What can school librarians do about library and book censorship? First, ask questions. Find out what your principal and your district have put into policy and what your principal's expectations are for your school library. Then, communicate with your classroom teachers. For ourselves, school librarians should work with colleagues, especially other…

In this rejoinder to "Let's Burn Them All," a librarian supports the author's case for eliminating textbooks in the teaching of management and organizational behavior. A move away from textbooks would free libraries from worrying about whether and to what extent to provide expensive textbook access to students, a long-standing…

In this essay, we embrace a vision of the future of academic libraries where librarians confront and creatively address the lack of racial and ethnic diversity within our profession and actively pursue a social justice agenda within our libraries and in the communities we serve. This future requires that we acknowledge that many of our current…

This article puts forward a credo of librarianship, particularly public librarianship. The writer addresses the differences between academic and public librarianship and suggests that there is little actual difference, and that apparent differences are differences in how librarians react to the environment in which they operate. The effects of the…

School libraries are crucial to learning, but need resources to close the digital and print divide that widens as school budgets shrink. In this article, the author shares her perspective on stretching the library dollar. As budgets tighten and the use of library resources increases, school librarian's ingenuity, skill, and planning can ensure…

The author is a reference and instruction librarian at Iowa State University with collection development and liaison responsibilities for chemistry, biochemistry, entomology, and natural resource ecology. She recently came to librarianship with an education and three years' experience in biochemistry and biotechnology. During the last four years…

This essay calls for a fresh critical approach to the topic of censorship, suggesting that anticensorship efforts, while important and necessary, function much like literary prizing. The analysis draws especially on James English's recent study "The Economy of Prestige." There are two central arguments: first, that the librarian ethic of…

Librarians face a dilemma, one to which most of them appear to be oblivious. Everybody knows about lots of modern problems that confront libraries and librarians these days. The problem under discussion here is of another order altogether: that librarians are taken too seriously by some of the populace they serve; that they sometimes do not take…

Argues that book selection is more properly and adequately done by faculty members than librarians. A model for faculty selection of library materials that formally incorporates accountability for selectors is proposed.

This essay reviews the library material selection process and explores the differences between selection and censorship. Removal of library materials, selection of materials for special interests, opinions of censorious groups, the balanced collection, and the librarian's responsibility are discussed. (EJS)

Discussion of the impact of new technologies (e.g., television, microcomputers) on library services to children highlights new intellectual demands, increased sophistication and pressure on families, meaning of changes for children's librarians, changing print materials, maintaining values of past, and selecting materials appropriate for…

Weeding of library collections is a professional responsibility that should not be abdicated if deterioration of the quality of collections is to be avoided as also the spread of dangerous and misleading information. Guidelines are presented on how to go about this all-important task.

A worldview is composed of beliefs, values, and perceptions. It creates a lens through which individuals, organizations, and institutions analyze and evaluate their experiences and the world around them. As the authors think beyond their individual perceptions, they wonder about the worldview of their profession. They have wondered aloud (on more…

This essay addressing problems of library collection weeding suggests that as countermeasure to damage already done, every public library should establish a substantial American Heritage collection of classic Anglo-American authors up to 1900. Inexperienced librarians, rare books and historic preservation, patron complaints, interlibrary loan, and…

Discusses the pros and cons of pornography as an information source and of its inclusion among library materials. Attitudes towards pornography, particularly those of librarians, are examined; however no conclusions or recommendations are drawn. (RAA)