Reflection on Intellectual Freedom in the School Library Setting

One thing I read this week that I can relate to was the idea that promoting books that have been challenged or banned draws young people in to want to read. The article “Developing a Curriculum in Intellectual Freedom: What Our Students Need to Know,” from the American Library Association, discussed the fact that promoting the freedom to read is a huge part of library programing, and that Banned Books Week is a great way to focus on this and draw attention. I relate to this idea because the notion that a book was controversial definitely drew me in as a young reader. I had very strict parents, and I loved the idea that although my parents wouldn’t allow me to listen to certain music or watch certain movies, some of the books we read in school had language I knew they would not approve of. An example would be when we were assigned to read The Catcher in the Rye. It was of course pointed out to us that the book had been controversial in the past, and the more mature themes in the book were exciting to me! I can totally understand how this could bring in reluctant readers, and I don’t see the harm in it. Reading is reading, even if you’re doing it to spite your strict parents! All jokes aside, I look forward to setting up catchy displays during Banned Books Week one day when I become a librarian.

One thing I both agree and disagree with this week was the discussion on internet filters on public school filters. I understand why they can be so frustrating. My 13 year old son now has a laptop that he does his school work on, and one that is his personal one, so when he needs to do research he uses his personal one so that the filters aren’t so frustrating. However, when he was younger and did not have a personal laptop yet, he would constantly be annoyed by the school’s filters. Often times even the websites he was assigned to go to by his teachers would be blocked. I know he was annoyed that he wasn’t trusted enough to visit YouTube and other sites that can be informative. For that reason, I get that using an honor code instead of a filter would be good. But also, as a parent, I prefer to be able to monitor his internet usage, and on school computers, there really isn’t a way to do that (if they’re being used at school with only one adult in the room for example). The internet is a whole other ball game when it comes to the fact that there could be obscene material not appropriate for children. I really enjoyed ALA's Intellectual Freedom and Censorship Q&A, because I liked to have a better definition of what obscene materials are. We would never include many things that are easy to find on the internet in our libraries for people to see, so I can see why public schools use filters. However, it’s important to have that working definition of what constitutes obscene, because I thought the article about parents being upset about young people checking out erotic novels they found in the adult section to be silly. I can see why it is important to arm yourself as a librarian with exactly how to respond in these scenarios.

The takeaway that I have from the readings is that I will make sure to teach intellectual freedom to my school library students one day. I want them to know that everyone deserves access to all information. I liked the fact that the “Developing a Curriculum in Intellectual Freedom: What Our Students Need to Know” article pointed out that the marginalized ideas will be different in every community. The author pointed out that at one school, the general population leaned liberal, so having conservative ideals was not the norm, but having these ideas represented was still important. We do not want the information available for discourse to stay all one note. No matter what information is “in style” or not, it is important that there is information for all people at the library.