Blocking and Filtering

Here are two very thought provoking readings on the topic: of Internet filtering:
Blocking and Filtering and Lockdowns, oh my!
http://www.edutopia.org/community/spiralnotebook/?p=252
The Elephant in the Room by Mary Ann Bell
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6403250.html?industryid=47055&q=filtering

In your comments to this post, find out how filtering works at your school. Who makes the decision about blocking a site or an application like a blog? What is the process to "unblock" a site? How does this impact your ability to work as an educator?

Several issues

I'm liking the blog experience too-as the blog "owner" I had all of the comments sent to me via e-mail so I'm collecting them in a folder. I am pretty sure if I added an RSS feed you all could subscribe and something similar would happen-I'll try to sort that out. If anybody has knowledge about this please share it with me.

Anyway, a few thoughts about issues raised in some recent posts.

Faye posted that at her school a committee reviews books that have been purchased prior to putting the books on the shelves to see if there is anything controversial. YIKES! This is absolutely unacceptable. I do try to be realistic (and try not to sound preachy-Melissa is right, that can be challenging) but this is a case when a media specialist has to stand up and say this practice should stop. If you have a selection policy in place you should follow those procedures, which start with purchasing items based on reviews in standard sources. If an item causes a concern there is an established process to follow.

One post discussed looking for hidden meanings in words or pictures and used Shel Silverstein as an example. He stays controversial for many reasons but in his early career he drew cartoons for Playboy, which makes him suspect in the eyes/minds of many.

I would also like to raise the issue about censoring videos. When the movie Schindler's List was released Steven Spielberg provided a free copy to every high school in the U.S. The video sat unusued b/c of rules in place that prohibited high schools from showing any R rated video. If you can't read Beloved to learn about the horrors of slavery and you can't see Schindler's List to put a human face on the horror of the Holocaust how can students ever try to come to terms with these historical atrocities that have had such a lasting impact on our civilization? And how could reading Beloved or watching Schindler's List be any more horrifying than watching the current news coverage of Virginia Tech?

Is one word or one person/corporation enough?

Interesting posts on your books-you all are doing an excellent job of identifying the issues associated with the titles selected.

Is it ever acceptable for a book to be removed/restricted in a school library based on the opinion of a single person? Imagine you're in a media center and your school superintendent walks in and says "This book [add title of your choice] needs to go."

Is the inclusion of one word ever enough to say "I've made a poor selection decision--this book really doesn't belong in our library."? Then what about extending the one word idea to one idea--"This book is racist-we can't keep it in our collection." OR "This book presents an alternative lifestyle. No way will our community support that." When does selection become censorship by the media specialist??? Let's take it to the next level-

What did Google agree to do to enter the market in China?
New York Times Magazine article (may require free registration)
A Picture Says 1000 Words (no registration required)

You might want to read what Wikipedia says about self-censorship. The focus is more on journalists than on librarians.



A couple of posts reminded me that Hit List (an ALA publication) is available in full text on Net Library in GALILEO. The volume addressing children's books is available--so that touches on Judy Blume, etc. Also don't forget that on GALILEO you have other databases with potentially relevant information like Book Review Digest, etc. Even if your specific title isn't covered you might find information about the author, etc.

Banned books--Middle/High School Level titles

Use comments to post your summary of titles at the middle-high school level with this topic.

Banned Books--Elementary level titles

Use "comments" to post your summaries of books challenged/banned at the elementary level here.

Beloved by Toni Morrison

This semester I chose Beloved by Toni Morrison. Morrison has won both the Nobel prize and the Pullitzer Prize. I'm not sure why I've never read any of her books prior to this. I knew that I wanted to select this book when Time Magazine listed it as one of the All Time 100 Novels and the New York Times Book Review listed it as the top fiction book of the past 25 years.

This is a challenging, difficult work to read and it's very easy to see why it has been challenged so frequently. In doing some background reading, I learned that Morrison modeled the style of the book on slave narratives. The story centers around Sethe, a former slave who is trying to come to terms with her own horrific crime and with the results of having been a slave. There is violence, sexuality, frank language, pretty much all of the hot-button issues we hear about when it comes to censorship. These areas are clearly discussed and described in the context of the times. The book also includes many mystical elements. It takes some work on the part of the reader to follow the sequence of events in the book and many literary elements/devices are used to get points across. If you listen to Morrison reading this excerpt on NPR you can hear the sexuality that holds the story together.

This is an unflinching look at slavery and at the lengths one woman was willing to go to in protecting her children from returning to slavery. Morrison based Beloved on the true story of a fugitive slave named Margaret Garner. Garner's life has been used as the basic for many artistic works, including this painting (The American Medea) by Thomas Satterwhite Noble.

So, should this book be in a high school library? Absolutely! Any author who is so well regarded should be part of a high school library collection without a second thought. The subject matter is not pleasant nor is the writing style easy. None of us can know what it was truly like to be enslaved but our students deserve the opportunity to read how one author interprets that experience.