# data[].attributes.body
Our students are getting a lot of book recommendations from #booktok and are wanting to read Colleen Hoover, Ali Hazlewood etc. which are fun, but also almost soft 🤬. Should these books be available because it’s what they want and gets them reading, or is that against our duty of care? What is “damaging to a child?” We are a 7-12 all girls school.

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Historical text? Keeping them on the shelves, who should you consult to discuss content in a classic story. E.g Dot and the kangaroo

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Celebrate Banned Books in Little Free Libraries - Little Free Library

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It’s your right to read! Learn how you can celebrate banned and challenged books during Banned Books Week and all year long.

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This is in the very early stages but we're working on a toolkit for you to use.

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A teacher asks for a recommendation for a boy who doesn't like to read. You give the student a variety of graphic novels and low-level high-interest books. The dad is interested in knowing what his son is reading so he asks him to share the books with him. He calls the library and demands Heartstopper be taken off the shelves because of the swearing. It's one of the most popular books on the shelves and has reignited many students' interest in reading. What do you do?

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Gender Queer was taken off the shelves from Logan City libraries after a complaint from a conservative activist to the Classification Board.

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"Given the context of the publication's narrative and its literary, artistic and educational merits, the board does not consider that the publication contains material that offends a reasonable adult to the extent that it should be restricted."
-Classification Board

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Ruling - M (not suitable for readers under 15)
Classification – Unrestricted

"However, children under the age of 15 may legally access this material as the classification rating is an advisory category.

Parents, teachers and guardians may need to find out more about the specific content before deciding whether the material is suitable for children in their care."

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-Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Typically held during the last week of September, it spotlights current and historical attempts to censor books in libraries and schools. Banned Books Week brings together the entire book community — librarians, booksellers, publ…

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As at 6.4.23 all 5 copies were out on loan from Logan Central Libraries.
The LCL takes the advice of the Board and parents are responsible for what their children (under 18) borrow.

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It is through fantasy, Sendak asserted, that children achieve catharsis.

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In 2013–14, 1 in 5 (20%) young people aged 11–17 had either high or very high levels of psychological distress (13% and 6.6%, respectively).

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ALIA joint statement with Australian Public Library Alliance

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ALIA joint statement with Australian Public Library Alliance

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Library service is ... 'proactive in pivoting the collection to meet changing community needs.’
'A perception that material may offend or cause controversy to a person or a group of people is not, of itself, a reason to limit purchase or provision of an item containing that material.'

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Australia's library and information services advance access to information for an inclusive and informed society. Libraries defend equity of access to information to support a thriving democracy and to cater for all members of the library community.

As stated in the APLA-ALIA Standards and Guidelines for Australian Public Libraries , 'public library collections should cover a wide range of popular topics, express a variety of viewpoints and cultural understandings, and represent a diversity of people, places, events, issues and ideas.

Collections are at the centre of library services. The APLA-ALIA Standards further provide that each 'library service has a process for regularly assessing the content and size of the collection required to meet community needs and is proactive in pivoting the collection to meet changing community needs.'

Library and information staff are responsible for developing and maintaining library collections. Selection and availability of items in a collection is made by library staff with professional expertise and experience and is not based on personal, political, moral and/or religious views. A perception that material may offend or cause controversy to a person or a group of people is not, of itself, a reason to limit purchase or provision of an item containing that material.

Members of the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) commit to upholding ALIA's core values which include respect for the diversity, individuality and equality of all, the free flow of information and ideas through open access to recorded knowledge, information, and creative works, and the connection of people to ideas, knowledge creation and learning.

Members of ALIA adhere to the highest standards of ethical practice and professional competence.

ALIA will continue to work to ensure that all Australians have the freedom to choose what they read, that libraries and information services are welcoming and inclusive places for all Australians and that library and information staff are supported in their professional duties.

Further Reading:

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ALIA/APLA Joint Statement in support of free access to information in Australian libraries

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Australia's library and information services advance access to information for an inclusive and informed society. Libraries defend equity of access to information to support a thriving democracy and to cater for all members of the library community.

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Message: Almost one-fifth of all young people aged 11 to 17 years experience high or very high levels of psychological distress.
There is some evidence that, within the LGBT community, people identifying as transgender and people with intersex variations have some of the highest levels of psychological distress

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This article was written by the Young Minds Matter research team.
A recent national survey of young people's mental health and wellbeing, Young Minds Matter, found high levels of major depressive disorder, distress, self-harming and suicidal behaviours among adolescents - especially teenage girls.

