NCSLMA has a small blog on our website. If you would like to contribute to it, please send submissions to kristysartain@ncslma.org. We're looking for news items, stories about your library, fun events you have had, etc. Pictures can be included and are welcomed. There are no minimum or maximum length requirements. Share some of the great things going on in your library!

Dr. April M. Dawkins, Assistant Professor, UNC Greensboro Department of Library & Information Science
NCSLMA Intellectual Freedom Chair

Across the state, we have had a spate of challenges stemming from public statements made by political officials and coverage of these statements in the media. Additionally, conservative activist groups have received information about what to do to assert their “parental rights.” Some of these instructions are reaching into mainstream conservative media. What can we do about it? Be prepared!

First, remember why you became a school librarian. You want to work with kids and support them to become lifelong learners. To do this successfully, you must defend their right to read and access information. We are there to support ALL students. The books we choose to add to our collections may not be suitable for every child in our community, but there may be one child who needs access to that one book. Parents DO have the right to monitor their OWN children’s reading and even make decisions about what their child should read. BUT they should not make decisions about what OTHER people’s children are reading.

Second, locate and review your school or district’s selection and reconsideration policies. These should be publicly available on your district’s website (often found in the board policy manual). Make sure that you are familiar with the policies and how challenges should be handled. Then make sure your administrative leadership is familiar with the policies too. Make careful note of how challenged material is handled while undergoing the reconsideration process. And remind leaders that failure to follow district policy is what results in lawsuits. If you can’t find your policy, talk to your leadership. You need one! If your policy seems outdated, you need to revise it. The best guidance for developing or revising policy is the ALA Selection & Reconsideration Policy Toolkit. 

Third, don’t change how you are selecting books or decide to start removing books from your collection because you think you might have something in your collection that might be questioned. “A truly great library contains something in it to offend everyone” (librarian Jo Godwin). You don’t know what might be offensive to someone, so follow your selection guidelines and make the best decisions you can about what to add to your collection. If you want to rethink something you have in your collection, follow your reconsideration process. It’s time-consuming, but it sets the precedent that anything that is being removed (other than weeding for outdated content, damage, or lack of circulation) must follow the procedures.

Fourth, make sure that you have a functioning Media and Technology Advisory Committee (MTAC). Your MTAC should be created and chaired by you and made up of supporters of the library media center with representatives from departments, grade levels, students (if middle/high school age), parents, and administrators. The role of the MTAC is ADVISORY. It’s part of the title! They are not trained in selection. They can advise you on selection of materials and provide their input. But YOU are a trained, credentialed, professional librarian. The MTAC can also serve as your reconsideration committee if a formal challenge is made. As the chair of the committee, you should preside over the reconsideration process including informing the committee of their responsibilities, the selection process, and the importance of the Freedom to Read and intellectual freedom. It’s important that they understand that minors have rights that do not stop at the schoolhouse door. Consider sharing with them the ALA statements about the rights of students and minors.

Fifth, prepare for and practice how you handle an oral complaint about something in your library. Most challenges can be averted by having a simple conversation with whoever is concerned about your collection. Consider including four things in your response: (1) Give a positive acknowledgement of request / concern (not dismissive or angry) - “Thank you for being so involved…”; (2) Provide an action step on how you will follow up or ask what it is that they want to happen (some people just want to be heard); (3) Explain how books are selected for the library - mission / values / freedom to read (you might include information about connections to the curriculum and the role of the media center to serve everyone; and (4) Provide them with information on what the steps are to request a formal review.

Finally, know that you are not alone even if you are the only school library media coordinator in the building. Reach out to administrators, district media staff (if you have them), other SLMCs in your district. Plan together for how you will handle any challenges. Also, if challenges occur, get support from NCSLMA and ALA. Dr. April Dawkins (aprildawkins@ncslma.org) is the chair of the NCSLMA Intellectual Freedom Committee and will talk with you about handling challenges, updating policies, and crafting media statements. ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) has staff that will also prepare statements for the media and assist you in the process. Kristen Pekoll (kpekoll@ala.org) is the assistant director and a former school librarian. She is an excellent resource. Please do not hesitate to reach out to either one. AND be sure to report challenges to ALA’s OIF and look at other resources on their website.

NCSLMA DEI Survey—We Need Your Input!

