Category: Libraries

Book Challenges in Canada

From September 2022 to the end of August 2023, Canadian libraries, especially school libraries, faced the highest number of book challenges ever for a 12 month period in Canada (source). The number of official challenge is likely just a small fraction of the challenges that go unreported– ALA studies suggest 82 -97% of challenges go unreported (source).

Intellectual freedom has been a pillar of library philosophy for nearly a century; and in our current climate, it is perhaps our most valuable tool in our efforts to amplify the voices of the most marginalized within our communities.

Michael Nyby

Read the full article, “A Rising Tide of Censorship: Recent Challenges in Canadian Libraries” by Michael Nyby of the CFLA Intellectual Freedom Committee, at Freedomtoread.ca

Freedom to Read Week

Canada’s Freedom to Read Week in 2024 is February 18-24.

Do you believe that you should be able to choose what you read? Or should other people be able to decide for you what you can read? Freedom to Read Week celebrates our fundamental freedoms as citizens of democracies and our fundamental rights as human beings. Freedom to Read Week also asks you to stand up for your rights and oppose those who want to take away your freedom to read.

Find out more at freedomtoread.ca

Songs of Peace: Alice’s Restaurant

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our American friends, family and neighbours! Along with Turkey and football games, another staple of American Thanksgiving for many is listening to the 18 minute classic, “Alice’s Restaurant.”

November has been Peace month in the School Library, with an emphasis on understanding peace education, the antiwar movements, civil disobedience and other non-violent means of social change. Such themes overlap with American Thanksgiving in “Alice’s Restaurant.”


Originally released in 1967, Arlo Guthrie’s 18 minute long recording of “Alice’s Restaurant” has become on of the most famous protest songs against the Vietnam War.  The events described in the song, beginning with a Thanksgiving celebration amongst friends during the sixties, were the inspiration for a film which was released in 1969.

More than 50 years later Guthrie’s signature song is a staple of classic rock radio stations on and around American Thanksgiving.

Find out more:

source: Arlo Guthrie / You Tube via Warner Records

November is Peace Month at your School Library. Other “Songs of Peace” in this series:

Other “Songs of Peace” in this series:

Happy Bandi Chhor Divas

Happy Bandi Chhor Divas and Happy Diwali

source: SikhNet

On Bandi Chhor Divas, Sikhs celebrate Guru Hargobind, the 6th Guru, who was released from prison, along with many other prisoners, in 1619. The name Bandi Chhor Divas means “Liberation of Prisoners Day.” Sikhs in Canada, India and around the world will celebrate this holy day, which coincides with the Indian holiday known as Diwali.

From the BBC:

According to tradition, Guru Hargobind was released from prison in Gwalior and reached Amritsar on Divali. He would only agree to leave prison if 52 Hindu princes who were in prison with him could also go free. The Emperor Jahangir, said that those who clung to the Guru’s coat would be able to go free. This was meant to limit the number of prisoners who could be released. However, Guru Hargobind had a coat made with 52 tassels attached to it so that all of the princes could leave prison with him.

The story reminds Sikhs of freedom and human rights and this is what they celebrate on Bandi Chhor Divas.

Source: BBC

Find out more:

Library Hall of Fame

October is Canadian Library Month and International School Library Month. Today we are highlighting a few noteworthy librarians for the “Library Hall of Fame.”

Zenodotus was the first Librarian of the Great Library of Alexandria

Gene Joseph


Gene Anne Joseph is the founding librarian of the Xwi7xwa Library, an Indigenous Library at the University of British Columbia. She was the first librarian of Indigenous descent in British Columbia. Gene Joseph is from Hagwilget, British Columbia and is a member of the Wet’suwet’en Nadleh’dena First Nations. (source)

Zenodotus

Zenodotus was the first Librarian of the Great Library of Alexandria


Zenodotus was the first Librarian of the Great Library of Alexandria. During his leadership of the Great Library, Zenodutus was credited with establishing the first classification systems and other organizational schemes for the library. (source)

Jessamyn West


Jessamyn West is a librarian whose work has had a profound impact in many different ways, including her activism and her pioneering work in library technology. She is the founder of librarian.net and the owner of Meta Filter. West sees her work as a contribution to social justice. In her own words, “my main interest area is the intersection of technology and civic engagement. I believe the digital divide is just one more symptom of an increasing distance between haves and have-nots…” (source)

Find out more:

Jessamyn.com
Librarian.net
X̱wi7x̱wa Library
Gene Joseph Scholarship
Zenodotus of Ephesus
Great Library of Alexandria

Previous Library Hall of Fame Inductees:
Brian Day
Zoia Horn
Nancy Pearl

October is Canadian Library Month
October is International School Library Month

Banned Books Week

Source: ALA

Your School Library has ALL of these books. You don’t have to read any of these books. But you can if you want to. And it must make you wonder, why are some people so set on trying to keep you from reading these books? In some ways, doesn’t that make you want to read them even more?

Here are some more books that were challenged and/or banned

International School Library Month

Come down to your School Library to check out our display for ISLM and for Canadian Library Month, including books and other materials on libraries, librarians, information science, literacy, and much more.