academic library can choose its own collection is precise because of the learning needs, there are many different courses in the university, including subjects involving politics, society, and history, so in order to learn  The needs of University students have the opportunity to research controversial books and articles, so academic libraries operate with a stronger sense of academic and intellectual freedom.

Regarding the challenges of public libraries and school libraries, the article mentions that most of the challenges are for artistic and intellectual freedom. According to Anne Scott MacLeod mentioning the issue of children’s literary censorship, the upbringing, training, and conscious education of children Closely related to responsible adults, children’s childhood is managed, directed, organized, and defined by adults, for the good of the child and the good of society. Adults restrict children, often by separating them from some aspect of society and limiting their access to certain knowledge, experience, and resources (including books). Therefore, parents will find reasons to ban books in libraries to prevent children from premature exposure to the dark side of society(Best, 2017).

Before reading this article, I was often shopping for new books thinking about what books are not suitable for children or teens, and what makes books inappropriate.  Because the school I work for is a secondary school, even if the middle school and high school are combined, I need to understand what causes books to be unsuitable for students to read according to the needs of students.  In order to fill these knowledge gaps, I decided to do research on students’ subjects and find out which content was temporarily unsuitable for students at this stage, and I also purchased some books on social issues that were restricted to high school students only.  In addition, the opinions of teachers and parents will be collected to analyze what content they do not want students to contact at this stage, so as to provide students with limited knowledge freedom.

ALA Statement on Book Censorship

According to The American Library Association’s (2021) post about Book Censorship, it opposes broad censorship of books in U.S. schools and libraries. They stated that the ALA is committed to defending the right of people of all ages to freely use library resources and services. They oppose censorship and any coercion, suppression, and punishment of those who disagree and defend freedom of speech, publication, and reading.  Therefore, Libraries should provide as wide a range of views, opinions, and ideas as possible to provide unrestricted access to information.

References

American Library Association (2021). ALA Statement on Book Censorship.  Advocacy, Legislation & Issues. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/statement-regarding-censorship

Best, R. (2017). Censorship or selection? academic library holdings of the top ten most challenged books of 2007. Education Libraries, 33(2), 18. https://doi.org/10.26443/el.v33i2.292