Just under 3,000 young people aged 11-17 years completed the questionnaire in private on a tablet computer. Their parents did not see the responses.

Major depressive disorder

One in thirteen (7.7%) 11‑17 year-olds met the diagnostic criteria for major depressive disorder in the previous 12 months. Major depressive disorder was more common in females and older adolescents.

The prevalence of major depressive disorder was far higher when young people provided the information themselves than when their parents or carers did. Two thirds of adolescents with major depressive disorder ¹ said that their parents only knew "a little" or "not at all" about their feelings (37.6% and 29.5% respectively).

Psychological distress, self-harming and suicidal behaviours

One fifth of 11-17 year-olds reported high (13.3%) or very high (6.6%) levels of psychological distress.

Participants were asked if they had ever attempted self-harm or suicide. One in ten (11.9%) 12-17 year-olds reported to have ever self-harmed and 8% reported self-harm in the past 12 months. A further 7.5% reported that they "prefer not to say", which suggests that these estimates may be conservative.

In the past 12 months, 7.5% of 12-17 year-olds had seriously considered attempting suicide, and 2.4% reported attempting suicide.

Strong links between major depressive disorder, self-harm and suicidal behaviours

The highest rates of self-harm and suicidal behaviours were among adolescents with major depressive disorder. Reports of self-harm were related to engaging in suicidal behaviours, especially in the presence of major depressive disorder. As the number of reported self-harm occasions increased, so did the proportion of those thinking about suicide and attempting suicide.

19.6% of 16-17 year-old females experienced major depressive disorder compared to 7.2% of 16-17 year-old males.

More than one third of 16-17 year-old females had high or very high levels of psychological distress compared to adolescent boys of the same age (36.2% compared with 17.6%).

17.3% of 16-17 year-old females had abnormal levels of emotional and behavioural difficulties compared to 7.3% of males of the same age.

One fifth (22.8%) of 16-17 year-old females reported that they had ever self-harmed, and 16.8% reported self-harm in the previous 12 months. For 16-17 year-old males, 9.1% had ever self-harmed, and 6.2% had self-harmed in the past 12 months.

Around one in seven (15.4%) 16-17 year-old females had seriously considered attempting suicide and one in twenty (4.7%) had attempted suicide in the past 12 months.

An alarming picture of distress among 16-17 year-old females

The results of the survey are particularly concerning for young females. The findings revealed:

Implications

Based on adolescent self-reports, there are clear associations between feeling depressed or distressed and self-harming and suicidal thoughts. This presents clinical implications for detection, monitoring and treatment, and a need for broader strategies that consider early intervention and prevention of self-harm and suicide.

While the accessibility and range of services available to young people for help with mental health problems has increased considerably over the past 15 years, the health, education and welfare sectors need to be supported to promote mental health literacy and help-seeking behaviour, and to provide timely and appropriate treatment for young people and their families.
If you require assistance or would like to talk to a trained professional about the issues described on this page, please call If you are a young person aged 12-25 and are worried about your mental health, you can also use eheadspace. eheadspace is a confidential, free and secure space where young people or their family can chat, email or speak on the phone with a qualified youth mental health professional. Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800 or Lifeline on 13 11 14.
References and further Information

A copy of the main report from the Young Minds Matter survey The Mental Health of Children and Adolescents together with a survey results query tool can be found on the Young Minds Matter website.

The feature image is by Ed Yourdon, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

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Young Minds Matter: Depression, psychological distress, self-harming and suicidal behaviour in Australian adolescents

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This article was written by the Young Minds Matter research team . A recent national survey of young people's mental health and wellbeing, Young Minds Matter, found high levels of major depressive disorder, distress, self-harming and suicidal behaviours among adolescents - especially teenage girls.

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It's Pride Month and a library assistant occasionally comes to work with a rainbow lanyard and rainbow earrings. The assistant promotes library programs in which students make rainbow love hearts and rainbow book marks. A parent emails the deputy and complains that the library is promoting a LGBTQIA agenda. They explain they don't want their child attending the library for the month. They ask you to remove the poster and tell the assistant to stop wearing rainbow-themed accessories. What do you do?

