Joe Kohlburn is a doctoral candidate in information science, librarian, activist, and an arts advocate in St. Louis, MO.
I was honored to be part of this discussion on Tuesday with Jaime Gregory, Nadine Farid Johnson and Megan Fromm of NAMLE for Media Literacy Week. Jaime is an award-winning AMAZING school librarian from South Carolina and Nadine co-wrote this important report for PEN America on the state of book banning in the US. I …
Continue reading "Panel Discussion- Banned in the USA- NAMLE/ US Media Literacy Week"
This paper is the result interviews with 23 library managers across the US, wherein we try to get to the bottom of their COVID-19 response, unpacking decision-making processes and learning what they need to more effectively support their communities during a public health crisis. Bossaller, J, Kohlburn, K, Cho, H, Moulaison-Sandy, H, and D Adkins. …
Continue reading "Short Paper Published- Proceedings of ASIST"
The latest proposed rule is a solution in search of a problem. A few of the requirements in the proposed rule are already best practices in libraries. The ALA and MLA already recommend that libraries have written collection development policies (A) and challenge processes and procedures (F). Indeed, many of our latest qualms about school …
Continue reading "Statement on Proposed Rule 15 CSR 30-200.015"
My profound thanks to my colleagues on all their excellent work this year. Here is a non-exhaustive list of our appearances in print and television this year. Well done advocates! KSDK - February 2022 https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/education/aclu-missouri-file-suit-against-wentzville-school-district-book-ban-the-bluest-eye/63-65f9c4e8-cb79-4a26-805b-2c1d9ec360ab St. Louis Post- Dispatch - June 2022 https://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/books-and-literature/library-group-again-implores-wentzville-school-board-to-stop-banning-books/article_12c41756-63b1-5e69-b645-a1af44551151.html#tracking-source=home-the-latest Independence Examiner - July 2022 https://www.examiner.net/2022/07/09/end-school-library-censorship-and-address-the-damage-it-has-done/ KOMU - August 2022 (https://www.komu.com/news/state/new-missouri-law-will-ban-sharing-visually-explicit-materials-with-students/article_97717864-2493-11ed-9871-bb4c9247515f.html) St. …
Jeff Todd- Board President Parkway School District 455 N.Woods Mill Road Chesterfield, MO 63017 jtodd3@parkwayschools.net cc: Dr. Keith Marty- Superintendent kmarty@parkwayschools.net Dear Mr. Todd and Dr. Marty, We were asked by members of your community to write on behalf of students, teachers, and librarians in your district. Your recent effort to remove a series of …
Continue reading "Letter to Parkway School District- September 30, 2022"
In honor of Banned Books Week (Sept 18-24), the Missouri Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Committee would like to clearly state our position on SB 775 and related actions by legislators, administrators and school board members. On behalf of our members and readers across the state, please join us in resisting attempts to undermine intellectual freedom. …
Continue reading "Banned Books Week Statement from the MLA-IFC"
We send letters like this to point out the potential impact of harmful policy decisions. When we advise school districts, library boards, or local politicians against infringing on the first amendment rights of readers, we do so to protect the freedom to read. In most cases, these efforts to censor and control what people read are undertaken with some form of nefarious intent, whether that is to push particular political agendas, to foist religious dogma on public institutions, or to undermine the wellbeing of groups of people who have been historically marginalized by our society. In few cases, like yours, we can appreciate that your effort to remove certain graphic novels is undertaken out of an abundance of caution, and to ultimately protect your employees from prosecution under Missouri’s unjust addition to Missouri Revised Statute 573.550, put into place by SB 775 just recently. That being said, the impact of the decision to remove these books will be the same as the aforementioned nefarious efforts of others. In choosing to preemptively remove graphic novels from your collection, you are sending the message to your students that you support SB 775’s intent, which is to chill access to information, art, and culturally relevant materials in your collection.
This article in JDoc is the culmination of collaboration with three wonderful researchers, Hyerim Cho, Cassandra Huang and Wan-Chen Lee. Check out the abstract. The ideas here are related to future studies that are coming down the pipe in the not-too-distant future. Stay tuned for those! Cho, H., Lee, W.-C., Huang, L.-M. and Kohlburn, J. (2022), "User-centered categorization of mood …
This letter was drafted to support the Missouri Association of School Librarians and their letter from earlier this week. August 11, 2022 Dear Readers, The Missouri Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Committee stands in solidarity with The Missouri Association of School Librarians (MASL) in their opposition to pre-emptive removal, censoring, and labeling of library materials. We …
I just got back from an 8 hr round-trip to Harrisonville to respond to the article in the image attached to this post. It worries me that this article reflects a general distain that some members of the board and community have for their own institution. As one of the folks who got to speak …
Continue reading "Submitted Written Statement to Cass County Library Board"
Joe Kohlburn 