PD: YOUNG PEOPLE'S BOOK AWARDS

For this professional development activity I have chosen to do a book review on the title ‘The Little Refugee’ by Anh Do & Suzanne Do.  Researching how to do a book review was a great learning experience.  In doing so, I discovered how different reviews are written, how they are structured and observing what connections are made with the audience in this process.  The book that I chose was shortlisted for the Children’s Book Council Australia (CBCA), Book of the Year award. 

The activity was relevant to professional practice because in Australia, book award lists are used for programming in the libraries, as well as a reference for collection development.  Programming ideas include, decorated library around the theme, workshops on book illustration, storytelling events, arts and crafts (Buckley & Kirkland, 2010, p.2).  National Simultaneous story time is one such collaborative initiative whereupon, each year, a picture book written and illustrated by an Australian is read in libraries, schools, bookshops and communities’ nation wide (McKerracher & McDowell,2010,p3).  To illustrate, the 2013 book chosen is shortlisted for early childhood CBCA, The Wrong Book by Nicholas Bland.  Held during National Literacy and Numeracy Week according to ALIA (2013) promotes:

·         Value of reading and literacy

·         Value and fun of books

·         Australian writers and publishers

·         Story time in libraries and communities

·         Providing opportunities for community participation

The biggest gap in my knowledge was learning about the book awards process and the role that libraries play in supporting these national literary awards.  By participating in this professional development, I have a learned how to write a book review and that supporting book awards and fostering literacy is something all library professionals should be involved with.  Most interestingly, I have learned that due consideration must be given to the collection development and developing a collection just based on this award merit is not enough to meet the plurality of our young users in libraries.

Specifically in Australia, there is a multitude of book awards given for quality books written and illustrated by Australians.  The most prestigious being Children’s Book Council Australia(CBCA), Australia Book of the year awards (CBCA,2009) with the selection criteria including literary merit as well as quality illustrations.  On a national scale, the advantages of using awards lists in libraries for programming are that they are an excellent marketing opportunity to foster literacy in the community. A celebration is held of the winning books, with activities and promotions being held around the nominated theme, with the 2013 theme being ‘Read across the Universe’.  Alternatively, state based children’s choice awards have been developed to give children a voice in the selection process for each state.  For example, in New South Wales, Kids Own Australian Awards (KOALA, 2012) is run by volunteering librarians and teachers who encourage libraries state wide to connect with children. The awards are used as an opportunity to foster literacy and an interest in books by voting for their favourite book. 

With reference to collection development, acquisitions of books that have been shortlisted or won a literary award are generally part of the standard ordering process for public libraries (Yarra Plenty collection development policy, 2009).  The apparent advantages are that it is an effective mechanism in the collection development process. This raises the question of selecting books solely on this merit that the collection will not meet the diverse needs of the young users (Rawson, 2011).  What is more, Sullivan (2005, p.14,) contends that consideration needs to be given to boys information needs because they are inherently different than girls. Collection development should be driven by what the young users want to read as well as reflecting the diversity of the local community (Cerny, Markey,Williams, 2006,p.42).

References

Buckley, T., & Kirkland, M. (2010). The Children's Book Council of Australia. Access (10300155), 24(3), 16-19.

Cerny, R., Markey, P. & William, A. (2006). Outstanding library service to children: putting the core ,competencies to work. Retrieved from Ebook Library.

Kids Own Australian Literature Awards (KOALA).(2012). Retrieved 10 May 2013, from http://www.koalansw.org.au/

McKerracher, S., & McDowell, D. (2010). What are you doing in 2012? Start planning now for the National Year of Reading. Access (10300155), 24(3), 24-25.

National Simultaneous Story time. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.alia.org.au/nss/

Rawson, C.H. (2011). Are all lists created equal? Diversity in award winning and best selling young adult fiction. Retrieved from http://www.yalsa.ala.org/jrlya/2011/06/are-all-lists-created-equal-diversity-in-award-winning-and-bestselling-young-adult-fiction/

Sullivan,M.(2005).Fundamentals of children’s services(2005). Chicago: American Library Association.

Yarra Plenty Collection development policy. (2009). Retrieved 01 May 2013, from http://filestore.yprl.vic.gov.au/policies/YPRL-Policy-Collection-Development-2007-2012.pdf

PD: CENSORSHIP

For this professional development activity, I conducted a critical review of the paper Isajilovic-Terry, N. & McKechnie, L. (2012). An exploratory Study of Children’s Views of Censorship. Children & Libraries: The Journal of the Association for Library Service to Children, 10(1), 38-43.  Whilst I was conducting this critical review I researched topics and papers regarding censorship in public libraries.  Although the research of Isajilovic-Terry & McKechnie has tended to focus on the fact that children’s voices are seldom heard, rather less attention was paid to how libraries can apply this in practice.

The most important issue highlighted in this professional learning activity was that if a library has a concrete policy regarding collection development and internet access policies then decisions in the workplace can be validated. This is an important consideration because Bundy’s (2007) Looking forward survey revealed that 56% of Australian public libraries do not have a specific policy statement for children and young people.

This activity was relevant to professional practice because censorship laws and how it applies to libraries is a topic that all information professionals should be knowledgeable about.  What was of particular interest in researching this topic of censorship was the issue of self-censorship.  In this situation, acquisitions librarians can purposely not select an item due to its controversial nature, or label the material to indicate sensitive material to prevent subsequent challenges they could receive from the community (Moody, 2004, p.145).

