When Representative Wick Thomas is not grand marshalling the Kansas City Pride Parade, or candle making at the KC Renaissance Festival, you will find them working around the clock on legislative issues as their role in the Missouri House of Representatives 19th District.
Category: Legislative & Legal Issues
When Federal Policy Threatens the Freedom to Read
As a librarian, I have dedicated my career to ensuring that young people have access to books that help them learn, grow, and understand the world around them. But before entering librarianship, I served as anEnglish teacher and a professor of children’s literature, studying how stories shape literacy, empathy, andcritical thinking.
Go Delaware: Another State Steps Up for the Freedom to Read!
As we settle into November, some of us have recently voted in special elections but most of us are gearing up for the mid-term elections in November 2026. This is an ideal time to recognize the politicians in your area, be they building level or legislative, and to continue to develop your relationships with your decision makers and representatives. Most of us know that building partnerships takes time and the job of the advocate is continuous. Happily, sometimes, the representative comes to you. Here is Delaware’s story…
Everything I Need to Know I Learned In Library School
When I graduated with my degree in education, I was required to create a capstone binder that outlined how I met “core competencies” related to education and teaching. It included things like assessments, teaching of certain core subjects, and demonstrated student growth over a period of time. After graduating, I was so happy to never do anything like that again. That is, I was…until I got to library school.
More Impactful Programs Coming Up at the 2023 ALA Annual Conference
Amazingly, this year’s ALA Annual Conference is now mere weeks away! To build on the great recent post by the Program Coordinating Committee on what to look forward to however you are engaging, here are some recommendations from our Intellectual Freedom Committee on sessions that will be helpful to all of us in dealing with the difficult situations this challenging time presents. A Rally for the Right to Read: Uniting for Libraries & Intellectual Freedom Thursday, June 22, 6:00-9:00 pm, Hilton Chicago-Boulevard Room Join us to honor the courage and resilience of America’s librarians and their persevering work to protect the freedom to read. Beginning at 6 pm, program attendees will hear from inspiring speakers and recognize the 2023 recipients of the FTRF Roll of Honor Award, the Eli M. Oboler Award, the Gerald Hodges Intellectual Freedom Chapter Relations Award and the John Phillip Immroth Award. At 8 pm, a…
How to Get Permission for StoryWalks®
Does your library have a StoryWalk®? Are you thinking of adding one? My library added ours in 2019 and our patrons LOVE IT! One question I get all the time is how to get publisher permission for StoryWalks®. Today, I’ll share what I’ve learned in the past 2 years.
Intellectual Freedom at ALA Midwinter 2020
The ALA Midwinter Conference in Philadelphia featured a number of meetings and sessions of relevance to those interested in intellectual freedom for children in schools and libraries. Here are some highlights for those who may have missed them, courtesy of the ALSC Intellectual Freedom Committee.
Running Background Checks on Outside Performers
Recently there has been discussion on the Facebook group Library Think Tank (#ALATT) about running background checks on outside performers. It has been a rather animated debate, and caused me and my coworkers to do some serious pondering. The subject under debate: Should all performers have background checks run before they appear at a library? There were two incidents that sparked the discussion. One was a Drag Queen Storytime that was held at the Houston Public Library. After the performance, it was discovered by a pro-family activist group called MassResistance that one of the performers was a registered sex offender. The group brought the criminal status of the performer to the attention of the media. HPL didn’t run a background check on the performer, although Library policy does require checks be run on all performers. (It should be noted that Since March 2008, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)…