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Happy Birthday Grandma!

Happy birthday Grandma!

In a different year, we might have been celebrating together in some tropical destination but unfortunately, that’s not the case this year.

Have a cerveza on us and we’ll see you soon!

Posted 28 February 2021 § Family ‡ Comments (0) °

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 March 2020), I tried to do a theme about “good/reliable/science-based” information and policy versus that which is more controversial or less likely to prove useful.

I initially thought about grouping two piles of books – one of “good” info and one of “less good” info but realised that gets to the crux of the issue.  There is never going to be 100% consensus on any piece of information and the library skates that narrow line between providing good, reliable info plus info that doesn’t meet that criteria but would be of interest to some.

For that reason, it morphed into a bit more of a display about a range of books connected to Covid – not just science vs. homeopathy for instance but also politics, travel and so on.

This is a photo of the display at the start of the week.  For interest’s sake, here’s some of the books that moved off the display over the course of the week:

“What’s the Issue? Fake News”
“Anxiety Busters”
“Fear: Trump in the White House”
“Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong About Everything?”
“How Not To Worry”

Posted 27 February 2021 § Censorship § News § Politics § PopCulture § SaturdaySnap ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , ,

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 be told to cover my eyes if a sex scene came on.)

One of the most fascinating things is realising how different these movies may seem in our current age, both because societal mores have changed but also now that we’re the parents and our own nervousness about the kids hearing/learning something unexpected from these movies (more along the lines of concerns about the racism and sexism than the sex or violence usually.)  And to be fair, Sasha heard about a pretty intense PG-13 movie about residential schools at school that we watched as a family last night.  Once we got into it, we had moments of thinking it might not be appropriate for someone her age but after checking in, we kept watching as honestly, I think it’s more about the conversations than the content in situations like that.

Even one of the most beloved, highest-grossing films of all-time, E.T.,  is not immune from being updated for modern times as the Anniversary Edition took out references to terrorism, scenes of guards holding guns, and the insult “penis breath”.

Steven Spielberg later said he regretted some of the changes he made due to criticism from advocacy groups when the film was originally released:

The director has since said he regrets the changes. “Not because of fan outrage,” he told Sean O’Neal of The AV Club website, “but … I was overly sensitive to some of the criticism ‘E.T.’ got from parent groups when it was first released in ’82, having to do with Eliott saying ‘penis breath’ or the guns.”

Posted 26 February 2021 § Canada § Censorship § Family § FridayFunLink § MemoryLane § News § Pace § PopCulture § Sad § Sasha § Saskatchewan § Shea § Video § Wisdom ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , , , , ,

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 it as offensive.

The Committee did a variety of things throughout the year but the highlight was during Freedom to Read Week where they would present a copy of a controversial book, chosen by the committee each year, to Calgary City Council (nice change from politicians advocating for book banning for sure!)

I got to make the actual presentation a couple years in a row – these are pictures of me with Calgary’s Mayor at the time, Dave “Bronco” Bronconnier and I think the pictures are from 2004 or possibly 2003.

(Fun personal trivia – I got to be in Council chambers for my presentation the same day Calgary Public Library made their budget presentation and some of the details of what they talked about have stayed with me to this day – probably a bit of a clue why I went on to become a librarian!)

Anyhow, being on the Calgary #FTRW committee was a great experience in many ways – from learning to organize events (I should also post a pic of Shea and I with Right Honourable Joe Clark at a FTRW Fundraiser I organized) to some aspects of political advocacy (although I can’t help but note how pointedly I chose *not* to wear a suit or tie for this presentation!) to just getting such a solid understanding of the importance of freedom of expression and surrounding issues.

 

Posted 25 February 2021 § Censorship § Jobs § Library § MemoryLane § News § Photo § Politics § ThrowbackThursday § Work ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , ,

Freedom To Read Week 2021 – Day Four – Ontario Labour Board Awards $25,000 To Worker After Being Fired For Raising Covid Safety Concerns #FTRW

Another aspect of Freedom of Expression in the age of Covid is whether workers feel empowered to speak out about safety concerns they see in their workplaces without fear of reprisal.

Most legislation has provisions to protect workers for speaking out on safety issues of any kind but many workplaces also take the position that by doing the expected things – plexiglass, providing masks & sanitizer, etc. – the workplace is no more dangerous than in pre-Covid times which is, at best, debatable given the outbreaks that have happened in various restaurants, retailers and other places where the public visits.

This example is a bit more egregious than a single fast-food worker possibly being exposed to a Covid positive customer.  It happened when a seasonal worker from Mexico, living in a crowded bunkhouse in Ontario where others had Covid and at least one person died, was fired for speaking out.

The case went to the Ontario Labour Board who ruled in favour of the worker who was found to be justified in raising their concerns.  Again, this is a pretty clear cut example where the employee was in the right and the employer was in the wrong but it’d be interesting to see how similar cases would play out when its perhaps not quite as clear cut?

Posted 24 February 2021 § Jobs § News ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , , ,

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: ,

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: , , ,

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!)

Posted 21 February 2021 § Censorship § MemoryLane § News § Politics § PopCulture § Wisdom ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , , , , ,

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:

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

Also this…

 

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