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President's Column

5/23/2023

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

Wow. What a year, huh?

As I realize that there are only 6 more weeks (!) of my presidency, it’s easy to think of all the things that didn’t get accomplished. I thought I might go on a listening tour, start a mentorship program, work on some DEI initiatives. Instead, about 6 weeks into my term, I was called into a 4-hr long Saturday afternoon Zoom meeting with the ALA Intellectual Freedom office. In that meeting, state chapter representatives were warned of a new and intense wave of book challenges and ‘adverse legislation.’ And after that, Intellectual Freedom became the defining theme of my 2 years in office.

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Elementary Column: Challenged Books: an Elementary Library Perspective

2/14/2023

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Courtney Ahearn is the librarian at the Annie L. Sargent Elementary School in North Andover, MA

Working in a school library, especially one that serves students who are just learning to navigate the wide world of literature independently, can be difficult all on its own. Throw in the current national climate regarding book challenges and bans, and you’ve got a minefield of issues and potential problems.

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The ALA reported in their 2021 State of America’s Libraries Special Report that 44% of the 729 challenges (affecting over 1,000 individual titles) were reported from school libraries (American Library Association, p9). At least a few of those challenges were against books housed in elementary school collections, such as Drama by Raina Telgemeier or Melissa by Alex Gino (Friedman, 2023). While Massachusetts has not seen the kind of widespread bans that other states have enacted, it is important that elementary librarians across our state be aware of what is at stake— and, more importantly, what can be done.

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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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