How Librarians Select Books?
My, my, my it appears history is a revolving door, as it relates to book bans based on discrimination and prejudices. Therefore, let's breakdown exactly how library books are selected so that instances like the following can fade to black:
There are links to the articles for you to form your own opinion. But until those involved obtain a masters degree with hundreds of hours in the classroom and an exam completion rate of 80% or higher, please stay away from what you're not qualified to do. Entitlement to opinon is one thing, but taking away intellect for my kids, which is ALL kids regardless of socioeconomic, sexual or gender statuses...that's library treason, i.e. CENSORSHIP. We ain't having it. The "out of place" vernacular is intentional.
And before you ask, some librarians are more than qualified to choose books for students. Not only do we have the literal degrees, but librarians like myself, went a step further: reading literally more than a thousand books in a year's time in order to select the BEST BOOK to represent the nation. I served on the 2020 Caldecott Book Award Jury: This lesson gives the background knowledge for students to obtain true learning experience on how books are chosen for the library. It also actively responds to the writing prompt: Write a proposal in which you argue which book would be most effective for a school-wide book club. In your proposal, choose an informational or literary text. Use text evidence to help explain how the text you chose is worthy.
Now for the lesson at hand, because KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!
There are links to the articles for you to form your own opinion. But until those involved obtain a masters degree with hundreds of hours in the classroom and an exam completion rate of 80% or higher, please stay away from what you're not qualified to do. Entitlement to opinon is one thing, but taking away intellect for my kids, which is ALL kids regardless of socioeconomic, sexual or gender statuses...that's library treason, i.e. CENSORSHIP. We ain't having it. The "out of place" vernacular is intentional.
And before you ask, some librarians are more than qualified to choose books for students. Not only do we have the literal degrees, but librarians like myself, went a step further: reading literally more than a thousand books in a year's time in order to select the BEST BOOK to represent the nation. I served on the 2020 Caldecott Book Award Jury: This lesson gives the background knowledge for students to obtain true learning experience on how books are chosen for the library. It also actively responds to the writing prompt: Write a proposal in which you argue which book would be most effective for a school-wide book club. In your proposal, choose an informational or literary text. Use text evidence to help explain how the text you chose is worthy.
Now for the lesson at hand, because KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!
P.S. Here's a fun fact, politicians DO NOT have to have a degree to become a politician. Just like one wouldn't want a medical doctor operating on them without extensive medical practice and knowledge, one shouldn't have an unqualified person deciding what's appropriate reading for a child's brain. Librarians are not doctors...but we are experts when it comes to literary content, children's literary development and what criteria makes for excellent reading. We deserve some respect on our names. We earned it.
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