On April 4, 2014, the Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) teamed up to celebrate 404 Day- the day that honors this little message that pops up when there’s an error and you can’t access a webpage. The OIF and EFF took this opportunity talk about the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA).
Enacted in 2000, CIPA was written to address concerns about the exposure of children to pornography and other explicit content, through the implementation of browser filters. Additionally, public and school libraries that adhere to CIPA and apply to filters to at least the internet devices in their children’s department, are eligible for government funding. More information on CIPA can be found at the FCC website and the OIF website as well.
Through a Google+ Hangout streamed on YouTube, Intellectual Freedom buffs Deborah Caldwell-Stone, Sarah Houghton, and Chris Petersen talked about what CIPA really means for libraries, how to cope with CIPA, and how to get your board to reconsider CIPA.
Since the Hangout is available for you to watch here, I won’t rehash the whole thing, but I will share some important points:
- Many people think they understand CIPA fully, but they actually don’t. If you don’t understand ask questions!
- Filters are mainly English-centric. If you have access to a translator page or spell some of the search terms wrong, you will most likely be able to bypass the filter.
- Only lighter skin tones are recognized as skin tones. Therefore, a filter might block any variation of this.
- When asked the best way to start a library board to reconsider their filters and compliance with CIPA, Sarah recommended moving the conversation from a conversation about morality to a cost benefit analysis. For example, how well are the filters doing their job? Do things get blocked by the filter, that shouldn’t be? How much does it cost to have these filters in both time and money?
Also, Deborah shared that the OIF will be releasing a new white paper at the end of the month on the topic of CIPA and its role in your library.
Remember, the ALSC IF Committee is always here for you if you have questions about intellectual freedom issues or if you are facing a challenge (it doesn’t have to make the news!). We’re here to help, so feel free to reach out via ALA Connect or email.
Yesterday afternoon I was sitting in the airport with library colleagues and we started talking about all of the positives that can come out of a materials challenge. Challenges can be stressful, but they do bring good for libraries, books and reading. Here are four of the ideas we talked about:
- A book challenge starts a valuable community conversation.
- It gets people to read books that might stretch their minds.
- It puts media attention on authors, books, reading and intellectual freedom.
- It highlights the role of the public library and how we work to represent the entire community in our collections, programs and services.
What do you have to add to this list?
Every year around this time all the children’s services staff in our District gather together for one full day of staff development. It’s always a fun day; a chance to see everybody and catch up on news, and the trainings are interesting and relevant. One of the highlights is when our collection development librarian does her annual roundup of patron concerns and challenges, with a timely reminder of District policies and procedures relating to the same. It’s not as dry as it sounds, this particular librarian has a great sense of humor, and there is undoubtedly some humor to be found in a few of those instances (how did that end up in the juvenile collection?). I believe it’s also important to be discussing these things frankly with all staff. This year it was also a timely reminder that I ought to follow up with my newest staff member to see if the training had raised questions, and to ensure that he was aware of the policies and procedures we have in place in the event of any patron concerns.
A week later I got a chance to sit down with him and I was happy to find that the training had piqued his interest and he did indeed have questions. From there the conversation spilled over into patron privacy issues and a discussion of the ALA Library Bill of Rights and Freedom to Read Statement. Being passionate about intellectual freedom I took full advantage of this “teachable moment” to encourage and foster his interest in how the library profession is upholding the first and third amendments and how much of why-we-do-what-we-do-the-way-that-we-do-it is related, and how important it is that we continue to value these core values of our profession, and I probably ran on as much as this sentence does, if not more. (*Breathe now*) But really, advocacy should begin at home, and he was surprised, as many folks new to library work are, at how hard we librarians work towards the rights that library users enjoy.
How do you introduce the subject with your new hires? How do you keep the topic alive within your workplace? Please share!
Claire Davies for the ALSC Intellectual Freedom Committee
Dude, report challenges. It is important.
According to the Office of Intellectual Freedom’s estimations, only 20 to 25 percent of challenges are reported.
