Read and analyse a peer reviewed article

Topic Censorship
Article: To Read or Not to Read: Understanding Book Censorship by Deborah S. Connelly

To learn more about censorship I read and analysed Deborah S. Connelly’s article titled “To Read or Not to Read: Understanding Book Censorship” (Connelly, 2009) which can be found on the EBSCO LISTA database. This article focused on America but is useful for all around the world. The main point of this article is to inform librarians what they can do to try and stop censorship in their library and also give some information on what to do if a book is challenged. The article is anti-censorship so is clearly biased but it gives good tips and points readers to more information on censorship via the appendix at the end of the article.

I learnt that it is not the libraries place to be censors but that we should be advocates for books. The article was very helpful because it gave information on what resources to use when a book is challenged such as the ALA Freedom to Read statement and also gave tips on ways to deal with challenged books. I also found that it is up to the parent to decide what a child reads and not the librarian, which I did feel was the case but it is nice to see it in black and white. The research done by Jocelyn Chadwick was also very interesting and helped to explain how we as librarians have to be objective about controversial books and not become censors ourselves. The suggested reading list at the end of the article is also very helpful for further study on this subject.

This activity was relevant to children or young adult librarians because it is important for librarians to know about censorship and how to deal with it in their library. The reason for this is that as librarians it is not our role to decide what people read especially children and young adults. This responsibility rests with the parents (Gutman, 2010). It is also important we don’t censor children and teens because it can have a detrimental effect on their development as free thinkers and well-rounded citizens, by not exposing them to controversial books which will help expand their minds and outlooks on the world (McNicol, 2007 ; McClure, 1983 ). This activity was also relevant because it gives information on the reasons behind people challenging books and how we as the protectors of knowledge can fight censorship. This fighting of challenges of books and potential banning of books is very important for the wellbeing of not just our users but also the book industry as a whole. The reason for this is if people don’t fight these challenges and banned books there is the potential for authors to start avoiding controversial topics and publishers to not pick up a potentially controversial book for print. This would be bad because the public would suffer if we didn’t have these books to challenge our views and entertain us (Jalongo & Creany, 1991). Saying this it is worthwhile to make sure that children especially are not reading books that are too advanced for them but we must make sure that we are not becoming censors ourselves.

I had no real idea about the issues around censorship or what to do if a book was challenged. This article helped to open my eyes to some strategies that could be used in this situation and the ALA “Freedom to Read” statement helped me understand the importance of not censoring. Now that I know some strategies that can be employed to fight censorship, I need to look at what information is out there relating to Australia and also what contingencies are in place at my own work place to combat censorship and what the policy and procedures are in place to help if a book is challenged in my work place.

References

Connelly, D. S. (2009). To Read or Not To Read: Understanding Book Censorship. [Article]. Community & Junior College Libraries, 15(2), 83-90. doi: 10.1080/02763910902832222

Jalongo, M. R., & Creany, A. D. (1991). Censorship in Children's Literature. Childhood Education, 67(3), 143-143.

Gutman, D. (2010). How I Corrupted America's Youth. School Library Journal, 56(5), 28.

McNicol, S. (2007).  An Open Letter: Teenagers' Views of Censorship in Libraries. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/aasl/aaslpubsandjournals/knowledgequest/kqwebarchives/v36/362/362mcnichol

McClure, A.(1983). Intellectual Freedom and the Young Child. Children's Literature Association Quarterly 8(3), 41-43. Retrieved  from Project MUSE database.