During late March and early April, the ALSC Discussion List was active with comments and concerns around Common Sense Media (CSM) and that organization’s reviews of children’s materials. I followed this discussion with particular interest for two reasons. First, the organization is located in the city where I work. Second, when they were just getting started, members of the organization came to our library to meet with us to discuss their values and seek our support. We declined as we believed that their practice of labeling was in violation of the ALA Bill of Rights and the core values of library services for children. I do not intend to rehash all of the comments and statements of the online discussion (sigh of relief on your part!). Hopefully, most of you followed it and certainly many of you actively participated. I found it to be a robust and lively exchange. That…
Tag: common sense media
Taking the Lead in Helping Kids Become Good Digital Citizens
Digital citizenship. It’s a complex subject that I’ve thought a lot about in recent years- and one that I’ve been figuring out how best to address in my role as a public librarian. For our kids to be contributing participants in the Digital Age, they need to be informed about a whole host of issues such as internet safety, privacy and security, cyber bullying, digital footprints, information literacy, copyright and creative credit, and more! So when Mariah Cheng, one of my regular patrons who also happens to be an elementary school teacher, approached me about teaching a series of digital citizenship workshops at the library for children and parents I jumped at the opportunity to partner with her. Mariah had recently become a Certified Educator through Common Sense Media’s Digital Citizenship Initiative which offers training and curriculum for free to K-12 educators so that they can teach their students and…