3.20(1)+Project+Int.+Freedom

INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM PROJECT - 50 POINTS

Your assignments are normally due on Mondays but since the 21st is the beginning of spring break, I feel I can't make the assignment officially due on that date. However, you may turn it in on the 21st if you wish with not loss of credit. Otherwise, the assignment is officially due on the 20th at 11:59 pm.

//SCENARIO://

//You are a newly minted media specialist who is in his second year at Wyndham Elementary School in Missouri. There are three elementary schools in the district and there are librarians at the middle and high schools but there is not a lot of communication among the librarians. There is no district coordinator for librarians and the librarians pretty much run their own shows. Your predecessor at this school was uninvolved with the curriculum and very conservative in her approach to librarianship and collection development. You have been a breath of fresh air to the staff but your relationship with your principal has not been close. She treats you professionally but she is not particularly supportive of your attempts to invigorate the library program and particularly not of your requests for more budget to make the collection more current and broader in scope. //

//You were recently out sick for a week and had a substitute. During that time, the substitute came across the book// King & King //by Linda De Haan and Stern Nijland. The sub took the book to your principal and complained about having material with a word like this in the elementary school. Your principal confronted you upon your return and wanted to know why you had the book in the collection. She was so angry at this that she called you into her office and said something along these lines://

>> //The theme presented in the book is controversial and could potentially elicit strong parental outrage. Hopefully, you will take this matter seriously and refrain from adding material that may be construed as an irresponsible attempt by the author at sensationalism as a means to sell more books. Further infractions may result in disciplinary action. //

//Needless to say, this whole turn of events has been devastating and you are very concerned about how to respond, who to turn to for advice, and what to do next. //

//To make things worse, the substitute contacted other parents in the community and they have taken it upon themselves to see what else might be in the elementary schools that isn't "appropriate."//

Now that you understand there is a culture war going on out there in the big world over whether students should have access to certain material and you also understand that this mother has contacted a couple of other groups for support in her cause.

You need a plan of action for dealing with this issue. Being the ever resourceful librarian, you look to others in the field for help.
 * How are you going to respond to the principal?
 * How are you going to find out more about the groups that are either supporting or fighting restricting the reading and viewing options for students?
 * What do you need to have in your policies to best deal with this issue?

Go to your wiki/Web site and create a new page and title it: Project-IF: Reconsideration

You may not be familiar with this book and so I have created a short video that replicates the kind of parental outrage that is similar to the scenario I've devised above. A difference is that the issue originated in a classroom rather than a library but the same kind of response from parents could be anticipated. Also, because the event happened in 2006 doesn't mean that the issue wouldn't still be similar in your own library today. In fact it is more likely that you might purchase this book (in an elementary setting) because gay marriage is now legal across the U.S. as opposed to just Massachussetts at the time this NPR story was first broadcast.
 * BACKGROUND**




 * 1. CREATE A RECONSIDERATION POLICY** The book has been criticized. The patron has filled out a "Citizen's Request for Reconsideration of Material" and turned it into the principal. What happens next? List the steps this reconsideration process will take. Search through the databases (//Library Lit//, for example) or the Web and list the steps that a reconsideration process would take. Identify each step, who is involved, and how does the process go to the next step until there is some kind of resolution.(20 points)

Be sure to include a version of the "Citizen's Request for the Reconsideration of Materials" or some kind of form that the complainant would fill out to begin the formal process.
 * Survey at least three (3) different sources for creating your own reconsideration process. Do **not** use Fayetteville or Blue Valley for your sources (see below).
 * Cite within your document which steps in your process came from which source.
 * At the end of this process, create a Works Cited page with full MLA citation the three (3) reconsideration sources you evaluated to come up with your own process
 * //HINTS: Write this as if it was your school document. Whatever you include should be clear to any reader what the steps are. (Don't assume another librarian is reading this -- but a patron, for example). Don't include the names of the different schools within the process -- you wouldn't do that if you were writing this for your own school. In other words, don't let the seams show that you have lifted the information from different school documents. Do include the names of the school in parenthesis after each paragraph because this is required in the assignment. If you include the name of a committee be sure we know who sits on the committee and who appoints it. If you include something odd like "the Novel Committee" or "the School Library Collection Evaluation Committee" be sure we know what this committee is -- you don't need a full-blown explanation, but give us enough to understand the committee's role in the reconsideration process.//


 * There is a rubric for this part of the assignment which will be found in the RUBRICS link on Bb.**


 * 2. POLICY HIGH POINTS**: Following are the selection policies from two school districts that have dealt repeatedly and publicly with citizen’s request issues. Read through the policies. What are points that you left out of your policy above that you admire and would recommend being added to your policy above? (10 points)

Fayetteville, Arkansas

Library Materials Selection Policy #6.15 []

Administration Regulations for Policy #6.15 []

Blue Valley, Kansas

Selection of Learning Resources []

Administrative Guidelines Policy 4610: Challenges to and Reconsideration of Learning Resources http://www2.bluevalleyk12.org/policies/documents/4610guidelines.pdf

Challenges to and Reconsideration of Learning Resources []

Go to your wiki/Web site and create a new page and title it: Project-IF: Organizations


 * 3. EVERYONE HAS AN OPINION**: There is a lot of passionate discussion about what students should be permitted to read. Censorship is a topic of discussion from both sides of the question. Below are organizations that you should know about. Most are national organizations that have varied agendas but would almost assuredly have an opinion about whether //King & King// should be in your library. (20 points)
 * Divide the following into two groups: ones that would come down very strongly on the side of keeping controversial titles and the other side which would most likely take a conservative approach to collection development.
 * Describe the Web site and your impression of it by clicking through the site. What, specifically, makes you think that this organization would line up on the particular side of the issue? Are there aspects of the site that stand out as being particularly impressive, jarring, or significant?

NATIONAL American Civil Liberties Union – http://www.aclu.org American Family Association – http://www.afa.net American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom – @http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/oif/index.cfm The Eagle Forum – http://www.eagleforum.org Electronic Frontier Foundation - @http://www.eff.org/ Focus on the Family – http://www.family.org National Coalition Against Censorship – @http://www.ncac.org/ People for the American Way – http://www.pfaw.org

LOCAL GROUPS PABBIS - @http://www.pabbis.com/whattodo.html Parents Protecting the Minds of Children - @http://www.teachclean.com/