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"We need to keep in mind that ....we should try to select material and
recommend it on its merits and not its bias."

Which is a major part of selection v. censoring. A good reminder to all
of us.

Last week I was working on next year's book orders and was noting that
there seems to be some dearth of materials to really choose from in some
categories.   Take a look at the offerings in military information; It
seems that much of the 'What Life in the ...' or ' About the F-xx Jet,
Helicopter, truck', 'Careers in the branch' books tend to be lower
reading level and labeled 'high interest'. However, books that cover
military issues in ancient and modern civ tend to more on grade level
for curriculum. In other words, books with lower RL tend to promote
militarism, while on-level books tend to discuss the social
implications. Or,  Howard Zinn isn't in the Hi/Lo category, nor  much
that delves more deeply into military as a career, technology of
equipment, etc for higher readers.

This weekend I was working on a post for my Librarian in the Middle blog
about Peace Education and Anti-war bibs and was realizing that trying to
balance a collection in those topic areas would be difficult.

Robert Eiffert, Librarian  | beiffert@egreen.wednet.edu
Pacific MS Vancouver, WA | http://pac.egreen.wednet.edu/library
Librarian in the Middle blog  at www.beiffert.net | robert@beiffert.net


C B Seale wrote:

I would also have to agree that we need to balance the material in the
library.  But I also have another question regarding this web site.
Being a
long time member of the left wing of the liberal side of the Democratic
party, I would question the bias of this website.  In looking at the
sources, most of the support, if not all, does definitely fit into the same
category.  We need to keep in mind that just because we (I in this case) am
a card carrying liberal, we should try to select material and recommend it
on its merits and not its bias.  Even I am willing to look at the other
side
and when teaching English required students to write a paper on something
they had a firm belief in and then the next assignment was to take the
other
side.  None liked the second assignment, but most did look at the other
side
and find some validity.

--
Robert Eiffert, Librarian  | beiffert@egreen.wednet.edu
Pacific MS Vancouver, WA | http://pac.egreen.wednet.edu/library
Librarian in the Middle blog  at www.beiffert.net | robert@beiffert.net

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