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https://www.ala.org/rt/gncrt/preparing-and-addressing-challenges-comics-library-committee#During%20a%20Challenge

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Preparing For and Addressing Challenges to Comics in the Library Committee

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A record number of book challenges were recorded in 2021-2022 - including award winning graphic novels New Kid, Gender Queer, and Maus. Historically book challenges have focused on three areas: children’s or YA titles, titles with “diverse content,” and titles / formats that have previously been cha…

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Australia has an extensive list of previously banned books that were once considered a threat to the country's morals and literary standards - and there is a good chance that you have read at least one of them.

During the 20th century Australian Customs, police vice squads and post offices kept censored books from the Australian public

Books were censored if they were categorised as obscene, blasphemous or seditious

One Australian library is using a concealed collection of previously banned books to encourage reading

Literary researchers agree that during the 20th century Australia was considered one of the harshest censors in the Western world.

Books seen to arouse curiosity about sexual pleasure were deemed obscene under Australian censorship legislation and removed by Australian Customs.

D.H Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928), Jackie Collins's The Stud (1969) and Bret Ellis's American Psycho (1991) are among some of the books once banned in Australia - and there are hundreds more.

These days the practice of censoring material seems antiquated so are we still banning books, and if so, how?

An Australian literature researcher at the University of New South Wales, Nicole Moore, has written about the nature of censorship in Australia's past.

Professor Moore said Australian Customs censored readers as a form of self-protection and aimed to uphold moral standards to protect the citizens from obscenity, blasphemy and sedition - three pieces of legislation concerned with banning publications that threaten the national order.

'Deeply and extremely disgusting'

As an example of how times change, and society's morals move with it, Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho, which was released in 1991, follows the life of a wealthy investment banker with graphically violent urges.

Reasons for censorship throughout history:

Pornography and sexual dialogue

Homosexuality

Violence

Witchcraft

Blasphemous dialogue

Euthanasia

Birth control

Abortion

Political bias

The psychological horror story was described at the time by novelist Andrew Motion as "deeply and extremely disgusting".

The book was categorised under Australian censorship legislation as blasphemous, indecent and obscene, and given an R18 classification.To this day the novel is required to be sold in a sealed wrapper.

The film adaptation however is readily available for children to watch depending on family internet restrictions.

Professor Moore said the power of Australian Customs was diminished by the establishment of the Book Censorship Board in 1933 but prohibition was strictly enforced, and people caught with prohibited items could be prosecuted as criminals.

"Beyond import restrictions, domestic censorship operated through police action, vice squads, postal regulation, and civil and criminal prosecution under the proliferating censorship and obscenity acts, which differed across state borders," she said.

"It was routine to have your suitcase searched on the way into Australia from another country.

"And scandals about book banning were routine in the newspapers."

Are we still banning books?

These days, Professor Moore explained, the regulatory regime was struggling to keep up with the contemporary environment.

"There is still a mandate for restriction and control over certain kinds of materials coming into the Australian reading public, but it remains very difficult to regulate the internet," she said.

Books and digital content, which would have once been censored, are much harder to monitor today.

"Contemporary society is enabling all kinds of material to be brought to the surface that wouldn't have been before," Professor Moore said.

"The idea of there being a nation state that can draw a border around itself to say, 'we are like this, our reading public is like this, and different to this other reading public', that is just a notion that has gone with the wind."

Professor Moore said legislation still allowed certain books to be banned in Australia, and it did still occur.

"Under our contemporary legislation, which is administered by the Film and Literature Classification Board, the Board still has control over all publications, including books," she said.

"They can still be counted as offensive if they transgress the definitions of what remains offensive, such as sexualised violence.

"We still have a number of books on the banned list, some of which are quite significant, like books on euthanasia or books around jihadist terrorist instruction."

Batman on the banned list

The Shoalhaven Library on the NSW south coast has created a book display wrapping 40 previously-banned books in brown paper.

The idea sprang from the library's latest book club theme requiring participants to choose a banned book from the library's resources, read it, and expand upon it during the club's meetings.

Each of the books on display were chosen because at some stage it was deemed too debase or degenerate for society's morals, and thus banned.

Curious borrowers do not know what lies beneath the paper covering and the library's acting customer and community resource manager, Gemma Luxford, said the technique was having an impact on local borrowers.

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"Essentially the idea is to encourage people to read books that at some time, and in some place anywhere in the world, have been banned or challenged," she said.

"Somewhere in here there's Frankenstein, Brave New World, The Dubliners, Lolita, and Batman, which was banned in the United Kingdom at some stage."

The device or ployencouraging readers to check-out a banned book is working as punters, young and old, have been taking home concealed books.

