Author: James LaRue
Appeasement Doesn’t Work
Some of the lessons we learn in our professional career are painful. And to all of you have made a decision you regret, I say: Welcome to the club. The best response is to learn from those decisions. The takeaway here: our policies articulate our values. Let’s not throw them away just because someone yells at us. Let’s live them.
Education is not pornography
EBSCO, and the Colorado Library Consortium, have been sued by parents seeking to remove EBSCO research databases from Colorado schoolrooms, based on spurious claims that the databases access “pornography.” The problem here isn’t pornography in library databases. The problem is a group of people who believe their prudery should be public policy.
Conflicting Visions?
“Often the most challenged books are the stories that need to be heard the most,” muses the bannedbooksweek.org website. Here are reflections from Rev. Emily Gage on banned books week, the silencing of stories and why what we share and how we listen matters.
Dear Banned Author: A Letter to Jay Asher
For Banned Books Week, Jamie LaRue, Director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom, writes to banned author, Jay Asher with gratitude for his courage, compassion, and persistence.
Library Meeting Rooms for All
The Intellectual Freedom Committee (IFC) crafted a revision of the 1991 “Meeting Rooms: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights.” The revision of the interpretation was broadly inclusive and transparent and was adopted by ALA Council. The revision did not establish any new right to conduct hate speech in libraries. ALA does not endorse hate groups and does not seek to normalize hate speech.
Laura Ingalls Wilder Award – when is it censorship?
Will some librarians consider it right to purge her works from library collections? We hope not.
![By Aaron Burden aaronburden (https://unsplash.com/photos/y02jEX_B0O0) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons](https://www.oif.ala.org/oif/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Writing_with_a_fountain_pen_Unsplash.jpg)
First They Come for the Poets
The recent incident in Aurora, Ill., in which a self-described satirical poem by poet George Miller was removed from the library, is troubling for many reasons.
Ain’t it a Drag? Program Challenges at the Public Library
Lately, a number of libraries have offered programs in which drag queens read to children, or share make-up or fashion tips … Men dressing as women for the purposes of entertainment isn’t new at all.
From Helicopter to Velcro
Some now argue that parenting has become even more overprotective, almost suffocating. This is known as “Velcro parenting.” They’re not hovering. They’re attached, tight as a second skin.
Troll Comes Home to Roost
Yiannopoulos had, and still has, the right to say whatever he wishes. But he’ll have to live with the consequences when the audience he courted just doesn’t find him funny anymore.