By Sheri Kinney and Dianne Oberg
Library Challenges Database: A New Project from the Centre for Freedom of Expression
Abstract
Censorship challenges increase the importance of collection management policies in your school and school district, as illustrated by the recent experience of a B. C. teacher-librarian. If and when the censors come to your library (or classroom), access to a new Canadian resource, a censorship database being developed by the Centre for Free Expression at the Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University), will support efforts to responsibly address challenges. The database adds one more tool to other more traditional resources for school library collection management, such as an updated and approved policy that outlines a process for reconsideration of library and/or classroom materials; colleagues including school and district administrators and school board trustees who are knowledgeable about the principles of intellectual freedom; and teachers associations and school library associations with a commitment to intellectual freedom. The concept of intellectual freedom includes freedom of expression, the rights of children including the right to know.
Sheri Kinney, MEd, is now in her 31st year in education. Sheri has been a teacher-librarian for over 20 years at the middle-secondary level. She has served her local and provincial library associations in executive positions and continues to be an active member at both levels. Sheri is currently part of her local association’s BCTF Teacher Inquiry: Decolonizing Our Learning Spaces.
Dianne Oberg, PhD, is a Professor Emerita in the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. Before coming to the university, Dianne worked as a classroom teacher and teacher-librarian in the public school system. Her research focuses on teacher-librarianship education and on the implementation and evaluation of school library programs. Dianne was the editor of the international journal School Libraries Worldwide for 15 years, and she continues to be an active member of school library associations at local, national, and international levels. Recently she co-edited, with Barbara A. Schultz-Jones, Global Action for School Libraries: Models of Inquiry, a book co-sponsored by IASL and IFLA that focuses on the instructional role of the teacher-librarian.