Thanks Katie Dancey-Downs for this update and your investigation. Like you and Index on Censorship, we at #CILIP and our colleagues in the CILIP School Libraroes Group also believe this story is of huge public interest. And for the same reasons: because the freedom to read and intellectual freedom are under attack in a school setting, and because important safeguarding procedures appear to have been misused by multiple people. As Katie writes, "We fear we will see more stories like this if changes are not made, and that school librarians will self-censor through fear." Libraries should be inclusive, and librarians should feel safe in their workplace. Read our full statement on this report: “This case highlights the issues facing school librarians who are facing increased calls to censor or remove stock from shelves. CILIP and the wider library profession works under a set of core ethical values and principles around intellectual freedom, which have been developed and refined over time to help ensure access to information is fair and equitable. Trained librarians also possess the skills, knowledge and experience to ensure stock is appropriate for the communities they serve. “Ideological calls to ban books because one person does not agree with the content undermines these hard-won principles of equity of access to information and serve to highlight the need for librarians who can stand up for the rights of the users. “CILIP and its School Libraries Group have worked to support the librarian in this case and continue to support the wider school librarian community. We would urge all school leadership teams to work with their librarians to create a policy covering book stock including a robust process for how to deal with these requests when they occur. “We have recently convened a new Intellectual Freedom Committee that will provide leadership and help to clarify these issues for all library and information sectors. We already advocate for critical judgement to be employed when using AI outputs, and digital and information literacy is something else librarians are able to support. “The Department for Education should remind schools that they have duty to uphold the Equality Act 2010 and need to be mindful of it when creating any policy concerning their school library.”
For all of you following the Manchester school library story, we published an update at Index on Censorship, now that the school has been publicly named. There are plenty more completely outrageous details, including a Traitors-style game to “banish” staff, promoted on the very day we published our investigation into a “banished” librarian and “banished” books. We kept our promise to hide our source’s identity, which extended to the name of the school. Now that’s been uncovered elsewhere, there’s a little more we can say (with her blessing). Coverage this week has included The Times, the Daily Mail, Metro, Evening Standard and many, many more. https://lnkd.in/eXhUpC8R