Category: Programming
ALA, United for Libraries Urge Lafayette Library Board to Reinstate Program on Voting Rights
ALA President Julius C. Jefferson and United for Libraries President David Paige express concerns about censoring library programming because of political viewpoints.
Banned Books Week Take Home Kits
Have you ever put together a really good Banned Books Week display? I loved setting up my annual display and hearing parents discuss The First Amendment, censorship, and literature with their children while working my reference desk shifts. As we all know, this year is totally different so here are some Banned Books Week ideas from a youth librarian!
40 Virtual Program Ideas for Banned Books Week
This year’s Banned Books Week (September 27 – October 3) will look different. Here are 40 ideas on how to celebrate virtually, on social media, and maintaining social distance.
Author Robin Stevenson Returns to Speak in Community Where She Was Uninvited for LGBTQ+ Content
By: guest contributor Julia A. Nephew. “To me this has been a reminder of how invisible LGBTQ people in history still are in many school curriculum,” author Robin Stevenson said of District 200 canceling her Oct. 2 talk. “And it does make me feel like it’s important that all kids are aware of the really significant contributions of LGBTQ people throughout history, and it’s important that LGBTQ kids and teens in particular see their own lives and identities reflected in the books they read.”
Libraries, Literacy, and Lip-Syncing: Drag Queen Story Hour and Free Speech
Long banished are the images of the library as a stuffy and sedate place where any utterance above a whisper was met with swift opprobrium. Shushes and scowls from curmudgeon librarians ready to revoke your borrowing privileges. Very much far from that staid stereotype, libraries have become fortresses of acceptance and forthright with welcoming upright and raucous revelry within their aisles. And nothing encapsulates this veering toward the vivacious than the wildly successful Drag Queen Story Hours.
Easy Banned Books Week Programming for the Busy Academic Librarian: The Banned Books Whiteboard Survey
September is a busy month for academic librarians, but whiteboard surveys offer a relatively easy way to mark Banned Books Week and raise awareness of the issue of banned and challenged books.
Libraries are for – and should support – everyone
While library materials and events related to LGBTQ+ issues have unfortunately seen plenty of challenges, and drag queen story times have proven particularly controversial, I find this particular instance especially troubling. Libraries are for everyone which, it should go without saying, includes LGBTQ+ people who, as Snyder points out, pay their taxes too. They deserve materials and programming that are relevant to them, just as much as the rest of us.
Safe Spaces, Self-Censorship, and My Aversion to Heathers
Teens are dealing with dark, heavy matters. Film, theater, literature, and other art forms are perhaps the most cathartic and helpful resource they can lean on.
Burning Books for Children
By: guest contributor and author M. Earl Smith – In the United States, there is a group that, sadly, ties patriotism into a fervent, almost cult-like devotion to certain figures, ideas, and symbols…Yet the second that someone presents the work of someone who views the world differently than the American Dream myth, they are either shouted down or they are, ironically, twisted, contorted, and used to continue that ethos.
The Public Library as a World Stage: An Analysis of Censorship
The common misconception that any library espouses the content of its collection and programming can lead to feelings of patron alienation. An imagining of the library as an equitable world stage can help to mitigate resulting acrimony directed at this institution.
One thought on “Programming”
Where are the drag kings?
But….let’s face it, many members of the DQ community especially have grossly exaggerated ~ or even distorted ~ female attributes.
What age is the DQRH targeting?Aren’t there age-appropriate considerations, just as with all new information shared with kids?
OK, maybe if children meet the DQ/K community at that age, it may help them to accept difference and not be hostile or worse when older…..
But I’d think 4th/5th grade is possibly OK timing. At that age a child can understand how some entertainers present themselves. And, the kids could read to the adults!