intellectual freedom – North Country Library System

RA for your Friday

February 18, 2022

We need to talk about materials challenges.

I’ve been sending out updates and resources in both RA emails and Youth Services roundups for the last few months, but it bears repeating – the best way to be prepared for a materials challenge is to expect a materials challenge. That means making sure your policies are in good order and that your library has procedures in place for a response. It means staff training and trustee education.

If you’re new to this issue, the Materials Challenges page of the Collection Development and RA Guide is a great place to get started.

You may also want to sit it on ALA’s Freedom to Read roundtable next Thursday:

“Voices from every aspect of this ongoing and constantly evolving issue will weigh in, including a teacher, librarian, parent, legislator, author, and student, using the recent book bannings in Texas and the response from teachers, librarians, and the community at large as an example of a way forward in protecting the first amendment nationwide.” Sign up today!

Finally, check out the RA for All blog, which has been covering this issue in detail, from how to respond to materials challenges to avoiding soft censorship:

“You need to buy the books your community and your collection needs, and that means including these award winning titles that are being challenged. If you are asking the “who’s going to complain,” question, even if it is coming from a well meaning place, you need to know that this is a form of censorship as well.”

And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Just wanted you to be the first to know what’s coming next to the NCLS Book Club in a Bag program:
The Liar’s Dictionary, by Eley Williams
Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age, by Annalee Newitz
The Girl with the Louding Voice, by Abi Daré

These should be available by mid-March, and you can expect a half-sheet flyer next week.

The March Library Reads and Indie Next picks are out!

In awards news, the Audie finalists have been announced!

Just a reminder that wildly popular TV series often bring viewers back to the source material, and that you totally have enough time to order a copy of The Viscount Who Loved Me.

Finally, #FridayReads: I’ve been on a bit of an audiobook binge, alternating between Taste in my car and The Nineties on my phone at bedtime. So, oddly, kind of on a print hiatus right now. But always open to serendipity. And it’s a long weekend! Perhaps there’s a bookstore trip in my future… Happy reading/listening!

Youth Services Roundup

December 16, 2021

READSQUARED YEAR-ROUND

New year, new books, new reading programs at your library! You can keep patrons engaged year-round using programs in READsquared. This is a great time to start new reading challenges for the year as well. If you need banner and badge graphics, or entire program sets, there are many you can import from your control room. Detailed instructions available in your knowledge base.

BOOK CHALLENGES

From the ALSC blog: “The ALSC Intellectual Freedom committee is keenly aware that it’s part of our mission to ‘promote in-service and continuing education programs in the area of intellectual freedom for those who select library materials for children.’ We are working at developing information that can be helpful to the ALSC community. In the meantime, here are resources that can be immediately helpful..”

PRE-K COOKIE CRAFT

From No Time for Flash Cards: “We have been working on scissor skills in my classroom and have progressed to cutting lines on curves. So as we were learning more about cookies and Christmas this week (remember I teach at a church preschool so we go all out for Christmas) I decided to combine all three things and make some cookies with my students, this time with glue and sequins instead of flour and butter…”

FOR YOUR RADAR

School Library Journal takes a look at middle grade and young adult titles coming in soon in 2022 – check them out!

Youth Services Roundup

November 30, 2021

PREPARING FOR CHALLENGES

From the Youth Services Shout-Out blog: “With ever more sophisticated non-localized group efforts to remove and ban books, it’s always good to be prepared when requests to remove books come your way. Some recent blog posts and an additional few thoughts can help guide you and prepare you…”

SCHOOL PARTNERSHIPS

From the ALSC blog: “Our department’s end goal was to reach more kids through partnerships with teachers. We visit 60 classes a month and reach 1100 students. Most of the visits are to preschool through 3rd grade classes. Upper elementary students are difficult to schedule time with. In order to get into the classrooms we needed to connect with the teachers. That is where the idea of a Teacher’s Brunch was born…”

BUILDING TOWERS

From Teen Services Underground: “This is a program I did for ZERO DOLLARS using supplies we already had. It took very little prep, and went over really well…”

RESOURCE ALERT

There’s a new storytime blog for your radar – Storytime Solidarity. Check it out!

