Where is the reading? And where’s the age-appropriate consideration for curriculum?
In the included images, we see the conference agenda from the New Hampshire Library Trustees Association spring 2023 conference and annual meeting.
Even a casual review of the agenda will note that The keynote speaker’s topic for this year’s meeting and conference is fighting “censorship” thru library advocacy.
Why does my local library need to be involved in advocacy? It is also a pertinent question to ask, what do they consider to be censorship? Censorship is often a convenient label to push back against concerned parents and community members requesting age-appropriate content filtering so as not to expose our children to sexually graphic content.
You think they could have had a keynote speaker on how to work more cooperatively with community members on how to identify age-inappropriate curriculum in a respectful manner that still keeps pertinent ideas and information accessible in the public sphere.
It is also worth noting on the agenda that five out of the ten breakout sessions are diversity, inclusion, and equity related, but not a single one of the ten is related to reading.
We have millions of children who will struggle with developing basic reading habits and skills post-COVID shutdowns, and our local libraries are in a perfect position to fill that gap and help parents prepare their young learners for elementary education by contributing to improving their reading ability.
I see no such focus on this annual agenda.
