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To explore the topic of censorship, I created a Prezi presentation for upper primary school students on banned books. It can be found at http://prezi.com/zwzb6frilqjy/banned-books-whats-the-big-deal/.
What did you learn? How was this relevant to your professional practice as a librarian for children/young adults?
This activity was useful on two fronts: it encouraged me to develop skills in using a new software tool and it provided an opportunity to explore censorship in Australia. Being able to use a variety of programs to create presentations will be useful in professional practice as presenting is a common task for librarians. Whether it is to colleagues/management or to children and their parents, being able to create visually effective presentations is a necessary skill. Children’s and youth librarians in particular need to have a solid understanding of legislation and policy relating to censorship as books aimed at these audiences often provide the most contention from parents, teachers and community members. Understanding the library’s role in providing access to information and the reasons behind censorship and challenging books will allow me to effectively deal with any incidents in my professional practice.
Were any gaps in your knowledge revealed? How might you fill these gaps?
This activity brought to my attention the fact that I had more knowledge of the American position on censorship and banned books, and less on Australia. Throughout this activity I tried to focus on Australian information to fill this gap.
Discussion of topic: censorship
Censorship is often a controversial topic as it is the restriction of access to information (Duthie, 2010), which is a key tenet of libraries. In fact, ALIA (2007) has produced a statement on free access to information which acknowledges that all people should have unrestricted access to information they seek within the bounds of censorship law at a national and state level. However, they provide a small caveat to this with the statement “within the scope of their roles and responsibilities” (ALIA, 2007).
This then provides public and school libraries with the ability to ensure that materials on the shelves for children and youth are appropriate to those age groups. In fact, children themselves recognise the responsibility of parents, teachers and librarians in regulating material available to them based on their maturity (Isajlovic-Terry & McKechnie, 2012).
Another type of censorship is Internet filtering in public libraries. However, people generally accept this type of censorship as it is generally restricted to moral obligations (eg. blocking sites that promote pornography and other explicit material) (Duthie, 2010, p. 88). This is also within the scope of ‘duty of care’ that librarians accept as part of their role.
Often, censorship is based on fear and emotion, with a sub-type of censorship being banning books. Where censorship is the restriction of access to information, book banning is the removal of items from circulation (Connelly, 2009, p. 83). More common in America than Australia, book banning stems from community members’ reactions to items found in library collections which they perceive has harmful messages or language for readers. What can be noted from the history of censorship and book banning, is that they seldom last, in fact many classics of today have previously been banned books.
As an information professional, the best way to deal with issues of censorship and book banning is to have collection development policies and procedures for dealing with complaints relating to censorship and book banning (Connelly, 2009).
References
Australian Library and Information Association. (2007). ALIA statement on free access to information. Retrieved from https://alia.org.au/about-alia/policies-standards-and-guidelines/statement-free-access-information
Connelly, D. S. (2009). To read or not to read: Understanding book censorship. Community & Junior College Libraries, 15(2), 83-90. doi:10.1080/02763910902832222
Duthie, F. (2010). Libraries and ethics of censorship. Australian Library Journal, 59(3), 86-94.
Isajlovic-Terry, N., & McKechnie, L. (2012). An Exploratory Study of Children's Views of Censorship. Children & Libraries: The Journal Of The Association For Library Service To Children, 10(1), 38-43.
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