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.
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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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. Luke Steere is the librarian at Wilson Middle School in Natick, MA
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. MSLA President Jen Varney is the Librarian at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr School in Cambridge, MA. As we round the corner on the halfway point of the school year— phew!— it’s been a year so far, eh? Between attempts to go “back to normal,” mask and quarantining controversies, and operating with a skeleton staff throughout much of January, there was more than enough to keep us on our toes. But the culture wars decided to send us one more issue: book challenges and bannings. They are happening at warp speed in the U.S., and are increasingly getting more attention in the news and on social media.
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. What's your take on leveling books? I work in a middle school where we have fifth to eight grade, and I label YA books with a YA sticker. The YA books, in our policy on the website, are for seventh and eight graders. However, I will sometimes allow sixth and sometimes fifth graders who want those books to take them. I never tell a kid they can't read a book, but I will ask for a parent email or a teacher conversation. This feels like a violation of privacy, but kids seem willing to do it. Is this censorship, or self-censorship, or self-selection, or am I worrying about it too much? This is a great question and one that has persisted in the school library world for as long as I can remember. This is a very subjective question, but also one we must consider very carefully when considering the answer through the lens of intellectual freedom and privacy concerns.
Felicia Quesada Montville is the Library Teacher at Charles E. Brown Middle School in Newton, MA. While we are still in the midst of what feels like a never-ending year, September will be here before we know it. The optimist in me sees a blur of back-to-back library orientations, a flurry of check outs as students select their first independent reading books of the year, and sessions training student library helpers. Banned Books Week (September 26th through October 2nd this year) so often sneaks up on me, but at least ALA’s amazing graphics make it easy to put up an engaging and informative display.
Valerie Diggs is the Librarian at Lowell Catholic High School Questions may be submitted for this column using the confidential link at the bottom of this post Question Number One:
"Graphic novel cataloging wisdom needed - I've inherited a rather mixed collection including GN fiction, non-fiction, and Manga all inconsistently labeled making some items almost impossible for a student to locate.' |
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