RA for your Friday

November 19, 2021

First things first. I mentioned this in a recent youth services roundup, but it bears repeating here: There’s been a lot in the news lately about efforts to remove books from school libraries, so this is a good time to highlight one of librarianship’s core values: Intellectual Freedom. In a nutshell (and quoting directly from the ALA’s Intellectual Freedom Manual, Ninth Edition, please enjoy), intellectual freedom is “the right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction.” It’s why we protect patron privacy and build diverse collections. It’s why we craft collection development policies that incorporate the ALA’s Freedom to Read statement.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Voting for the Goodreads Choice Awards has opened! The first round started Tuesday and will close November 28. Even if you aren’t on Goodreads yourself (although if you are, come find me!), this is a great tool for reader feedback.

The best of 2021 lists are rolling in quite freely now; today we’ve got picks from Amazon, BookPage, Esquire, Kirkus (fiction), and Oprah.

The December LibraryReads and Indie Next lists are out, and the National Book Awards have been announced!

For my podcast crew, here’s a new one for your radar: Adaptation Nation. Their tagline pretty much sums it up (as the best taglines do): “We read it. We watch it. We talk about it.”

No RA Friday would be complete without wise words from Becky Spratford, so I’d like to share this reminder from a recent post on the RA for All blog:

“We want to be the conduit for conversations around leisure reading in our communities. The number of books we actually match with readers is NOT important. Rather, what is most important is cultivating relationships around books and reading at the library.”

I’ve said it before and I will say if forever – in many of our communities, the library is the only game in town for readers. Let’s cultivate those relationships!

Finally, #FridayReads: This weekend I am going all in on Elly Griffiths, with The Stone Circle as my current read and The Zig Zag Girl on deck. (Thanks to Elaine MAS for the suggestion!) In my earbuds is Nick Offerman’s latest and I am prepped and primed for the Bakeoff semi-final. Happy reading/listening/viewing!

Youth Services Roundup

November 15, 2021

GIVEAWAY!

The second edition of Out and About in the North Country is out, and I have a copy to give away! (Hat tip to the North Country Children’s Museum for hooking me up.) Just email me with the subject line “OUT AND ABOUT” by Thursday at 4pm for your chance to add this to your library’s local interest section!

(Also, congratulations to Lowville Free Library, the winner of the COLOR ME HAPPY giveaway. Look for that in your delivery soon…)

CORE VALUE: INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM

There’s been a lot in the news lately about efforts to remove books from school libraries, so I thought this would be a good time to highlight one of librarianship’s core values: Intellectual Freedom. In a nutshell (and quoting directly from the ALA’s Intellectual Freedom Manual, Ninth Edition, please enjoy), intellectual freedom is “the right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction.” It’s why we protect patron privacy and build diverse collections. It’s why we craft collection development policies that incorporate the ALA’s Freedom to Read statement. Check out this short video (and longer ones!) from the ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom to take a deeper dive.

SEMI-PERMANENT STORYWALKS

From the ALSC blog: “We launched a big addition to our library collection last month: eleven podiums that make up our new Trail Tales! Trail Tales is based on StoryWalk®. This project was long in the planning. My colleague had tried to find funding to create a literacy/walking experience at the outset of the pandemic, but was unable to secure a source for us. However, we didn’t give up our dream of a StoryWalk® of some sort! We kept our eyes open for potential partners…”

CRAYON TIME

From Jbrary: “A few months ago I shared the amazing work of libraries who created displays, scavenger hunts, and contests around the book The Day the Crayons Quit. Awhile later I heard from Sarah Viviani, a youth services librarian in central Florida, who took those ideas and ran with it! Here is how she created a virtual event for families that included a crayon-making activity and science experiments. Firstly, she created her own set of giant crayons. I would pay money for these!”

JOB OPPORTUNITIES

RA for your Friday

Youth Services Roundup

Youth Services Roundup

RA for your Friday

Youth Services Roundup