Content: Reading Advisory
Type: Podcast
Length: 1 Hour
Level: Library Professionals
Organisers: School Librarians United
Presenters: Amy Hermon and Steve Tetreault
Format: A one hour podcast
Reflection
Objectives: This episode of School Librarians United focused on the American phenomenon that is currently underway where there is an effort to censor and remove materials from school libraries based on knee-jerk reactions to material that some consider inappropriate, such as LGBT issues and racist language. Steve, the guest, spoke about things librarians can do in order to protect themselves and their collections from this censorship.
Reasons for attending: I listened to this podcast as I wanted to gain an understanding of what is happening in America with my fellow school library professionals, trying to understand the practicalities of what is happening. This isn’t something we have to worry about in Australia at present, certainly not where I work, where we are afforded a lot of freedom in our collection, but in the event that there are complaints, I want to know how to deal with those in a proper manner.
Relation to studies and learning outcomes: This relates closely to ideas of social justice, as well as user experience and considerations; the parents certainly might have a right to question the material in certain books, but is it worth taking away those experiences from students. From this I learnt a lot about protecting the collection, and the importance of being able to present reasons and evidence for holding certain items, particularly in terms of the impact of these books on students; the podcast mentioned how a lot of these books represent marginalized students, or historical significance, and argued that education and freedom of knowledge is a much better way to deal with these themes, as opposed to censorship.
Future Uses: Again, this isn’t a problem for Australia as a whole, nor for me personally at present, but as this phenomenon gains more media notoriety, there may be some influence on Australian libraries, so it is important to know how to counteract any of these censorship attempts with academic evidence and reasoning.
Evidence: Screenshot during podcast
Screenshot during podcast
Link: https://schoollibrariansunited.libsyn.com/162-fighting-censorship