By Anita Brooks Kirkland
How do kids experience school library joy? Is it the joy of finding just the right book? Is it seeing themselves represented in that book? Is it the space itself, open and welcoming? Is it the empowerment of being able and encouraged to explore interests and ideas freely? Is it because the library is where they feel safe, free from judgement or discrimination?
It is all of this and more, and these things do not happen by accident. Teacher-librarians and library technicians have worked with intention to create welcoming spaces and inclusive collections, programs, and learning experiences. The Ontario School Library Association’s brilliant #SchoolLibraryJoy advocacy campaign celebrates the results.
Yet alarmingly we find ourselves caught up in the wave of moral panic sweeping across North America, with an unprecedented level of book challenges and attacks on the very foundations of library practice. In libraries, we have a professional ethical responsibility to support, defend, and promote universal principles of intellectual freedom and to protect the privacy of library users. This has been implicitly understood in school librarianship, but the ethical foundations of librarianship have rarely been interpreted for school libraries in Canada. In these turbulent times we have become more aware of the need to defend our students’ right to freedom of expression.
Canadian School Libraries’ guideline, Foundations for School Library Learning Commons in Canada: A Framework for Success provides both principled and practical advice to guide ethical decisions, and also prepare you to defend your students’ rights, in the event that you receive a challenge.
The framework for ethical standards clearly states that protecting freedom of expression and privacy are fundamental to the ethics of librarianship, including school librarianship. It makes connections to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Canadian Federation of Library Associations’ Statement on Intellectual Freedom and Libraries and its Code of Ethics, and finally to the International Federation of Library Association’s School Library Standards. The CSL guideline advises, “Everyone who works in the school library, including volunteers, must be aware of and honour the ethical standards of librarianship in their dealings with each other and with all members of the school community.”
What are our ethical responsibilities? As school library professionals, we have a responsibility to provide equity of access for all of our students. That means that we reject the denial and restriction of access to information and ideas through censorship.
“In order to promote inclusion and eradicate discrimination, librarians and other information workers ensure that the right of accessing information is not denied and that equitable services are provided for everyone whatever their age, citizenship, political belief, physical or mental ability, gender identity, heritage, education, income, immigration and asylum-seeking status, marital status, origin, race, religion or sexual orientation.”
CFLA-FCAB Code of Ethics. https://cfla-fcab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Code-of-ethics.pdf
Protecting the freedom to read and explore ideas means protecting the privacy of all library users.
“The relationship between the library and the user is one of confidentiality and librarians and other information workers will take appropriate measures to ensure that user data is not shared beyond the original transaction.”
CFLA-FCAB Code of Ethics. https://cfla-fcab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Code-of-ethics.pdf
“Everyone who works in the school library, including volunteers, must be aware of and honour the ethical standards of librarianship in their dealings with each other and with all members of the school community. Teacher-librarians are also required to follow ethical guidelines for the teaching profession for their jurisdiction. As licensed teachers, teacher-librarians play a specific role in education as advocates for freedom of expression rights in educational practice.”
Foundations For School Library Learning Commons in Canada: A Framework for Success
The framework for library learning commons management outlines what these ethical responsibilities mean in practical terms. “Library management is deeply entwined with ethics. Schools should ensure that the expectations they set for students around things such as overdues or the choices they make about collection management do not create inequities or violate students’ right to privacy.”
The framework advises that libraries and educational institutions should always have guidelines for the selection and deselection of resources, and reconsideration procedures for managing challenges. “Well-written guidelines defend universal principles of protecting intellectual freedom. They provide the foundation for developing diverse collections, based on sound criteria.”
The framework provides ethical guidelines for managing circulation, establishing procedures that provide equity of access, and protect privacy and therefore students’ freedom to explore ideas. Appendix F provides detailed practical advice for ethical library routines. A few examples related to ensuring equity of access and protecting privacy include:
- Not restricting access to the collection or parts of the collection;
- Ensuring that circulation is carried out by staff who are bound by ethical standards;
- Ensuring that self-checkout systems are designed to protect privacy and confidentiality of borrower records;
- Ensuring that circulation routines do not infringe on equity of access;
- Ensuring that routines around overdues do not infringe on student privacy.
Every child deserves the opportunity to experience school library joy. There is a movement afoot that threatens that experience for many with book challenges and calls for censorship. We, as school library professionals must remember that it is our ethical responsibility to stand up for all of our students’ freedom of expression rights, the very foundation of school library joy.
Foundations for School Library Learning Commons in Canada: A Framework for Success is available at: https://www.canadianschoollibraries.ca/foundations-frameworks/
Anita Brooks Kirkland is the chair of Canadian School Libraries (CSL), and co-editor of CSL Journal. She is a past president of both the Ontario School Library Association and the Ontario Library Association. Recent CSL projects include development of the Collection Diversity Toolkit, managing the Teaching Through Books project, and development of the new guideline document, Foundations for School Library Learning Commons in Canada: A Framework for Success. As a writer and presenter, Anita draws on her extensive previous experience as an instructor in teacher-librarianship for the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto, and as the Consultant for K-12 Libraries at the Waterloo Region District School Board in Ontario.