<div dir="ltr"><div>Thank you Rita, for your response; I'm grateful for your perspective. <br></div><div><br></div><div>Perhaps I should have been more explicit with our motivations and intentions in my initial email. I hope this additional context is beneficial. I am going to use primarily "I" statements and kidlit examples, because I can only speak to my specific experiences. <br></div><div><br></div><div>In my role in collection development, materials assessment, etc. I read and have, myself, many competing perspectives. An excellent example would be Brave by James Bird from 2020. This title received many starred reviews and made best-of-the-year lists, however it also received a "Not Recommended" from American Indians in Children's Literature. So, when I am assessing whether or not to keep this book in my collection (or, if I had not already ordered it, then whether to purchase it in the first place), there are many complex things to consider in addition to circulation statistics and physical condition (digital copies of the book being their own thing entirely). I have a responsibility to hear and trust expert perspectives, because my own perspective (cis, white, bi, etc.) only gets me so far, and has myriad blind spots. <br></div><div><br></div><div>With this revisit of our collection development policy, I am not looking for a reason to ban books. However, we also must be honest with ourselves that the nature of collection development is, to a certain extent, manipulating what folks read. We choose what to order and what not to order. We decide how many copies, and which titles get put on display or highlighted in readers advisory and hand-sells. I want to make sure that our collection development policy is a robust, intentional, and thoughtful scaffolding for our collection work, and not simply a document that we refer to when a patron decides they don't want "George" by Alex Gino on middle grade shelves. If I decide that yes, a title belongs on our shelves regardless of my personal feelings on it, then does our policy support that decision, and how? Whom did we listen to, read, and consult when making that decision? Who is harmed with that decision, and who benefits? <br></div><div><br></div><div>Regarding the Freedom to Read statement and ALA's other, similar documents, they are all in my resources for this project and I am referring to them regularly. <br></div><div><br></div><div>Thanks so much, again, </div><div></div><div><br></div><div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><u>Taylor Worley <br></u><font size="1" color="#444444">Youth Services Librarian</font></div><div><font size="1" color="#444444">Springfield Public Library</font></div><div><font size="1" color="#444444">225 5th Street</font></div><div><font size="1" color="#444444">Springfield, OR 97422</font></div><div><span style="color:rgb(68,68,68);font-size:x-small">541.726.2243 (direct)</span><br></div><div><font size="1" color="#444444"><a href="mailto:taylorlgkw@gmail.com" target="_blank">taylorlgkw@gmail.com</a></font></div><div><font size="1" color="#444444"><a href="mailto:tworley@springfield-or.gov" target="_blank">tworley@springfield-or.gov</a></font></div><div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div><div><br></div></div></div></div><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Sep 22, 2021 at 7:54 AM Riddle City Library <<a href="mailto:riddlecitylibrary@gmail.com">riddlecitylibrary@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div>It seems we've lost the Freedom to Read policy in many of our libraries. Why are we trying to dictate what people read? What happened to Banned Books week? Are we moving backward here? Let's stay open to ALL literature instead of making it our job to remake the minds of people.. Are we overtly harming children by banning racist fiction? Think carefully about this. Rewriting or banning history and "harmful" literature is taking the Freedom to Read from them. Instead, perhaps the solution is to encourage parents and teachers to train their children to love and accept all races and creeds. We, as educators, can have a tiny part in this process as well. Promote love and good will and remain open minded to the freedoms we enjoy. They are extremely valuable. Just as the freedom of speech is valuable as well. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak freely my opinion. I remain</div><div>Looking forward, <br></div><div>Rita Radford</div><div>Riddle City Library<br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, Sep 21, 2021 at 5:55 PM Taylor Worley via Libs-Or <<a href="mailto:libs-or@omls.oregon.gov" target="_blank">libs-or@omls.oregon.gov</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">Hi folks, <div><br></div><div>A while back I sent an email out asking for information as we were considering setting up a historical children's literature collection in our public library. After research and discussions, we've come to the conclusion that not only is it <i>not</i> an ideal solution for dealing with old/complex/and often racist literature, but it would very likely cause overt harm rather than simply changing the context around the books, as was our intention. So, we're going to the root of things and revisiting our collection development policy. </div><div><br></div><div>My questions for the Great Brain are: 1) has your library rewritten or edited your collection development policy recently 2) do you have specific language in your collection development policy which addresses racist <i>fictional</i> works (for any part of your library, not necessarily exclusive to your kids/tweens/teens collections)? </div><div><br></div><div>We are working our way through various library's websites and continuing to look for examples, research, discussions, etc., but if anyone has wisdom to share directly, we'd greatly appreciate it. </div><div><br></div><div>Thanks so much, </div><div><br></div><div><u>Taylor Worley (she/her) </u><br></div><div><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><font size="1" color="#444444">Youth Services Librarian</font></div><div><font size="1" color="#444444">Springfield Public Library</font></div><div><font size="1" color="#444444">225 5th Street</font></div><div><font size="1" color="#444444">Springfield, OR 97422</font></div><div><span style="color:rgb(68,68,68);font-size:x-small">541.726.2243 (direct)</span><br></div><div><font size="1" color="#444444"><a href="mailto:taylorlgkw@gmail.com" target="_blank">taylorlgkw@gmail.com</a></font></div><div><font size="1" color="#444444"><a href="mailto:tworley@springfield-or.gov" target="_blank">tworley@springfield-or.gov</a></font></div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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