Jan 19 2020 9 mins
Your bonus lesson, should you choose to accept it, is to consider whether a problematic book still deserves space in a school library, and whether the same rules apply in the classroom. The special agent assigned to help you with this task is Rebeca Rubio, coordinator for libraries and information services in the Richmond School District.
Don’t forget to mark your calendars in 2020 for Canadian Freedom to Read Week (www.freedomtoread.ca) from February 23 – 29 or the American Banned Books Week (https://bannedbooksweek.org) September 27 - October 3.
Mentioned in the episode was the Educational Resource Acquisition Consortium (ERAC) that provides guidance to teachers as a new, incorporated not-for profit society called Focused Education Resources, and can be found at https://bcerac.ca
I personally recommend this article when considering beloved books that, as the author tactfully puts it, “haven’t aged well”: www.tor.com/2018/08/27/problematic-classics-four-questions-to-ask-when-beloved-books-havent-aged-well/
You can follow Rebeca on Twitter @rebecarubi0 and check out our longer conversation about the changing role of the school librarian; how to thoughtfully purchase and integrate technology; why libraries are, at their core, democratic spaces; why ‘weeding’ a collection is a good thing; how to integrate Indigenous content in authentic ways; and why the future of libraries are ‘learning commons’ at https://lessonimpossible.podbean.com/e/agent-rebeca-rubio-school-libraries/ or on your preferred podcasting platform.