Tag Archives: freedomtoreadweek

Secular Sunday – “Indiana public librarians forced to remove half the books in the teen section as demanded by unelected library board including a pro-book banning pastor”

Just as we watched drug poisonings and Narcan training spread across American libraries before becoming more common in Canada, I suspect religiously-motivated book banning requests (and religious board members being even more activist in trying to direct library’s directions, not just individual books) is the next thing American libraries will export to Canada. (via r/atheism)

Loretta Lynn and Banned Songs

RIP Loretta Lynn. Not sure if its true but I read that this trailblazing songwriter had more of her songs banned from radio airplay than every other male country artist *combined* in the 20th Century. Loretta Lynn had more songs banned from radio than every other male country artist combined in the 20th century. pic.twitter.com/IOchPjwmWL […]

Swearing Is Actually A Sign of More Intelligence – Not Less – Say Scientists

I am a huge fan of scientific knowledge that help justify my potty mouth! (And my kids are clearly geniuses as they named their band, “The Shits”!) 😉

How Non-Librarians Imagine A Librarian’s Typical Work Day

From McSweeney’s…

Friday Fun Link – Ram Ranch (NSFW)

I’m not sure what I’ve been listening to or what I’ve done wrong in my life generally but had to chuckle when this song I never heard before came up on the “Shuffle” play mode of my streaming service driving home from work the other day.  Good thing the person beside me at the red […]

Freedom To Read Week 2021 – #FTRW – Day Seven – Saturday Snap – My 2021 Library #FTRW Display

  I always enjoy trying to come up with something creative for a FTRW display at my library and this year was no different. Going back to what I said earlier in the week (in a post that had a display we did just as Covid was starting to turn towards pandemic status in early […]

Freedom To Read Week 2021 – Day Six – Friday Fun Link – How Different Would E.T. Be In The 21st Century? #ftrw

  Shea and I have been showing the kids a lot of our favourite movies from when we were growing up – “Dirty Dancing” to “Adventures in Babysitting” to “Airplane!” – movies that both of us remember being allowed to watch by our parents at relatively young ages with no censorship or restrictions (*maybe* I’d […]

Freedom To Read Week 2021 – Day Five – Throwback Thursday – #tbt – Calgary #FTRW Committee Council Presentation (February 2004)

Through my work with the Writers Guild of Alberta, I became involved with the Calgary Freedom to Read Week Committee.  I can’t find it online now but my memory is that this committee of writers, librarians, publishers and social activists was formed after some MLA held up some book in the Alberta Legislature to denounce […]

Freedom To Read Week 2021 – Day Two – Music Monday – “Mama said, she’s my brothers daughter/And I don’t even know who’s my father/I guess she’s my cousin/But she needs some sweet lovin’ anyway” – #ftrw

I posted this song in June 2019 with only a brief reference to the controversy around the song’s contents which evoke incest and rape. But I thought it might be worth revisiting for FTRW, especially in light of the news that came out in August 2020 that the band’s bassist had subsequently been accused of […]

Freedom To Read Week 2021 – Day One – Welcome Back! (And A Child Reads One of the Year’s Most Controversial Books, “Call Me Max”) #ftrw

I’m a huge Freedom of Expression guy and think Freedom to Read Week should be a highlight of every librarian’s calendar. I don’t think I managed to do it every year but ever since I was in library school in 2006 (also the year I started this blog), I’ve tried to do an annual series […]