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President's Column

10/18/2022

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MSLA President Jen Varney is the Librarian at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. School in Cambridge, MA 

Welcome to the 2022-2023 school year! I have high hopes for the coming months. With one year of post-remote learning behind us, I won’t say that we can return to normal, because such a return is not possible, but I do think that routines and momentum will come a little easier.

​It is good that our work with students may get easier, too, because there are other aspects of our work that are about to get more difficult. Already we have seen more visible book challenges in Massachusetts during the first six weeks of school than there have been in the last three years, they are appearing in the news, on the MSLA listserv, and in conversations. The challengers are well organized and intent on their mission.

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Academic Column: Helping administrators learn the role of school libraries

10/18/2022

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Deeth Ellis is the Head Librarian at Boston Latin School in Boston, MA, and a Doctoral Student, School of Library Science, Simmons University

Early indications from the data collected during my study, Principals’ Perceptions of the Role of School Librarians, suggest principals rely heavily on their own school librarian to learn about school librarianship. While not a surprise to many school librarians, this over-reliance on school librarians may be one of the factors that impact staffing in schools and districts. According to Gordon & Cicchetti (2018), Massachusetts’ “​​school administrators were reported by participants [librarians] as the primary enablers of equitable access to the school library program (instruction, resources, access to the library)” (p.106). Without the principal's understanding, attention, and care, the role of the school librarian can diminish, become obsolete, and even be eliminated.

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Picture Book Column: #OwnVoices, Authentic Voices

10/18/2022

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Francesca Mellin is the Head Librarian at The Pike School in Andover, MA.

In the ephemeral world of hashtags, #OwnVoices has been around for a long time. In 2015, author Corinne Duyvis first recommended it on Twitter as a possible way to recommend children’s literature about diverse characters written by authors from that same diverse group. Since then, its popularity has grown, and some have raised concerns about the term. In June 2021, We Need Diverse Books announced that it would no longer use the term, stating that the broader use of the hashtag by the publishing industry is problematic and potentially unsafe for authors with marginalized identities. More recently, Grace Lapoint offered a detailed critique of the term in a Book Riot post, voicing concern that it had been weaponized, especially by readers.

When I recommend books to faculty, I have started to use the term “authentic voice” instead of “own voice,” and have become much more diligent about researching what authors say about their works so I can speak as accurately as possible. These are some of my favorite recent picture books that have authenticity at their core.

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Cataloging Column: I give you permission to bin it

10/18/2022

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Gillian Bartoo is the District Cataloger for Cambridge Public Schools in Cambridge, MA

I’ve had it with Dewey— well— let me explain. Over the last few years I’ve spent a lot of time in our elementary schools, trying to pay attention to what actually happens there as our librarians interact with our kids. And I’ve been really racking my brain trying to figure out how to make Dewey easier for them, managing collections, for helping teachers teach, and for teaching students how to be independent library users. One of the quickest and easiest ways I’ve seen that is a good compromise between these two very different and often oppositional tasks is binning by Dewey.

I do want to emphasize that this is not my idea. I’ve seen it popping up in several libraries these past few years in certain collections areas (sports, vehicles) and this summer helped turn a tired and traditionally shelved non-fiction collection into a really attractive and engaging children’s library.

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Graphic Novels Column: Medium Matters: Comics in the Classroom~ Notes from the Field

10/18/2022

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Liza Halley is the Library Teacher at Plympton Elementary School in Waltham, MA

In this article I want to start off discussing some language I use when talking about the medium of comics. People often ask me: What’s the difference between a graphic novel and a comic? What do you mean by comics in the classroom? What classroom are you talking about? Which teachers are you referring to? Here’s a simple boilerplate to explain:
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Secondary Column: Notes from the Middle: Helping relieve students from the paradox of choice

10/18/2022

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Colleen Simpson is the Library Media Specialist at Lester J. Gates Middle School in Scituate, MA

Picture it, it’s time for a whole grade level to pick out independent reading books. They come to your library in droves. As they arrive at the circulation desk some have already found the book they want, others just need a physical direction, and some just want to browse. And then there’s this student:

7th grader: I need a book?

Me: Okay, did you have one in mind or are you looking for suggestions?

7th grader: I’m just looking for fiction books.

Me (with a smile): Great, we have a lot of those. What have you read that you’ve liked in the past?

7th grader: I don’t like to read.

Me: Okay, so what book was okay for you? Meaning you were able to get through it and it was kind of, sort of, not that bad? Was it fantasy or magical? Did it have some history to it? Do you like mystery? Sports stories? What about a story that feels like it could happen?

7th grader: I don’t know, just like fiction.


And repeat. Sound familiar? There’s myriad reasons why students don’t know what they want and while it is our job to unpack it, this is not always an easy task.


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Advice Column: Ask a Library Legend

10/18/2022

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Valerie Diggs is a former President of MSLA and currently works as a Senior Visiting Instructor at Salem State University, where she also serves as the Graduate Program Coordinator of the MEd Library Media Studies program

We did receive a wonderful question, but it was very close to our publishing deadline. Valerie has agreed to work on a reply, so we are saving this space for the column, so check back soon! We'll also post an update on social media when the column is ready. 
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Column: From the Vault

10/18/2022

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Luke Steere is the librarian at Wilson Middle School in Natick, MA 

  1. An inquiry into what is on your shelf is not a banning.
  2. A challenge to one of your books isn’t either.
  3. Captain Underpants is not “banned in Massachusetts,” as one alarmed teacher told me the other day. 
  4. We know these phenomena are nothing new.
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Where has this topic come up with MSLA? Well, my experience began with a discussion of Bobbitt’s Controversial Books in K–12 Classrooms and Libraries: Challenged, Censored, and Banned. A group of readers discussed how complicit librarians are in gatekeeping that looks a lot like banning. Concord, MA librarians “refused to allow [The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn] on their shelves, calling it ‘not fit for the trash’” in 1885 (Bobbitt, 81). More recently, Melissa Adler’s revelatory Cruising the Library critiques the way the Library of Congress classified certain subjects as “paraphilias” and thereby reproduced the otherizing of homosexuality through cataloging. It’s important to acknowledge the ways librarians are complicit in censorship, even as we try to fight against it.

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    Forum Newsletter

    Co-Editors
    ​Luke Steere and Michelle Fontaine

    Michelle is School Librarian at Epstein Hillel School in Marblehead; Luke is School Librarian at  Wilson Middle in Natick

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