2022 was a record-breaking year for attempts to censor library books. Thanks to organized efforts, many complaints focused on books for youth.
While parents have the right to monitor what their own children read, these banning efforts infringe upon the rights of other families. How can we as children’s librarian professionals combat this trend?
ALSC’s Intellectual Freedom and Managing Children’s Services Committees have joined to bring you a webinar series on children’s book challenges. Due to the relevance of the topic, ALSC is offering the webinar free to all members.
Join the Intellectual Freedom Committee on Monday, September 11th at 2 p.m. CDT for Understanding and Embracing Collection Development Policies and Procedures. Learn the importance of your library’s collection development policies and procedures, what they should ideally feature, and how to leverage them to keep your library relevant to your customers. Register here.
The Managing Children’s Services Committee takes the lead on Monday, September 18th, also at 2 p.m. CDT. Training Frontline Staff to Deal with Book Challenges Effectively will discuss ways to ensure your frontline staff is ready to meet a challenge, and you will learn training tips to prepare your team when a challenge arises. Register here.
We hope to see you at the webinars, and that they prove to be helpful as you continue to face book challenges.
Today’s blog post was written by Maria Trivisonno, Family Engagement Specialist at Cuyahoga County Public Library in suburban Cleveland, Ohio on behalf of the ALSC Intellectual Freedom Committee. She can be reached at mtrivisonno@cuyahogalibrary.org.
This post addresses the core competencies of I. Commitment to Client Group, IV. Knowledge, Curation, and Management of Materials, VI. Administrative and Management Skills, and VII. Professionalism and Professional Development.