"We've had lots of interest. Over the past two weeks, whilst I've been on the desk, I've probably had about six people actually brave enough to borrow a book," Ms Luxford said.

"Out of those, three were teenagers and they all seemed quite excited.

"None of them opened it while they were in the library."

Brown paper wrapping can no longer conceal dubious literature, and with content easily accessible online, it has made regulation increasingly difficult.

Professor Moore said if displaying previously censored material helped to promote readership she believed this was a good thing.

"It's very important that we have regulatory regimes that are transparent, and that people do know why things are banned so they can make their own minds up about whether they are legitimate."

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How many of these previously banned books have you read?

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Australia has an extensive list of previously banned books that were once considered a threat to the country's morals and literary standards - and there is a good chance that you have read at least one of them.

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1946 - Acting Minister John Dedman in the Chifley Labor government responded that this was 'because this course of action would give the books undue and undesirable publicity' (NAA C4480 Item 23).

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Alicia is in Year 9 and part of a book club and generally reads middle grade fantasy books. She has a history of mental health challenges but does not have a formal diagnosis. During book club, another student discusses a character who self-harms. A week later the Head of Student Wellbeing wants to discuss the book club with you because Alicia has self-harmed and her mother told her that she mentioned the discussion she had in the book club.

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“We were supposed to be brainstorming. But, unfortunately, my brain was farting.”

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“We were supposed to be brainstorming. But, unfortunately, my brain was farting.”

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A parent bails you up in the car park and would like to know how Dork Diaries supports the school's values of respect for self and others. You tell her there are proper channels of communication and to please put her concerns in writing. In the morning you find an email from the parent, she has cc'd the Head of Junior School. She read the book and finds the protagonist shallow, superficial and rude. She takes issue with the girl prioritising romantic interests over school work and goes on to say the book undermines all the recent gains in feminism and that she now has to actively remind her daughter that her own self worth comes from within and not whether or not a boy likes her. She wants all copies out of the library immediately.

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Trans rights have been in the news a lot lately. A trans student at the school has decided they want to use a different bathroom and wear a different uniform. A teacher who has a daughter at the school wants a list of books that feature trans characters and NF books that relate to the topic. In the past the teacher has borrowed books about abortion and kept them for several months.

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The areas of Personal and Social Capability Learning (within the Australian and New Zealand Curriculums)

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The areas of Personal and Social Capability Learning (within the Australian and New Zealand Curriculums)

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Social awareness - appreciate diverse viewpoints
"Students with well-developed social and emotional skills find it easier to manage themselves, relate to others, develop resilience and a sense of self-worth, resolve conflict, engage in teamwork and feel positive about themselves and the world around them."

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You work at a Catholic school and a parent who is a doctor came to the library during an open day to help out. While there, she looked at the 300s. She tells your library assistant she's passionate about sexual health and asks for the library to stock more books about sexual health, specifically abortion. The assistant replies that abortion goes against the Catholic ethos. The parent finds this offensive, saying that access to sexual health information trumps the Catholic beliefs of a school when the majority of students aren't Catholic.

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ALA notes that sexual content, especially relating to LGBTQIA+ characters is the number one reason books are challenged.

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The ability of men and women to achieve sexual health and well-being depends on their:

access to comprehensive, good-quality information about sex and sexuality;

Sexual health is expressed through diverse sexualities and forms of sexual expression.

Sexual health is critically influenced by gender norms, roles, expectations and power dynamics.

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Article 13

Children have the right to get and to share information, as long as the information is not damaging to them or to others.

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Commissioner for Children and Young People

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Knowing Your Rights - Commissioner for Children and Young People

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The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) is the most widely ratified human rights treaty in human history.

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Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

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In pursuing our Vision and Mission, IFLA embraces the following core values:

the endorsement of the principles of freedom of access to information, ideas and works of imagination and freedom of expression embodied in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

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Policy
Paperwork
Staff
Communication

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Review the policy you have

Include ALIA and IFLA values, your own school’s values and UN documents if needed

Include a challenged material form and flesh out the process around the form – who is included, timelines, communication etc
Compare your policy to other schools of a similar ilk (if available) - is anything missing from yours?

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Selection criteria - has it been updated lately?
Challenged material form
How accessible is it to parents/community?
What information do you require to process a challenge?
At what stage will the resource be taken off the shelf (if at all?)

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If you can, collect data on your community so you can meet their needs. Student wellbeing staff or anyone in a position to support the decisions you’ll make around your collection

Ensure leadership has signed off on and supported the challenged material form.

