Create and upload a virtual presentation for children or young adults.

Topic: Young people’s book awards

The first annual book award in Australia was established in 1946 by The Children's Book Council of Australia. The purpose of this not for profit, volunteer run organisation is the promotion of children's books of "high literacy and artistic quality" (The Children's Book Council of Australia, 2015) by Australian authors and illustrators.

Every book listed in the virtual presentation has either won an award or had an honourable mention, the author became familiar with each item which will assist in book recommendations to clients.

Young people’s book awards are a celebration of children’s literature and libraries play a vital role in assisting in the child’s development and encourage the love for literature. The virtual presentation is a way for the library to promote these awards and the literature featured.

The presentation could be publicised during a children’s event, featured on the library website or presented to any audience in the world given they have Internet access.  Further promotion could be achieved through the outreach program where the children’s services staff visit preschools and read to children a few selected books introduced in the virtual presentation.

What did I learn?

It was learned the significance of book awards and how these events help children embrace books and develop their reading skills. As discussed the presentation can benefit promotion of the celebrated books and encourage the importance of reading. Furthermore creating the virtual presentation was a huge learning curve. The use of different formats and programs with overlaying audio was a real challenge for the author. The author was able to apply powerpoint slides into imovie in order to produce the presentation. It can now be uploaded to YouTube or other web-based platforms in order to further promote young people’s book awards. Flatley (2007, p. 301) suggests the use of virtual presentations in business is growing and the need for employees with skills for delivering them is also growing.

How was the activity relevant to your professional practice as a librarian for children or young adults?

This activity was relevant to the professional practise of the author as a children’s and young adult librarian because it is vital to be well informed of all the children’s and youth literacy book awards in order to promote the wonderful world of literacy to children. Further the use of virtual presentations promotes book awards through in house and outreach library programs, which means more patrons visit the library thus conducive to community participation and increased borrowing.

Were any gaps in your knowledge revealed? How might you fill those gaps?

As discussed there was an immense amount of gaps in the author’s knowledge in regards to creating a virtual presentation. Further practise and training will be undertaken in order to improve on limited skills and to fully utilise the program and share it in the workplace.

References

Flatley, M. E. (2007). TEACHING THE VIRTUAL PRESENTATION. Business Communication Quarterly, 70(3), 301-305.

The Children's Book Council of Australia. (2015). Retrieved 16th January, 2016, from http://cbca.org.au/default.aspx?contentID=581

Find, read analyse a peer-reviewed journal article.

Topic: censorship

In this activity the peer reviewed journal article: “Middle School Teachers and Picture Books: The Notion of Censorship” by Kathleen Lilliss will be analysed.

In the article the author address and debates the issue of censoring children’s literature which depicts social issues such as gender, race or ethnicity with concerns motivated by the belief that the text might frighten or corrupt children by reading it. Moreover there may be a feeling that the text is inappropriate for their age group (Lilliss, 2010, p. 9).

Censorship in children’s literature depends on many diverse reasons but it is believed that philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed that books could contribute to the corruption of children’s minds and that in order to preserve their innocence they should not be taught to read until age 10 (Lilliss, 2010, p. 10).  Lilliss also states that the aim is to select a book is based on the quality of writing, illustrations and total impact, whereas the aim of censorship is to exclude based on content that is considered objectionable (2010, p. 10). Books that may be deemed objectionable by some provide opportunities for readers to observe experiences that differ from their own. A book about refugees or childbirth may be confronting but will open the door for communication and engagement to better understand concept that is unknown to them. Lilliss (2010, p. 14) adds that if teachers practise censorship, they fall short in educating children to understand their own beliefs and be able to assess the world in which they live.

What did I learn?

By analysing the journal article it was learned that censorship is a multifaceted issue. Information professionals face many challenges in defining the line between censorship and selection. As library professionals it is our responsibility to promote collections without restrictions, have access to resources freely and oppose censorship (ALA, 2015).

How was the activity relevant to your professional practice as a librarian for children or young adults?

The activity was relevant to my professional practice as a children's librarian because after reading the article I questioned parts of my knowledge in regards to censorship versus selection.  Moving forward it should be remembered that selection approach to a book is positive, it is assessing its value whereas censorship approach is negative, looking for a way to devalue it. “The selector has faith in the intelligence of the reader; the censor has faith only in his own.” (Asheim, 1953).

Were any gaps in your knowledge revealed? How might you fill those gaps? 

In order to fulfil these knowledge gaps, further investigation into censorship through exploration of websites, journal articles and a better understanding of the moral and ethical issues information professionals are facing.

References

 ALA, (2015). Labels and rating systems. An interpretation of The Library Bill of Rights. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=interpretations&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=8657 

Asheim, L. (1953). Not Censorship But Selection. Wilson Library Bulletin , 63-67. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/censorshipfirstamendmentissues/notcensorship

Lilliss, K. (2010). Middle school teachers and picture books: the notion of censorship. Literacy Learning: the Middle Years , 18 (3).

Hello world!

This blog was created to publish four professional activities required for assessment 2 for INF330 Library Services for Children and Youth. The following four topics need to be discussed:

Censorship

Diversity

Young people's book awards and

Digital materials/resources and emerging technologies.

I am required to post four blog entries addressing the experience of each of the four professional development activities chosen from the list.
At this stage the activities I plan on doing are:

1. analyse a peer reviewed journal
2. create a virtual presentation for children or young adults
3. analyse and evaluate a website designed for children or young adults and 
4. write a book review

Within these activities I need to answer the following questions:

What did I learn?

How was the activity relevant to your professional practice as a librarian for children or young adults?

Were any gaps in your knowledge revealed? How might you fill those gaps?

Let's get started!