🥇 Library Champion Newsletter #61 | For your Christmas week 🎅
Library Champion,
đź‘‹ Welcome to our new subscribers! Glad to have you aboard
We are so excited to announce that we have new, more expanded hours:
Monday - 9:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Tuesday - 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Wednesday - 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Thursday - 9:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Friday - 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Saturday - 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Sunday - Closed
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(Photo credit: Jonathan Borba)
We can probably agree on this: our kids need to read!
An increasing number of school districts and their communities are debating whether or not certain books should be included in their curriculum, made available in their school’s libraries or even just allowed to be shelved in classrooms. The underlying motivations and beliefs (often unstated) in these debates are worth exploring. Two instances of this in Pennsylvania school districts are a perfect place to start.
In the fall of 2020, the Central York School District board was presented with a list of anti-racism books that their “diversity education committee” recommended be banned from use in the district’s curriculum. The board voted unanimously to ban those books. A year later that same board voted unanimously to unban those books (I scratched my head over that one.) More recently the DuBois Area School District board heard concerns from a parent who opposed their school’s libraries from stocking “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas.
I will say this up front, and this must go hand-in-hand with everything I am about to say: parents need to discuss with their children what is acceptable for them to read. Each family needs to have their own values and instill them in their children.
That being said, the underlying motivations and beliefs at Central York and DuBois are likely this: the next generation needs to read and learn. Once we get past that, we can unfortunately fall prey to a variety of misunderstandings.
The core basis of the Central York School District’s banning of anti-racism books (stated by the committee) was that they taught critical race theory. Those who supported banning the books on the list believe that critical race theory teaches students to believe that America is inherently bad and white people are inherently oppressive (it doesn’t.) Encyclopedia Britannica defines Critical Race Theory (CRT) as “an intellectual and social movement and loosely organized framework of legal analysis based on the premise that race is not a natural, biologically grounded feature of physically distinct subgroups of human beings but a socially constructed (culturally invented) category that is used to oppress and exploit people of color. On the topic of racism itself, it states that “critical race theorists hold that racism is inherent in the law and legal institutions of the United States insofar as they function to create and maintain social, economic, and political inequalities between whites and nonwhites, especially African Americans.”
With the DuBois School District, the parent believed that the following scenario could easily happen: a child will stumble upon a book, pick it up and read it, and then imitate what they read. In my 10+ years of experience working in a variety of library settings and collaboratively with school librarians I have never witnessed the above scenario ever happening or heard from another librarian that it happened in their library.
(“The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas.)
The common denominator with both school examples are misunderstandings. The following themes are also present: the distrust of children and other parents, believing there is a high likelihood that a child’s entire worldview and value system will be undone by a novel (which makes you wonder if the problem is actually not the novel) and the objection to a female or person of color writing a book laying bare the systemic oppression and racism that undergirds the protagonist’s world. We are left to decide with only all-or-nothing options: possess the book or ban it.
Back to my third and fourth paragraphs: we can probably agree that the next generation needs to read and learn. Books are powerful and can influence our worldview. It’s worth repeating that parents need to discuss with their children what is acceptable to read. This can happen outside of school so that the child can ascertain if a book they see in school is acceptable for them to read. This can also happen in the library, such as before or at checkout when a parent talks with their child about the books they are borrowing. Â
In a day and age where it seems that we can’t agree or anything, we can start small and realize that we agree on at least one thing: the next generation needs to read and books are powerful. Next, we can listen to each other and put ourselves in their shoes, which will help reduce our misunderstandings. Doing both has helped me realize that we have a lot more in common than I realize and that those around me are not as scary as the world can make them out to be. It’s at this very place where the world can begin to change for the better.
We really have some great Friends.
From the kayak raffle to their book sales, the Friends have raised nearly $4,000 in 2021! Meanwhile, the Friends have contributed over $7,200 to the library in 2021. With those funds, the library has been able to continue to offer mobile hotspots and Chromebooks and add more security cameras so that our library is safe and secure.
But the biggest number of all is $122,406.83: the amount of contributions the Friends have made all-time to the library.
Let that sink in.
Will you be a Friend of the Library? Join today!
Membership is as low as $10 a year. Student membership and senior citizen membership is $10. For individual adults it is $15, families are $25 and individual lifetime membership is $200. You can join any time by picking up a form in the library or printing it online on our website under the Support then Friends of the Library.
A book recommendation for you!
Drive by James Sallis (2012) (Adult fiction: mystery, thriller)
A solid noir. It doesn't rely on provocative, and corny, descriptions of the women. Instead, it focuses on creating a strong story that brings the reader in. In fact, it demands attention. We also have the movie adaptation starring Ryan Gosling.
Is your library card current? If you have to think about it, it's time to renew it! Click here to get started. It's one of the most powerful things you can have.
Your support ensures that a library card is valuable and free to all!
🎅 Christmas is coming really soon! Shop for gifts at the library! 🎄
Christmas is only a few days away! Come to the library for your last-minute Christmas shopping. We have pre-filled and pre-wrapped book baskets with labels and gift tags ready to go! Some of these baskets even contain goodies like library mugs, slipper socks, dish towels, or are packaged in a reusable library tote. Baskets for all ages are priced between $5-$15. Stop in and check them out!
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Thank you for being a library champion. You make a difference each day!
--Vince Giordano
Librarian and Director of the Juniata County Library.
P.S.- You don't need to make an account or jump through any hoops to be a library champion. I wouldn't say this if it wasn't true. You can make this happen in less than a minute. Just click here.