October 11 Reading Log

What is intellectual freedom? According to the article with the same title, it's the right to seek and receive information in all formats without any kind of restrictions. This includes using technology that will help students enhance and expand their learning. Many conservative people find that these technologies disrupt student learning in a negative way. Annette Lamb says that technology can and should be used by library media specialists to enhance students' learning and push the envelope in intellectual freedom. She suggests eight rules to further intellectual freedom such as teaching students between good and bad technology (becoming more media literate) and being aware of laws in regards to students in the classroom like CIPA. This includes (as mentioned in Intellectual Freedom 101) that students' should not be denied anything because of race, religion, age or other beliefs and that we should be aware of students' confidentiality. If this is the case, then why do we have a website like Common Sense (mentioned in Fear Factor: Kids' Lit Style)? It's a site that allows parents (and teachers as well) if there's anything questionable about the book. I feel that by having this website, we're allowing parents and teachers to limit what students are able to read. If they're not allowed to read it because someone saw that it had a cuss word in it, how is this helping the student to learn and expand their knowledge? It's more like enabling adults to violate students' rights to access information. It would be better if students had educators and parents who instead discussed the topics presented so that students can understand them rather than deny them knowledge of the topics.

This includes making cuts in the school library and getting rid of library media specialists altogether (How School Budgets Affect Intellectual Freedom). How are students to become knowledgeable and literate in all forums if there isn't a media specialist to advocate for them and teach information that increases their learning? Without media specialists, sites like the Common Sense website will be used more frequently, thus hindering students' intellectual freedom rights.

There doesn't seem to be a clear answer. We can advocate and protect students' intellectual freedom, but we can only do so if we're actually in the library to help students and a supportive staff to increase knowledge and protect students' rights.