Category: Minors
Educating Children in a Time of Masks
When it became clear that masks and online education would be a part of fall teaching this year, I know many of us in academia (and education more broadly) discussed potential challenges for accessibility when teaching with a mask. But as an academic librarian who is childless, I didn’t think about the broader potential impacts of mask wearing, or online learning, on children trying to learn early literacy skills.
YouTube Moves To COPPA Compliance
What does YouTube’s COPPA Compliance mean in the broader discussion about digital privacy? What does all of this have to do with libraries? Also, find out more about the privacy resources provided by ALA.
Common Sense Media and ‘Positive Messages’ About Youth
In Common Sense Media’s reviews, conflating the the amount of “inappropriate” content and the value of the messages within the same five-star rating system does a disservice to parents, youth, and art as a whole.
Euphoria and the Tyranny of “Positive Messages”
Euphoria recognizes that progress and growth don’t happen in a straight line. Works of art are not simply vehicles for morals and “positive messages,” and Common Sense Media’s rating system over-simplifies the relationship between art and virtue.
‘How can I find out?’ Fielding teens’ reference questions
When faced with challenges to freedom of expression or limitations on access to information, teens require caring support and reliable information.
Visible or Not: Library Access for LGBTQ Youth
Youth need a space where they feel accepted, and the library can be that space.
Maurice Sendak and the Librarians: When Censorship Came From Within
Maurice Sendak’s 1970 book In the Night Kitchen is a dreamy book about a naked little boy named Mickey working to keep from getting baked in a cake. But from the moment the book was published and continuing into the 21st century, Mickey’s nudity has unsettled reviewers, parents and even some librarians.
50 Years of Tinker v. Des Moines
Last month, as Mary Beth Tinker and John Tinker celebrated the 50th anniversary of their landmark legal win on behalf of students’ First Amendment rights, they make connections to today’s student activists and the issues students and citizens of all ages are moved to protest.
New Jersey parents upset at reduced access to books
Parents in Mahwah, NJ are expressing distress that the school district has, in their view, reduced student access to books in the school libraries.
Banned Book ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ is America’s ‘Best-Loved’ Novel
Part of the reason that the novel is so well loved, I think, is because it challenged so many of us to think about difficult issues. Whether we continue to teach Mockingbird or choose to move on to another, more modern book, one important lesson from Mockingbird will live on – we will continue to read, and love, our banned books.