Having previously worked in a public library I do have a working knowledge of internet policies and the issues of censorship and filtering software.  In my previous workplace filters that were placed on the children’s computers as a result Facebook could not be accessed on the computer in the young adult area, which defeated the purpose as that is why they were there in the first place.  The end result was that some of the filters were changed to allow this social networking software.  

Historically, censorship is a complex issue faced by information professionals in the role of providing access to information.  According to Moody (2004, p.1) censorship is a difficult term to define however, ‘essentially it encompasses those actions which significantly restrict free access to information”.  Censorship of information in this modern age is relevant to print materials as well electronic information.  Cerny, Markey & Williams (2006, p.38) contend that “If we have strong well-designed policy to help us make decisions the controversy can be minimised.  The Australian Library and Information Australia (ALIA) do not advocate censorship in Australian libraries and demonstrate this in their Statement on Free Access to Information (2007), “Freedom can be protected in a democratic society only if its citizens have unrestricted access to information”.  Applying this ideal to practice in public libraries becomes difficult when faced with, “community expectations, socio-political environments are some of the pressures that librarians face when providing access to information” (Moody, 2004, section 1). Further, the internet has added another level of complexities to the issue of censorship. Houghton & Berryman (2007, p.18) concur when they say that a “major challenge to the freedom of access to information is continuing calls to regulate or filter online content”.  What is more, ALIA’s (2011) Internet access in public libraries survey revealed that over 1/3 of public libraries used software filters on their terminals, mostly as a mechanism to filter offensive content , with one in five libraries having a separate terminals for children.  Highlighted in this survey is that onus in the majority of libraries is that parents are responsible for their children whilst in the library and they should therefore regulate their access.  In conclusion, censorship in libraries is complex, however by following ALIA’s guidelines and implementing policies that provide a solid framework for decision making.

References

ALIA.(2011). Internet Access in Public Libraries. Retrieved 13 May 2013 from, http://www.alia.org.au/advocacy/internet.access/Internet.Access.Survey.2011.pdf

Bundy, A.(2007). Looking ever forward: Australia’s public libraries serving children and young people. Retrieved from http://www.fola.org.au/pdfs/Looking_ever_forward.pdf

Cerny, R., Markey, P. & William, A. (2006). Outstanding library service to children: putting the core ,competencies to work. Retrieved from Ebook Library.

Moody, K.(2004). Covert censorship in Libraries. Retrieved from http://www.a lia.org.au/publishing/alj/54.2/full.text/moody.html

Houghton, J., & Berryman, J. (2007). Ethics and law for information practice. In Ferguson, S. (Ed.), Libraries in the twenty-first century: Charting new directions in information services (pp. 266-288). Wagga Wagga, NSW: Centre for Information Studies.

PD:DIVERSITY

I interviewed Chris Taylor the Branch Librarian of the Special Needs Library at Nerang on the Gold Coast.  We spoke about the program the library provides once a month which is open to all ages, however the children are mostly in the 2 to 10 year’s age group. It is based on a theme, for example animals or seasons. Resources are used from the Special Needs collection for this program. Concurrently, a speech pathologist engages with parent and child during play and activities to instruct and assist. The major benefits Chris highlighted was that it provides a social benefit for the children with special needs as well as the general community sees and interacts with people with disabilities in library spaces. This promotes awareness, understanding and engagement with people with disabilities. By running these vital programs to serve our plurality of society and providing opportunities for social participation, libraries are directly contributing to Australian society as a whole.

The activity was relevant to professional practice because facilitating equity and social justice is a fundamental cornerstone of Information Services. In 2009, four million people in Australia were reported as having a disability. Of all Australians with a disability in 2009, 290,000 (7.2%) were children aged 0-14 years (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012).  In order to facilitate social inclusion, Information professionals and the libraries they work for should be aware of the community demographics and how we can best meet the needs of the community.

The gaps in my knowledge were filled by conducting this interview, in that I was able to see a collaborative program in action to benefit a vital part of our community. The special needs library has an advisory group of local therapists and disability workers. They advise on purchase of resources and refer customers to the service. The benefits of the collaboration are that a community hub is established for special needs groups to have access to therapists and organisations such as Autism Australia.

The Disability Standards (2009) acknowledge that forms of disability may include physical, intellectual, psychiatric, sensory, neurological and learning disabilities.  Because of this, it is important that the library is able to recognise people living with disability have fundamentally diverse needs.  These include, but not limited to areas such as adaptive technologies, access to a variety of resources, provision of an inclusive environment and equitable access to facilities as well as physical equipment. It can be argued, equitable access is a right that should be extended to every member of society.  This is supported and expressed by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA), “the right of people with a disability to equitable access to information through all library and information services...” (ALIA, 2011).  The advantages of enabling social inclusion provide the opportunity for other community members to accept people with disabilities, create library support and generate opportunities for staff development (Barker, 2011, p.15).  To illustrate at Nerang Special Needs Library at the Gold Coast, the library aim to improve social and community skills of people with special needs.  This is achieved by facilitating access to targeted resources, programs and providing life skills experience by using the library facilities in an  inclusive environment (Taylor, 2013, personal communication).

References

Australian Bureau of Statistics.(2012). Australian social trends (No.4102.0). Canberra:Author.

Barker, D. (2011). On the outside looking in: Public Libraries Serving Young People with disabilities, Aplis, 24(1), 9-16.

Library & Information Services for people with a disability. (ALIA). (2011). Retrieved from http://www.alia.org.au/policies/disabilities

National Disability Strategy-Community consultations and submissions report .(2009) .Retrieved from, http://www.fahcsia.gov.au/sa/disability/pubs/policy/community_consult/Pages/default.aspx