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Freedom To Read Week 2021 – Day Three – Covid, Libraries & #FTRW

This was the display at my library in February 2020.

This has been an unprecedented twelve months that has impacted all sectors including public libraries.

Libraries have had to pivot in a variety of ways – from implementing curbside pickup to quarantining books to opening up to the idea of staff working from home – and there are numerous articles about the impacts of Covid on public libraries.

In terms of Freedom of Expression as a core library value, there’s been a lot less analysis what have some of the impacts may have been.

Maybe that’s partly because the issues that we usually associate with Freedom of Expression – censorship, hate speech, obscenity, offensiveness, collection policies – haven’t really been impacted much by Covid, at least in public libraries.

But at least in one important way, I think there should be some reflection and possibly even some changes going forward.

Public libraries have always tried to find a balance between providing accurate, dependable information and also information that may be less reliable or more controversial but which has an audience within the community.

But in an age where many people believe that Covid is a hoax and/or that it is manmade and/or that Bill Gates is using mass vaccination to implant us all with microchips, is this balance out of whack and maybe we should be more proactive in trying to provide good information?

Or maybe not?

I mean, if there’s a patron that believes sticking crystals up their ass will help prevent Covid and as a highly-trained librarian, I’m pretty sure that’s not really accurate or based in science, should we stop collecting books on crystals just because they might promote false beliefs?

I don’t think so but I also think there’s also other opportunities to provide *good* information along with the Gwyneth Paltrow-inspired pseudo-science through our displays, programs, handouts, posters and more.

(Uhm, the picture of the display at the top of my this post isn’t a perfect example of this as we tried to *mostly* include useful, reliable books in the earliest days of Covid but also a few that were less based in pure science – although, to be fair, in the early days of Covid, not a lot was known at all about most aspects of the disease and who knows, maybe crystal enemas *were* part of the solution?!?) 🙂

¶ Posted 23 February 2021 § Library § List § News ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: Covid, education

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 (and admitted) to committing sexual assault on multiple women.

So, in my mind, there are a few different elements to this story as relates to Freedom of Expression:

– one is how songs are different than books in that we often don’t make a distinction between songs that are “fictional” (completely invented) or those that are based on facts or somewhere inbetween and whether that should even matter in how a song is received or considered?

– it also raises an issue about whether it should make a difference in how a song is treated if it’s meant to be “satirical” (which is what I think the band’s defense was when the controversy about the song’s lyrics first erupted)

– that leads naturally to a discussion of whether any topic is “off limits” or should be, especially in artistic works – whether its a song, a play, a book, a movie or whatever?

– if nothing is off-limits, should there be consequences when people do write offensive songs. For example, I think The Dead South had some gigs cancelled and definitely lost some of their reputation as well.

– one of the core issues around the nature of offense is “Who gets to decide?” Are all songs about rape offensive automatically? Does it matter who wrote the song or the context?

– I guess another aspect is how society’s mores and views change over time and how that may impact how a song or other artistic work is received.

– there’s also a question that comes up when controversies like this erupt about how/if people can ever be redeemed?

– finally, in light of the news about the bassist and his sexual assault, some would say the song and the actions of the bassist are the same thing. But for me, I think there’s a distinction between something that, though it may be offensive, is an artistic/satirical/fictional work versus an actual criminal act.

“Banjo Odyssey” – The Dead South

¶ Posted 22 February 2021 § Censorship § MusicMonday § News § Saskatchewan § Video ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: freedomtoreadweek, language, music, saskatchewan

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

Freedom to Read Week 2021

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 of posts during FTRW about different aspects of the subject.

Unfortunately, FTRW also falls on the last week of February and though we’ve gone at times ranging from New Year’s to mid-March, at least for the last few years, that’s the week that’s happened to be when we’ve gone on some sort of a tropical vacation (which usually means I take a “blog vacation” that week, no matter what interesting subjects I should be talking about.)

