Introduction and Welcome

Who am I and why should you subscribe to this.

I'm a retired school librarian, with 33 years of experience in working with children and diverse literature. I've also had experience with reconsideration procedures for challenged books, and believe that these processes provide oversight and a voice for parents without giving any one person absolute power over what books stay and which books go. I’ve explained these processes to kids for a few decades now as part of Banned Book Week activities and discussions of First Amendment Rights. The kids get it. They understand that not all books are suitable for all kids and all libraries, but they don’t want one person to decide. Thus the process of using a committee that is representative of a community to review a book in its entirety is indeed democracy in action.

I was in the Honda dealership a few months back wearing my “Ban Guns, Not Books” t-shirt when the cashier said quietly “I like your shirt.” She also added that she’d like to be able to express something similar, but pointed to the workplace she was in. I told her I get it, there’s a luxury in being retired. I told her about some. ofthe stuff going on and she asked “How do you find out about these things?” Great question. Truthfully, I monitor a lot of info on Twitter. It’s still useful for some stuff, but it is also a cesspool. I also still read library organizations info too. Local media is sporadic in coverage, national media as well and we all know about the FOX problem.

My intent here is to provide a clearinghouse for information, primarily relevant to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, but we are influenced by national events as well. I’d also like to use this as a place where we can share things we can actually do.

Will this ever develop into more than an information site? Will there be a movement to fight censorship out of this? I don’t know. However, I believe that being informed is the first step.