Michelle Burton, Chair NCSLMA Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity Committee

Media Coordinator, Spring Valley Elementary, Durham, NC

The NCSLMA Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity Committee has created a survey to find out what is occurring in school library media centers across North Carolina with regards to diversity, equity, and inclusivity.  During our work, we found that the annual DLMI report from DPI does not give the necessary information as far as learning about the funding and diversity of our school library media centers. We know there are close to 2,000 school library media coordinators in our state, and we want to receive a large number of responses so we can have a good understanding of the state of our school media centers with regards to funding and inclusivity. We ask that you please complete the survey by December 20, 2021 so the committee can start analyzing the data in January. We also ask if you can share this survey with other media coordinators in your school district so we can reach the 2,000 media coordinators in our state. For everyone who completes the survey, their name will be entered in a drawing for a free one-year membership to NCSLMA.

Thank you in advance for completing the DEI survey and in supporting NCSLMA as we create a more equitable and inclusive school library media center spaces and professional organization.

Please click this link to complete the survey.

Congratulations to the members who have been selected to be the 2022 Leadership Academy Cohort., which will be lead by Kelly Carlson Friday!  

Lynne Christensen, Wiley International Studies Magnet Elementary

Jennie Greenway, East Rutherford Middle School

Erika Henderson, Mills Park Middle School

Ashley McVey, Mills River Elementary School

Gretchen Parker, Porters Neck Elementary School

Jeremy Radford, Eastern Wayne High School

Robyn Register, West Craven High School

Marisssa Sherman Deziel, Clyde Elementary School

Julie Stivers, Mount Vernon Middle School

Robin Williams, East Mecklenburg High School

The Library Association at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (LAUNC-CH) Conference Committee invites you to submit a proposal for the virtual LAUNC-CH Conference, scheduled for Monday, March 14, 2022. Registration fees for this year's conference have been waived.   

The 2022 conference theme is:   

Great Expectations: Building Unity and Strengthening Community with keynote speaker Sofia Leung.

The conference committee is calling for presentations, workshops, and posters that examine how we approach expectations of ourselves, our work, and our coworkers in a hybrid world. Tell us about your successes and failures so that we can learn from one another. 

We are particularly interested in 20 or 40-minute presentations and workshops that cover:     

·        Creating new expectations for ourselves, our work, and our coworkers  

·        Reinventing ourselves and how we do our work - being proactive instead of reactive 

·        Rethinking our definitions of productivity 

·        Unity: How do we maintain connections in a hybrid work life? How do we build community in and outside of work in this hybrid time? 

·        Work-life balance strategies 

·        Best practices for work from home while setting boundaries 

·        Advocating for workplace culture that supports mental health, belonging, and flexible ways of working  

We also invite posters that feature research or work related to the conference theme.   

Please submit your presentations, workshops, or poster proposals at: go.unc.edu/2022LAUNCCHproposal  

If you have any questions, or if you’re wondering whether your topic fits the conference theme, please contact Alison Barnett: ammurray@email.unc.edu.     

Preference for presentations, workshops, and posters will be given to proposals that match the conference theme, although other topics will be considered. We welcome proposals from library employees at and beyond UNC-Chapel Hill. We strongly encourage submissions from public libraries, special libraries, and academic institutions outside of the Triangle.  

Please submit proposals by January 6, 2022.  

LAUNC-CH is committed to making this conference accessible for all attendees. Once we accept a proposal, we’ll ask that all presentation materials (slides, documents, images, etc.) meet WCAG accessibility standards. For best results, provide material in Word or PowerPoint, utilizing the accessibility checkers and correction tools those applications provide. For guidance please visit: https://digitalaccessibility.unc.edu/resources/documents/. A conference liaison will be on call to help you if you need assistance.  

We look forward to hearing from you. More details on the 2022 LAUNC-CH conference will be posted to the LAUNC-CH website in the coming weeks: http://launcch.web.unc.edu/

We want to hear from you! Do you have an upcoming multi-school or district event, were you recognized in some way, are you involved in the coolest collaboration, or did you contribute in some other spectacular way that shows the value of school libraries and librarians? We know you did! So we want to share the fabulous things school librarians are doing across the state! Please submit links to articles, published materials, and/or graphics to Kenisha Smith (kenishasmith@ncslma.org). Materials should be "copy and paste" ready. Submissions will be edited and published at the discretion of the NCSLMA News & Updates Editorial Team.

Submission Guidelines Document