Censorship

Censorship is an issue that people usually feel strongly about, one way or another. It is one teacher librarians must deal with delicately, yet firmly. I have begun to experience small places where the school community unconsciously requests censorship. There was a problem with boys and some cards related to a popular manga cartoon. The principal asked me to remove a different set of manga books from the library-- as he didn't want to encourage the problem. The children, however, still go home and watch the t.v. show that created the initial problem. The content of the books is not too mature for the students, but the books were still removed. This happens because people understand, and fear, the power of books.

This can cultivate a culture of fear that relates to student selection of information. This extends beyond books, to any of the information kids receive. The concept of censorship is a double edged sword-- while as a librarian I feel I must vehemently fight to protect patrons right to information access, as a parent I feel that there are certain materials I do not want my child exposed to. A school librarian sits in a delicate position, balanced between parental desires, district influences, and their own personal beliefs regarding student access. Librarians need to carefully consider how they will deal with these multiple, often conflicting demands. "Make sure your school has a written selection policy and reconsideration policy that addresses written challenges to books" (Whelan, 2009). Make sure you are prepared.


Oftentimes, we begin to censor certain materials unconsciously, simply by choosing not to purchase them for the collection. School librarians need to assess their school communities and the ways that certain concepts are consciously and unconsciously included and left out from the collective culture. Librarians must pay attention to the biases inherent in their collections and decide which topics are the most important to add. For example, I have had seven girls ask me to get the Twilight books, which I am not convinced are appropriate for an elementary school. I had two students ask for a book on the Muslim holiday, Eid, which led me to realize that we didn't have many good books related to the Muslim culture. This felt like a much more important topic to address than the Twilight series-- even though Twilight is more popular. I feel good about the choice I made, but nonetheless, it was a conscious choice of how to spend the library's money-- and how not to. Each time we make a purchase or weed our collections, we are making choices regarding the content that will be available to patrons. It is important to think critically about these processes so that we can defend our choices. "If a book is age appropriate and there are students who would benefit from reading it, then removing a title based on the disapproval of its content raises a constitutional issue, says ALA’s Caldwell-Stone" (Whelan, 2009).

There are other choices being made at the district level. The San Francisco Unified School District has a very stringent block on internet sites. This makes it impossible for anybody to access these sites from a school computer. One of these sites is YouTube. Teachers and librarians are unable to show anything on YouTube-- even though there is a vast quantity of material that could promote learning. Students are creating multimedia projects and posting them on YouTube, but are unable to show them at school, because of these blocks.


Whelan, D. (2009). A dirty little secret: Self-censorship. School Library Journal. Retrieved from: http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/slj/articles/censorship/856811-341/a_dirty_little_secret_self-censorship.html.csp