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Being in an organisation like CILIP matters, as we have the strong backing of policies we can use to show our senior leaders why we do what we do.


INSIGHT


School Libraries Group


Defending the rights of LGBTQ+ students


OU can’t have failed to see in the press and all over social media, the story about the author Simon James Green,


who was stopped from visiting for a talk the librarian from John Fisher School, Purley, arranged on World Book Day. Green is an LGBTQ+ author whose books are on many school library shelves – the ruling shook us all. Even though the school management and teachers were in support of having Green in the school and reassured the librarian that she had done nothing wrong, the Archdiocese of Southwark overruled the school. Governors resigned, teachers went on strike, and the situation is still ongoing. There is some uncertainty about whether the author was banned because of a paragraph in one of his books, or a wider issue – but the result for those children in the school will surely be to tell them that it isn’t safe to identify as LGBTQ+.


Public response CILIP, in conjunction with the Schools Library Group (CILIPSLG) and the School Library Association (SLA) put out a statement in response to the ban (you can see it here: https://bit.ly/3LLsERh). CILIP is currently working with SLG on how the CILIP Ethics Guide works for schools – as some of our freedoms are different, due to child safeguarding – for instance, our internet is filtered and library borrowing records can be shown to others to prevent harm or radicalisation. However, in my experience, it is very rare that a school will request borrowing records from a


June 2022


librarian, and we would have to agree that it was a child protection issue to turn them over. This visit by Green wasn’t the only


LGBTQ+ issue to impact school librarians. Very recently a school librarian approached us, very upset, because she had created a LGBTQ+ History display for her library and had tweeted about it. She was then approached by her Senior Leaders instructing her to take the tweet down, as this wasn’t what the school wanted to show the world on Twitter. The school was happy to have her display up within school, but not to tweet it externally – and this situation isn’t uncommon, especially in faith-based schools. And finally, there was the issue of Follett Destiny in America. Forsyth County Schools wanted parents to be aware of the books their children were borrowing from the library, and asked Follett to add on a programme that automatically emailed parents when their child borrowed a book with certain tags attached (https://bit.ly/3w1LZqv). This upset school librarians on both sides of ‘the pond’ – although Destiny LMS is not commonly used here, it is used in International Schools in the UK. One of those librarians alerted us to the situation, and again, Nick Poole talked to Follett. Demonstrations went on throughout America, with whole districts stating they would end their contracts if this was implemented, and Follett has walked back from the situation.


Ethical position


School librarians saw this as not only an invasion of their student’s privacy, but also as a danger to LGBTQ+ students


Caroline Roche (chair.slg@cilip.org.uk) Chair, MA, MCLIP Chair CILIP School Libraries Group www.cilip.org.uk/SLG


who were not yet out to their parents or were simply questioning. Parents could also potentially use this system to find out which books a school library had, and demand that they be banned. With increasing numbers of book challenges in the US, this is a situation that we watch closely over here. Banning books is not (yet) in our culture, but nevertheless it is something that concerns school and children’s librarians greatly.


That is why a strong ethics policy is important, and why we are working with CILIP to ensure that it is applicable to schools. Being in an organisation like CILIP matters, as we have the strong backing of policies we can use to show our senior leaders why we do what we do. CILIP can also make statements to amplify our voices on such important issues to protect us and our students. Read up more on CILIP’s Ethics here: https://bit.ly/3LMelM7 and join in the conversation as it is being reviewed this year, starting with a launch at Conference 2022. IP


INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL 51


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