Twilight Hatred

Shannon Hale, an author I follow on Twitter, posted a thought provoking post on her blog.  She posed a few questions to her followers about the book Twilight by Stephenie Meyer.  The responses resulted in the following post:

http://oinks.squeetus.com/2012/11/does-twilight-damage-young-readers.html

It is a discussion about whether or not Twilight actually damages young readers.  Specially, it is pointing to Edward and Bella’s relationship and whether it is healthy or not.  Does the unhealthy relationship between them have a negative impact on readers?

Hales asks a lot of great questions.  A couple of my favorites -   

“Will reading Harry Potter encourage children to engage in witchcraft?


Will reading Romeo & Juliet encourage teens to commit suicide over love?”

The discussion sounded very similar to a censorship or banned book talk.  Do young people need to be protected from specific books, because they cannot handle it?  Will reading the books lead them to act in similar ways?  The argument against Twilight is really absurd, like young people do not have minds of their own.

I read Twilight before there were sequels, movies, and the crazy phenomenon.  When I read it, my reaction was – wow, kids are going to love this book! I knew that it would be popular.  As its popularity grew, it was awesome to see so many young people excited about reading.  Teenagers that NEVER picked up a book were rushing to get the sequel.  What is not to love about that??

With anything that is incredibly popular, there will be people that try to tear it down.  It comes with the territory.  However, I could not have anticipated the hatred towards Twilight.  Hale mentions in another post about watching a fellow YA author say to a group she wishes that Twilight had never been written.  WHAT??!

The entire situation makes me sad.  My sadness is not because I love the series.  It is the librarian in me that has to watch a book that is loved by so many young people, be torn apart by so many. 

Twilight is not the first book to experience this kind of hatred.  What is a youth librarian to do in these types of situation?  Stand up for the book?  Even if the book is not a book the librarian would recommend?  Or is it our job to stay quiet? 

Bullying

I loved the post on the YALSA Blog on October 30 on bullying.  One sentence that jumped out at me: 

"What may seem like harmless name-calling during a library program may be a small part of something bigger, and stepping in to put a stop to it can show a teen who is the subject of bullying that there are adults looking out for them."

This is a great point!  The school library is different from a classroom.  It does not typically have the same students day after day.  A school librarian does not have the luxury of observing the same students and their behavior.  It may not be obvious that teasing is part of a larger problem.  School librarians do not necessarily have the same bonds with students as classroom teachers.  However, that does not mean they cannot be supportive to students.  

My hope is one day to work in a school library.  In addition to the regular library expectations, my goal is to make it a space with a zero tolerance policy on bullying.  It is important to make it clear to student how the library and staff view bullying.  Make it clear to students that it is a safe space and one that will support any student that feels he/she is a victim of bullying.  

I mentioned in a previous blog post that being in a school library can sometimes feel like a counselor's office.  I would imagine walking into a counselor's office could be intimidating to some students.  Why if someone sees them?  What would others think?  Especially, if it is a student that has been attacked by others.  The library could be a safe haven for them.  Somewhere that is not obviously a place for those types of issues.  I do not suggest a librarian take on the role of a counselor, but be another adult for students to turn to for help - no matter what kind.    

Library or Counselor's Office

I have made a variety of observations while doing my practicum at a high school library.  One that surprised me was how the library is not just a place for education support.  It is a social outlet for a variety of teens and an emotional haven for many others.  At times, I feel like I am volunteering in a school counselor’s office and not a school library.  Maybe this particular high school is strange or the dynamic is different because of the school librarian?  My guess is this is not a unique situation. 

The library has 2-3 student helpers each class period, so there is always student activity near the circulation desk.  These students work with the library staff, but they also talk to them.  The topics range from pop culture to school to their person lives.  The small group dynamic allows for these students to form a fairly close bond with the staff in the library.  

The librarian is also the yearbook adviser, so there is a steady stream of students coming to talk to her about yearbook.  Yet, they also come to the library just to hang out.  Many times they visit the library for study hall without any yearbook related reason.  The librarian tries to make herself available to talk with them about a variety of topics.  

This week I was reminded that sometimes being a teacher and supporting students is not all the positive situations I describe above.  It can be tough.  The librarian found a personal note that had been dropped by a student in the library. (I was surprised that teens still write notes?!?)   The student talked about her relationship with her boyfriend and some of her fears, stress, pressures. It also made reference to how she is a little frightened of her boyfriend and how aggressive he can be when they are intimate.  It was a disturbing note to read, and it was easy to identify the author.  The librarian had to make a judgment call on what to do with the information.   She decided to bring it to the school counselor, since the topics in the note were fairly serious nature.  I am not sure what the school counselor will do with the information.  

 I would imagine that similar issues happen in public libraries, but these individuals do not have a school counselor to call for support.  It made me wonder what responsibilities youth public librarians take on because they work with youth.  Do these areas end up be like a counselor’s office too?  Who do they turn to for support?

School Library Cataloging

My practicum has been a great experience; because it has given me an opportunity o see the day-to-day workings of a high school library.  This week my volunteer hours were not spent in the library but at a district librarians meeting.  During the meeting a variety of topics were discussed – common core, 21st century learning skills, curriculum mapping, among other things.  It was excellent!

The afternoon was spent reviewing questions and concerns of the librarians.  One of the discussion topics was concerning the online catalog system.   The district is using Follett’s Destiny to circulate books.  The librarians are frustrated because Destiny is a union catalog, so all of the schools share title records.  This means if one school creates a title record, then it could possibly impact all of the rest of the schools. 

I have taken cataloging, so I understand that each version of a book – hardcover, paperback, special edition etc – will have a unique title record.  The school librarians claim that student do not care what version they receive from the library; they would just like the book.  It becomes difficult for the librarians to teach students especially the younger ones to use the catalog when there are multiple title records for one book. 

A great example of their complaint is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.  When a student does a search they receive results that include ten different versions of the book.  It is difficult to discern from the catalog the difference between versions.  Students get frustrated because they want the book and many times want to place a hold on it.  The system is not smart enough to know all ten versions are the same book.  In order to place a hold, the student or librarian would have to mark all ten records to ensure a copy comes to the student as soon as one is available. 

The librarians have decided that they are going to merge all similar title records within the catalog. (When I heard this news, I imagined my cataloging professor freaking out over the situation.)  They are going to create their own cataloging handbook with rules that fit a school setting and try their best to stay consistent across all schools. 

I do not think it is possible to be more specific and strict then AACR2, so it is a near impossible task for this group to rewrite a manual that will be specific enough to avoid any future problems.  My guess is that this will be a continuous discussion.  It was fascinating to see a group make library decisions, so they can better serve their patrons.  I am wondering if 5 years from now, they will be glad that they did it.