The Censorship Cycle: Prevention Through Materials Management

To register for this webinar please follow this link: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/3816818627202/WN_HQOuIsO-SzCmsciuKQaZ1A. Sessions are free and available only to members of the Michigan library community. Registrants will receive instructions and a link to attend the session directly from PCI after they register.

The business of reconsideration requests used to be few and far between. Not so in our current climate, where school and public libraries are faced with lists of dozens (sometimes hundreds) of books being challenged at once. The titles have a lot in common – authored by or sharing the lived experiences of BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ individuals. Challenges are part of the ecosystem of a healthy collection; but the pace and rate at which they are being filed – by people who haven’t read the book and who are using media and social media as a weapon against libraries and staff -- causes undue stress on all library workers.

This session will focus on the Materials Management policies and procedures at your library. Defending challenges against censorship requires a robust yet precise set of guidelines that ensures all materials are evaluated equally. Labeling and proposed ratings systems will also be addressed.

Instructor: Lisa Varga is the Executive Director of the Virginia Library Association, a chapter of ALA. She is a member of the initial cohort of the ALA Policy Corps, and has served on the ALA Chapter Relations Committee. She is a member of the Virginia Society of Association Executives and has presented a variety of sessions at conferences and webinars about intellectual freedom and association management.

She has her master’s degree in library science from Rutgers University and was in the courtroom in Virginia Beach when a judge ruled in favor of authors, publishers and booksellers in a case brought forth by a former congressional candidate.

PCI Webinars are recorded and available to members of the Michigan library community in the Library of Michigan's Niche Staff Skills Academy about a week after they air. New webinars will be in the New category for several weeks. You do not need to register for a webinar in order to view it later in the Staff Skills Academy.

This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Library of Michigan.