Please take the time to report challenges. It is easy. There are several ways to do it (and you can choose to remain anonymous). Here is the simple online challenge reporting form. This page has a form to print out and fax or mail in and the phone number for the OIF if you need assistance with a challenge.
Speaking of needing assistance with challenges, wouldn’t it be nice to see a sample challenge response letter to get an idea of what to say? Dude! It is your lucky day. While we wouldn’t dream of suggesting that a cookie cutter letter would do for every challenge, here is an outline of a letter to give you a place to start:
Dear [insert name here],
This letter is in reply to your recent request for reconsideration of the book [insert title here] by [insert author/illustrator here], published in the [insert country here] by [insert publisher here].
As you know, at [insert library here] we provide a wide range of materials for people of all ages and beliefs. Opinions, values and interests in our community are diverse and the collection at [insert library here] is built to reflect this diversity. We recognize that not all books will be suitable for all children, therefore, we strongly encourage parents to accompany their children to the library to select materials.
[Insert title here] was purchased for [insert library here] because [insert reason here: popularity, reviews, customer purchase request, awards, etc.].
Based on the reviews of [insert title here] (copies enclosed) and [insert any other reason mentioned above], we have decided to retain this title in the collection for which it was purchased.
Please contact me if you have further questions or concerns. If you wish to appeal this decision, please [insert information from your library’s reconsideration policy here]. In addition to the reviews, I am enclosing a copy of the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights statement.
Sincerely,
[insert name here]
The concept of Banned Books has always been a funny one to me. I grew up and thrived in a household where I was encouraged to dress how I wanted, be who I wanted, think how I wanted, and read what I wanted. No thoughts, ideas, or beliefs were ever off limits; as I long as I practiced the Golden Rule (do unto others as you would have them do unto you), I was free to live my life how I chose
I moved around a lot as child and called many school districts and library branches home. Some more conservative than others, but I was never told what I could or could not read.
I encountered the concept of Banned Books for the first time in fourth grade, when I came across a book that explained on the cover it was a compilation of writers who all had had books banned at some point in their career. At that time in my life, we lived in Ithaca, New York, and a wonderful children’s librarian named June Gilligan briefly explained the concept to me, but told me that I should never let anyone tell me what I could or could not read.
Now years later, I am in my second year of a three year graduate school program at Indiana University. I’m grateful to be receiving a dual degree in Library Science and Information Science from an institution that allows me to develop my own focus on multicultural children’s literature, but I am disappointed that there is little to no discussion about banned books in our classrooms.
As future librarians, it is our duty to share knowledge and information, thoughts and beliefs, stories and tales with our patrons, regardless of whether or not they are widely accepted or on the best-seller list. As librarians we cannot educate children about Banned Books, their history and the important role they play in our culture, if we do not know it ourselves.
Yes, you may know why Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian was challenged, or why Bill Martin Jr.’s Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? was banned, but can you tell me what effect this had on our culture, library policies and other authors?
Without this information, we are allowing a teachable moment to pass us by, hurting ourselves and our patrons. A Mahatma Gandhi quote is often paraphrased to “be the change you wish to see in the world”. This holds true when it comes to Banned Books education.
The chances of my wish for at the very least a workshop on Banned Books will probably not happen in my Indiana University lifetime, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t take the opportunity to educate myself and others; and neither should you.
Take time to learn more about Banned Books- www.bannedbooksweek.org is a great place to start. Take this week to incorporate Banned Books into your programming too, maybe read Sendak’s In the Night Kitchen at story time, have kids write a postcard saying why their favorite Banned Books shouldn’t be challenged, or start small, and make your staff pick’s collection all Banned and Challenged Books.
Most importantly, don’t let the education stop here. While we honor Banned Books with one week in September, it is important to remember that they are challenged 365 days a year. Therefore, it’s crucial that we continue to educate ourselves, our patrons, and fight for everyone’s right to read throughout the year.
Alyson Feldman-Piltch is a graduate student at Indiana University. When she isn’t reading or working, she can be found cheering for the Red Sox or at the Bonobo exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo. You can follow her on twitter at @aly_fp.
Although she has many favorite Banned Books, she will be posing with Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson for her “Read Banned Books” poster this year.
