In this paper, the authors address learning analytics and the ways academic libraries are beginning to participate in wider institutional learning analytics initiatives. Since there are moral issues associated with learning analytics, the authors consider how data mining practices run counter to ethical principles in the American Library…

In this article, the author presents observations learned while "on loan" from Northwestern University (NU), Evanston, Illinois, to the campus library in Doha, Qatar, (NU-Q) Middle East. The author's ongoing experience is helping her see how important global exposure can be to a library professional's attaining a deeper and wider level…

One pressing issue in libraries today is the censorship of information. This study applies Kurt Lewin's gatekeeping theory to examine the decision-makers as well as the different pressures and constraints that are at issue in decisions regarding challenges and censorship attempts that occur in public libraries. Through an in-depth case study of…

What do school librarians fear most? Hands down, their biggest fear is a formal challenge to a resource in the school library. There are no accurate statistics about the number of challenges to school library resources. The staff of ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom estimates that only about 20 percent are reported to ALA annually. For the…

This paper reviews a selection of literature pertaining to the subject of censorship in modern libraries. It interrogates the literature in terms of the ethical debates informing much of the contemporary academic writing on this subject. A multi-pronged approach to the subject is adopted. The review includes evaluations of the relevant aspects of…

Materials challenges and censorship occur often in public and private educational settings. Private schools and their library media centers are not subject to the First Amendment but research reported in this article examines the state of challenges to materials held in private schools media centers in the southeast United States as a way to gauge…

Although single-purpose boards and commissions have been used to provide public goods and services since the colonial era, little scholarly attention has been given to the leadership characteristics and behaviors required of their members. As a result, appointing officials and those considering appointment have had little systematic guidance…

This description of the rehabilitation of the New York Public Library (NYPL) facility highlights an 18-week citywide program on contemporary censorship, including the main exhibit in NYPL's Gottesman Exhibition Hall; financial support and the library budget; and the leadership of Vartan Gregorian, president of NYPL since 1981. (EJS)

Identifies the tasks that the library administrator must complete if the collection is to successfully withstand censorship. Using an analogy of the construction, arming, and manning of a "citadel," a strategy is presented which is adaptable to the broadest range of attack on collection, acquisition, and dissemination policies of…

This review of the effectiveness of bibliotherapy as a correctional rehabilitation tool discusses the need for library educators and associations to recognize that the function of prison libraries is to advance the freedom to read, not to provide formal educational or rehabilitational programs. (10 references) (CLB)

Discussion of music censorship provides a chronology of banned music from 1850 to the present. Highlights include reasons for music censorship, including lyrics that concern politics, sex, drugs, or death; rewriting song lyrics; radio air play versus sales; warning labels; First Amendment principles; and suggestions to defuse censorship in…

"When you start your new job as a school librarian, one of the first steps you must take is to ask to see the district's book selection policy. If there isn't one, write one. Right away. It protects you, the teachers, and the district." That advice was part of the author's school library administration course at the School of Library and…

This article presents an interview with Cassandra Barnett, a school library media specialist at Fayetteville (Arkansas) High School. She is also a member of the AASL Learning Standards Rewrite Task Force, which has been working on developing AASL's new National Learning Standards. Fayetteville schools experienced multiple challenges during…

Commemorates this journal's 80th anniversary by providing historical background and comparing issues of early library science with those of today--censorship; library education and administration; technical services; librarian image; copyrights; and outreach programs. Reactions to the founding of the Bulletin of the American Library Association in…

It has long been commonplace in reading studies to say that despite the efforts of authors, publishers, censors, and others to restrict access to print culture, readers evade those restrictions and exert control over their reading. This control can take many forms, from obtaining banned books to interpretive practices that subvert intended…