PD: Analysis of a peer reviewed paper

Professional development Activity: Journal Article Review

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.

Introduction

This paper critically reviews the article, ‘An exploratory study of children’s views of censorship’, which appears in the journal ‘Children & Libraries: The Journal of the Association for Library Service to Children.  The review will firstly summarise the article.  Secondly, it will briefly analyse the effectiveness of the articles structure, investigating how the information is set out and whether the reader can access this paper efficiently.  Thirdly, the review will critique the article, evaluating its authority, accuracy, currency and relevance.  Overall the article well written and relevant. 

Article Summary

The purpose of this article was to investigate children’s opinions on censorship of materials relevant to their age.  The participants were part of focus group interviews which involved 6 children aged 9 to 12.  After analysis of the recorded interviews the findings revealed that the participants held different views of censorship. The general consensus being that although censorship was not favourable, that some materials warranted censorship particularly those violent in nature.  They also understood that perception of inappropriate content is subjective and all the children thought that teachers have the right to limit what is available in school libraries. Although in saying that if they did want a particular item they would find a way to get it from a public library or older sibling.

Future research should be conducted to explore children’s perceptions of censorship and hopefully provide a platform for other studies in this area.  This paper encourages children’s librarians to consider children’s opinions when developing policies and practices in relation to restricting access to information.

Article structure

The article under review was accessed via EBSCOhost in a clear and concise form.  It was retrieved as a PDF document.  The article was introduced with an abstract that outlined purpose, main points, findings and conclusion and future research directions.  The article is broken into headings and subheadings.  The introduction provided the background rationale behind the research.  It was logically organised with a literature review, method, findings discussion and references.  The article had qualitative aspects with illustrations from the interviews to support findings.

Article Critique

The author’s credibility was established in a number of ways.  Both authors are associated with the Information industry.  Isajilovic-Terry is a librarian at the Foundation Center.  Whilst McKechnie is a professor of Information Studies at the University of Western Ontario.  The article was from the Journal of Children & Libraries, which is a peer-reviewed journal.  The article was found through EBSCOhost on the Academic Search Premier database.  This is highly credible research database.  It can be seen that the article has authority.

Central to the rigour of research conducted is the credibility and dependability of the evidence gathered. The key terms of the paper such as censorship was not defined at all which was have added clarity to the paper.  The fact that the authors have not used triangulation devalues the credibility of the paper. Triangulation plays an important role in facilitating credibility of research.  This point of view is supported by Quinton & Smallbone who argue that, ‘using different data collection tools to answer the same question, provides a stronger body of evidence’ (2006, p.8).  Dependability is demonstrated according to Jensen (2008, p.1),’when adequate information is provided about the methodology’.  The data collection is well stated and results were illustrated by participants.

Accuracy and Relevance

The study the article was written about was conducted in 2011 and revised in 2012.  The references are within a 10 year time frame.  The article is from an academic journal intended fro people working with children in libraries.  The article is relevant although not generalizable due to the nature of the study. 

Conclusion

This review has summarised and critically reviewed the article ‘An exploratory Study of Children’s Views of Censorship’.  The structure, accessibility, content, strengths and limitations were analysed and critiqued.  The author’s and the article are credible although triangulation would add more value to the results. The paper is current and accurate.  The article has contributed valuable insight as to how children perceive censorship of materials relevant to them. 

References

Jensen, D. (2008). Transferability. In Lisa M. Given (Ed.), The SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods. (p. 887). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. doi: 10.4135/9781412963909.n464

Quinton, S., & Smallbone, T. (2006). Reliability, validity and generalization. In Postgraduate Research in Business. London: SAGE Publications, Ltd http://www.srmo.sagepub.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/view/postgraduate-research-in-business/n9.xml?rskey=PcKiNk&row=5

Fictional Characters

PD:Interview with Chris Taylor GCCCC

Interview with Chris Taylor from Gold Coast City Council Library

13 May 2013

Could you please state your role at Nerang Branch of Gold Coast City Council and your position portfolio?

Branch librarian at Nerang with Gold Coast City Council.

Role is to manage Branch Library operations i.e. facility, collections/resources, services and programs and staff including leading team and ensuring excellent customer service 25,000 customers, 600,000 loans per year and 250,000 visits per year. One of the important roles for branch librarians is engaging with local community and developing programs and services that meet community needs e.g. literacy and outreach programs in conjunction with local schools. As branch librarian I also actively participate in the service wide management team that develops and implements the strategic direction of library in line with Council and Library business plans.

The library provides a program once a month for people with special needs, could you tell me about what the program entails and is it open to all age groups? 