So I haven’t done the series in a formal way since 2017 (when I did an homage to George Carlin’s “Seven Words You Can’t Say on Television”) But since Mexico isn’t happening this year, it’s a good time to revisit the idea, especially as the topic is rich for examination in a variety of ways – the impact of Covid on libraries and our core values, the changing views of social justice issues within libraries and more.

Anyhow, today’s post is a bit of a “teaser” as much as anything but I’ve got a few ideas for posts to hopefully fill out the week with some interesting, thought-provoking content.

In the meantime, this may be one of the most controversial books of the year… (ahhh, love it!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcrPnaCbKrY

¶ Posted 21 February 2021 § Censorship § MemoryLane § News § Politics § PopCulture § Wisdom ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: book, education, freedomtoreadweek, health, language, science

Saturday Snap – Top o’ the Morning

We have a little alcove near the entrance of our house where we’ve hung a “Century Family Farm” plaque that my family got in 1983 and which my parents gave to me as a housewarming gift after having it framed in barn board.

At Christmas, I decided to fill the space underneath with some decorations as we decorated the rest of the house and somehow, that idea has now turned into “Change out decorations for every holiday”.

So earlier this week, I swapped out the Valentine’s decorations for a St. Patrick’s Day theme (thanks Dollar Store and old jar of pennies I had kicking around!)

¶ Posted 20 February 2021 § MemoryLane § Photo § PopCulture § SaturdaySnap ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: holiday

Friday Fun Link – Best of “Flyin’ Ted” Cruz Goes To Cancun Memes

Also this…

Aruba, Jamaica, Ted Cruz ain't gonna take ya
Bermuda, Bahama, just freeze or ask Obama
Key Largo, Montego, baby why don't HE go
Oh Ted won't take you down to Cancun, Mexico,
HE'LL GET THERE FAST, you'll have no water flow
That's where Ted wanna go, while you're covered in snow

— Cliff Schecter (@cliffschecter) February 18, 2021

¶ Posted 19 February 2021 § FridayFunLink § Humour § Internet § Meme § News § Politics § PopCulture § Travel § United States § Video ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: holiday, travel, unitedstates

Throwback Thursday – #tbt – Montreal Picnic (June 2006)

One great thing about our year in Ontario for library school was we tried to get away as much as we could on weekends and during semester breaks to various destinations in the area.

Probably our biggest trip was during a semester break when we took the train to Montreal. A highlight was throwing together a simple picnic in a park near our hostel (though, with my limited French, I’m not convinced the “wine” we picked up at a local grocery store wasn’t actually cooking sherry!) 😉

¶ Posted 18 February 2021 § Humour § LibrarySchool § MemoryLane § Photo § Shea § ThrowbackThursday § Travel ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: holiday, ontario, travel

Happy Birthday Shea!

I’m a bit behind on my daily blog posts so catching up on the ones I missed since Wednesday starting with a very important one.

(Apparently new boots are the secret to life, the universe and everything!) 😉

¶ Posted 17 February 2021 § Family § Humour § Shea ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: book, holiday

Saskatchewan Billionaire Becomes Tech Titan

Wow – never realised that the head of CloudFlare is from Saskatchewan

For the record, Zatlyn’s stake in Cloudflare, based on its market capitalization of $28 billion, amounts to over $1 billion. That’s ‘one’ with nine zeros after it. We’re in a binary digital world but that one and all those zeros mean so much more than code. However, she’s clearly not as interested in her bank balance as I am, although agrees to give the billion-dollar question further consideration… but not yet.

(PS – billionaires are a policy failure, even when they’re from my home province!) 😉

¶ Posted 16 February 2021 § Internet § Saskatchewan § Technology ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: economics, saskatchewan

Music Monday – “But I don’t need no friends/As long as I gaze on Waterloo sunset/I am in paradise”

Watched “Juliet, Naked” this weekend with Shea (who thought the tale of an obnoxiously nitpicky music obsessive hit a bit too close to home for her!) 😉

Anyhow, this song played a pivotal part of the movie…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cyh__QQD2js

“Waterloo Sunset” – The Kinks