Originally Posted 1/18/2014
There has not been much written on IF in the past 3 years since September 2010’s Knowledge Quest Issue that was totally devoted to the subject. At the AASL National in Hartford this past November, there was only one, I repeat one concurrent session on this subject. “What Do I Do If? Intellectual Freedom Dilemmas in School Libraries” [PDF]. The issues of intellectual choices that are most commonly addressed and or even discussed my most school librarians is the Freedom to Read and Freedom of Bias in terms of what you choose to go on your shelves should be reflective of the needs of your school population not your personal preferences (isolation of books by reading levels and age range in secondary libraries; making adult books available for teens; refusing to purchase certain authors or series, such as “The Bluford High” series for socio economic background or because high and low level readers love them but you want to broaden their sense of selection. With the new need for broad band access in schools that BYOD brings to the table, there’s also
- Freedom to Click onto websites reflective of the needs of the school’s population (anti filtering issues); and
- Freedom of Access to eLearning tools;
Do we really not care or are we afraid to speak up?! Here’s the LibGuide link complete with the conference slide presentation: http://chs.csdvt.libguides.com/content.php?pid=496222&sid=4077775. Check it out! This subject is also up for discussion at this Midwinter’s Knowledge Quest Editorial Board meeting in Philly as a much needed focus for one of their future issues!