 Open to all ages but nearly all attendees have been a parent/carer with special needs children usually 2 to 10 year’s age group. Session is compiled by library staff in consultation with a Speech Pathologist, who attends the session. Based on a theme e.g. animals or spring. Stories, songs, actions, activity sheets and toys from the Special Needs collection. Parents/carers attend with their child. Speech pathologist engages with parent and child during play and activities to instruct and assist.

An important part of a Library service is to know about what a particular community needs and to respond appropriately. What led to this special needs library being developed?

Local and Gold Coast wide statistics - nationally 20% of the population have some form of what can be termed a "disability". Significant numbers of people with specific disabilities identified in area e.g. autism, developmental conditions - support services and community groups were very active also. When new library being planned and built in 2003 local community disability groups supported special needs library resources as part of new facility. Nerang was, and still is, central for access across Gold Coast so ideal location to service whole of Gold Coast.

Collaboration with organisations in your community seems to be playing an important role in the library providing this important service, could you tell me a bit more about that?

Special Needs Library has an advisory group of local therapists and disability workers. They advise on purchase of resources and refer customers to service. Our special needs email group has over 50 local organisations and community groups. 

Basically the library and librarians are good at organising, lending/circulating resources and answering questions about the collection (providing access) in response to the Special Needs community needs and preferences. The library is a place/facility that is accessible has good opening hours and links with local community groups in this case special needs groups e.g. Therapists, Autism Australia etc to provide equity of access and opportunity for people.  It will be interesting to see if the current legislation before parliament provides additional resources for organisations and services supporting people with disabilities.

What is the most rewarding part of your job and the major benefits to your children with special needs?

Staff and myself assisting carers, parents and the children find the service very rewarding. The tasks are not unlike any library work selecting, organising and providing access but is humbling to see what the carers and children cope with and the difference the resources can make. It also provides people with special needs access to other library resources e.g. DVDs, picture books, music etc. A social benefit is that the general community sees and interacts with people with disabilities in library spaces i.e. promote awareness, understanding and engagement with people with disabilities.

Freedom to Read Week - at Leaside!

Freedom to Read Week - at Leaside!

PD: Book Review The Little Refugee

The Little Refugee by Anh Do and Suzanne Do

Illustrator. Bruce Whatley. Allen & Unwin, 2011. ISBN 9781742378329

(Age : 4-8 ) Highly recommended:

Honour Book, Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Book of the Year Award - Eve Pownall Award for Information Books
Shortlisted, 2012 Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Award for Lower Primary
Notable book, 2012 Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Book of the Year Award - Picture Books
Winner in the Indie Awards 2012, Children's category
Shortlisted, 2012 WA Premier's Literary Award WC
Shortlisted, 2012 Australian Educational Publishing Awards Primary Student Resource: (Arts/Science/Humanities)
Shortlisted, 2012 NSW Premier's History Awards
Shortlisted, Red Dot Awards 2013 Younger Readers category. The Red Dot Awards is an initiative of the International School Libraries Network Singapore.

This is Anh Doh’s story, born in Vietnam, poor upbringing in the midst of the Vietnam War.  After the war ended his family decided to escape war torn Vietnam to another country and become refugees.  This terrifying ocean ordeal provided incredible challenges such as huge storms, pirates’ stealing their treasured possessions, crammed conditions with no food and water.  They were rescued by a passing by German cargo ship and ended up in Australia.   School proved difficult with limited English and the fact that Anh looked different and ate different foods. 

In spite of all the dangers and hardships they faced, Mum and Dad always told me to have hope, and believe that everything will turn out ok in the end.

This uplifting and inspiring story, wonderfully illustrated by Bruce Whatley, will encourage readers to read it over again, as they ponder about the circumstances that led to Anh Doh and his family becoming refugees in Australia.  This book puts a face on the boat people and migrant people of Australia considering that this subject is highly topical in contemporary Australia and is still being experienced by people coming to Australia today.

The background to this strong family, of Anh, although poor still being happy because he had lots of playmates, losing all their food and water on the journey but being grateful because they are still alive, of being robbed in Australia and saying there are people worse off than us! All point to a belief system of the eternal optimist.  This wonderful story provides a springboard for many discussions about Refugees, Racial and Ethnic differences or about Vietnam where the story begins, the descriptions and illustrations providing an unforgettable background to the story as it unfolds.

Final comments

I love this book. I bought Anh Doh’s the Happiest Refugee for my mum on mothers day few years ago because I wanted to read it! Then I bought The Little Refugee for my 3 year old last year for his birthday. We read it often, I love Anh’s outlook on life, and I believe it provides the platform for many teachable moments with my kids like compassion, resilience and embracing others, we are going as a family to Vietnam for my 40^th in two years so the kids will be sure to revisit this book often.