Comments on Selection Policy

After thoroughly going over the selection policy for the Catawba County Library System, I was really impressed at how clearly it covered most aspects of selection. Though it did have room for improvement I think it protected itself well from unnecessary challenges of its materials. I think this due to the fact that the library system has many professional librarians on staff. The checklist that was given in class seemed almost the templet they used to arrange the policy. I would have liked to have seen it address more electronic material because with the increase in technology in recent years. I am sure the policy will be updated in coming years and will incorporate these changes. One point made in class was the lack of policy on speakers presenting at the library. What would happen if some challenged a presentation at the library? I had never thought of that and how it could cause problems in the long run. Loopholes are going to happen and as revision takes place they are closed. It may be they have a policy and it was somehow excluded from the PDF on the library's website. They did list on their challenge form an "other" catagory that you could write in what you wanted to challenge. In all I was very impressed by the clarity and presentation of the policy and was glad to see they take such good initiative for selection.

Reflections on the Video

Since I am not a teacher I was really surprised at the policy and procedures that take place when a book is challenged in a school. I am glad to see that it is not left up to just one person to make a decision. I hope one day I will have to go through this process because it seems to be one of the aspects of the job that you can not appreciate until you have been through it yourself. It was good to hear that it is not the end of the world if you lose the challenge and have to remove the material. Challenge procedure are an integral part of librarianship and that is the most important idea I learned from the video.

Exploring Controversy

Thus far trying to find information on the evolution vs creationism controversy in a public library has not yielded much at all. I am surprised there is not more written on this subject. I have been using the finding articles aid in the information gardens but to no avail. Every time I search it only brings up articles on the public schools. I have been using the advanced search features trying to specifically bring up articles based on public libraries. In turn this gets me thinking that maybe there is not a lot of controversy about where creationist literature is kept in a public library setting. Is it kept in the scientific reference collection with evolution literature or in the philosophy and religion section? I don't know and I am going to go to the libraries locally and find out.

Community Analysis Project

I have always been interested in interpreting statistics. I guess its my archaeology background that does it for me, always having to take and record data. Sometimes it can be hard to read some of them, though. I was really shocked by the census stats about Newton, NC from 2000 and I can only hope they have changed a little in ten years. Reading the stats on education level and income levels reminded me that many people are not doing well in this area. The average income was a little over $18,000 per year per person and the median household income was only a little over $35,000 per year! I never realized it was that low. I was surprised to see all the implementations that the library has created to help people who are unemployed and uneducated. In this economy we need everybody pitching in to help and the library is the information outlet. After doing this project I am still reeling from the facts I discovered about the community I just moved away from.