Upskill library staff so they are empowered to respond to challenges and disputes whenever and however they are made.

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At what point is leadership informed of a challenge?
Do parents know who to contact if they have an issue about a book?

What is the standard response to a challenge/dispute? Is the response the same for a dispute and a challenge?  Who can respond to parents/community members?

If a book is kept on shelves but no longer reflects current values, will there be a notification/sticker? What about digital resources?

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ALA Selection and Reconsideration Policy Toolkit

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ALA Selection and Reconsideration Policy Toolkit

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
-Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Typically held during the last week of September, it spotlights current and historical attempts to censor books in libraries and schools. Banned Books Week brings together the entire book community — librarians, booksellers, publ…

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Just one supportive adult can save a life

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LGBTQ youth are far more likely to attempt suicide than their straight peers - but acceptance can go a long way toward addressing that crisis.

A new report from the Trevor Project shows that just one accepting adult can reduce the risk of a suicide attempt by 40 percent.

This support is greatly needed. An additional report released Thursday by the Trevor Project shows that more than 1.8 million LGBTQ young people (ages 13 to 24) contemplate a suicide attempt each year in the United States.

The survey was conducted with over 25,000 LGBTQ young people in this age range as part of the Trevor Project's 2019 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health.

These findings are significant. Previous studies focused on the impact of accepting parents toward their LGBTQ children. However, the data shows that any supportive adult can have a beneficial impact on this demographic.

Minority stress - created by stigma, discrimination, bullying, or a perception of bias - is credited as the main detractor to the mental health of LGBTQ youth.

The Trevor Project is the world's largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for lesbian, transgender, bisexual, gay, queer, and questioning young people. The group offers a number of volunteer opportunities for adults, such as its 24/7 TrevorLifeline (866-488-7386), TrevorChat, and TrevorText programs, which offer young people feeling suicidal an avenue to talk.

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Report: Just One Accepting Adult Can Save an LGBTQ Young Person's Life

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LGBTQ youth are far more likely to attempt suicide than their straight peers - but acceptance can go a long way toward addressing that crisis. A new report from the Trevor Project shows that just one accepting adult can reduce the risk of a suicide attempt by 40 percent.

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Australia's library and information services advance access to information for an inclusive and informed society. Libraries defend equity of access to information to support a thriving democracy and to cater for all members of the library community.

As stated in the APLA-ALIA Standards and Guidelines for Australian Public Libraries , 'public library collections should cover a wide range of popular topics, express a variety of viewpoints and cultural understandings, and represent a diversity of people, places, events, issues and ideas.

Collections are at the centre of library services. The APLA-ALIA Standards further provide that each 'library service has a process for regularly assessing the content and size of the collection required to meet community needs and is proactive in pivoting the collection to meet changing community needs.'

Library and information staff are responsible for developing and maintaining library collections. Selection and availability of items in a collection is made by library staff with professional expertise and experience and is not based on personal, political, moral and/or religious views. A perception that material may offend or cause controversy to a person or a group of people is not, of itself, a reason to limit purchase or provision of an item containing that material.

Members of the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) commit to upholding ALIA's core values which include respect for the diversity, individuality and equality of all, the free flow of information and ideas through open access to recorded knowledge, information, and creative works, and the connection of people to ideas, knowledge creation and learning.

Members of ALIA adhere to the highest standards of ethical practice and professional competence.

ALIA will continue to work to ensure that all Australians have the freedom to choose what they read, that libraries and information services are welcoming and inclusive places for all Australians and that library and information staff are supported in their professional duties.

Further Reading:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
ALIA/APLA Joint Statement in support of free access to information in Australian libraries

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Australia's library and information services advance access to information for an inclusive and informed society. Libraries defend equity of access to information to support a thriving democracy and to cater for all members of the library community.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Little Refugee book was written by Anh Do and Suzanne Do, with illustrations by Bruce Whatley. Source: AAP / Allen and Unwin

The Central York ban was eventually overturned last year after an outcry from students and widespread criticism.

Do's books were not allowed to be used in any classrooms in the Central York School District, a community of more than 5,000 students.

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Australian author and refugee Anh Do's children's books were banned in some US schools. Here's why

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The Little Refugee book was written by Anh Do and Suzanne Do, with illustrations by Bruce Whatley. Source: AAP / Allen and Unwin The Central York ban was eventually overturned last year after an outcry from students and widespread criticism.