[the originial posting followed by responses.]
From: "Micaela Vincent" <micaela1_at_tpg.com.au>
Hi, my name is Micaela,
I am a State High School teacher in Central Queensland, Australia.
I am dealing with a lot of problematic issues at the moment.
Parents reject "Harry Potter" and any books that deal positively with
a Muslim Community. I am very much interested how librarians deal with
cesorship issues. I am especially interested in school librarians and
censorship, as well as the internet and censorship.
Micaela
==#1====
From: June Pinnell-Stephens <june.pinnell.stephens_at_fnsb.lib.ak.us>
For censorship in the schools, I'd recommend you start at the ALA
Office for Intellectual Freedom at
http://www.ala.org/oif/ifissues/censorshipinschools.
Any articles on the topic by Carrie Gardner and Pat Scales would also
be helpful. For material on the Internet, try the Internet Toolkit at
http://www.ala.org/oif/iftoolkits/internet. For basic information and
philosophy, try the Intellectual Freedom Manual at
http://www.ala.org/oif/iftoolkits/ifmanual
June
June Pinnell-Stephens
Collection Services Manager
Fairbanks North Star Borough Public Library
1215 Cowles St.
Fairbanks, AK 99701
907-459-1020
907-459-1024 fax
==#2====
From: holmesd_at_qatar.net.qa
Hi Micaela,
My name is Lydia Holmes and I am an infant school (age 3 - 8 years)
librarian in an English school in Qatar, in the Middle EAst. Have we
got censorship issues, but reverse of you.
Harry Potter was possibly not going to be allowed into the Middle East
as they thought he lost his virginity!!! Any book that shows a partly
naked person, e.g. Mrs Archimedes bath, Jungle Book or any books which
show the development of people and show the change in the body, must
all be drawn over and coloured in. Any book which shows cleavage or
shoulders or knees must be covered with a piece of paper glued on top.
Any pictures or mention of the word Israel, or its' flag need to be
cut out of the book.
No Halloween displays during the holy month of Ramadan. No Christmas
books that show the nativity scene are allowed in the library, and
Christmas books are fairly restricted.
I understand where you may have problems and I wish there was a simple
answer. I know that we have one girl in year 5 who does not do
literacy with the rest of the class as her parents have banned her
doing Harry Potter and she comes to the library to do another task.
She is an American Catholic.
Just a few thoughts from an Australian living in the MIddle East.
Lydia Holmes
==#3====
Hi Micaela,
The American Library Association has a lot of good resources on
censorship at http://tinyurl.com/duv1 - good luck!
Lori
Lori A. Schwabenbauer, MSLS
Director of Library Services
Holy Family University
Grant and Frankford Aves.
Philadelphia, PA 19114
215-637-7700 x3314 // fax 215-632-8067
Lschwaben_at_holyfamily.edu
http://www.holyfamily.edu/library/
Received on Thu Oct 23 2003 - 11:25:17 EDT