This post topic probably seems a bit on the late side since Banned Books week was back in September this year, but a recent issue has arisen that has my blood boiling.
In case you were unaware, a school board in Florida has decided to place a ban on books that include "profanity, cursing, or inappropriate subject matter." You can read about it in more detail here. This directive is ridiculous and appalling. What is "inappropriate" subject matters? Who gets to decide what is "inappropriate"? What if I find certain topics inappropriate that others don't? The frightening part of this directive is that it will undoubtedly be used to silence the voices of marginalized groups. There have been plenty of studies that examine the connection between empathy and fiction readers. They've even done studies focusing specifically on Harry Potter! If you don't have access to library databases, you can do a quick google scholar search and come across a multitude of results. It might seem an odd notion to some, but students need access to materials that contain profanity, cursing, and inappropriate subject matter. They need to see that some things are just human nature. It also helps students be able to frame and contextualize situations that may seem foreign to them. By not allowing students to access stories and information, we're stunting their growth. One could even make the leap and say we are stunting the growth of our society. We should be encouraging younger generations to be better than us - to be more open, more accepting, more inclusive. Reading is about broadening your horizons, opening yourself up to new experiences in a safe environment. It's about reflection; it's about examining what makes you uncomfortable and why. It's about learning.
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I read an article published by Inside Higher Ed this morning about Cengage moving into the OER territory. Apparently, they are planning on charging $25 per student to access their OER materials. They are claiming the cost is for the platform.
In case you were unaware, OER stands for Open Educational Resources. The definition that I like best comes from Creative Commons: "Open educational resources (OER) are free and openly licensed educational materials that can be used for teaching, learning, research, and other purposes." I find it slightly ironic that big publishing giants are moving into OER. Part of the OER movement stems from trying to get away from publishers, their licenses, and the fees they charge. The OER movement is to allow researchers, scholars, academics, and really anyone the ability to access free information. If OER is supposed to be FREE and OPENLY LICENSED then Cengage is not promoting OER. In my opinion, if it has a cost attached to it, then it can't be OER. Cengage is trying to get around that fact, as I previously mentioned, by claiming that the fee is for the platform use. I fear that many other publishing companies will be following in their footsteps in the near future. Just as textbooks and course materials have increased in price, so will these platform fees. It's only a matter of time. Am I being too cynical? Quite possibly. I just think that if you are going to claim that you are providing OER, you should be providing it freely and openly. End Rant. Image taken from Nobelprize.org If you haven't already heard the news, Kazuo Ishiguro is the latest winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Congrats to him! If you have not read anything by this British author yet, I would highly recommend checking him out. I've read both Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go, which are probably two of his more well known works. I enjoyed both of them. If you are a fan of the current American style of writing (fast paced, action oriented, and superficial), then I would not recommend his books. Ishiguro's pieces are dense, slower paces, and are more character driven. His writing is quite profound, but I wouldn't recommend it for a light beach reading day.
While many people will be focusing on Kazuo Ishiguro in the articles about the Nobel Prize, I thought this would be a fun opportunity to take a look at the history of the Nobel Prize in Literature. It all began on November 25, 1895. It was on this day that Alfred Nobel created the Nobel Prizes, including the Nobel Prize in Literature, through his last will and testament. Nobel is most famously known as the inventor of dynamite, but was a man of many intellectual curiosities. He spoke multiple languages, and left behind a private library with over 1500 volumes. Nobel passed away in 1896, but the first prize was not awarded until 1901. This gap in years was due to the fact that many people, including relatives and non-relatives, contested this latest will. Since Nobel was leaving behind a large fortune, many people wanted a piece of it, or for pieces of it to be reserved for Sweden only. Nobel designated different organizations to select the award winners for different prizes. The Academy in Stockholm, now known as The Swedish Academy was honored with the Literature Prize selection. The Swedish Academy was founded in 1786 by King Gustaf III to advance the Swedish literature and Swedish language. Founded in 1901, The Nobel Library, serves the purpose of aiding the Swedish Academy in evaluating selections for the Prize. So that is a short history of the Nobel Prize in Literature! To learn more about it, check out these resources below. (By the way, in the interest of being a good librarian, this is also serving as my References list.) Resources/References:
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AuthorI have worked in Education my entire life moving from K-12, to a community college, to my current position at a four year. I am fascinated by weird things and information in general. Archives
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