No We Don't Get Paid to Read at the Desk

Image by Marisa Sias from Pixabay 

Karen Jensen, co-founder and blogger at Teen Librarian Toolbox at School Library Journal (SLJ) is well-known for her deep and incisive essays on teen services. 

As a collection development specialist she has some important things to say in light on the censorship efforts around the nation. One aspect of "the solution" the book banners propose is that librarians read every book before purchase. 

Karen writes: "As you may be aware, there are groups of people pushing for widespread censorship and book banning in our libraries. Though they are often focused primarily on public school libraries, public libraries are sometimes targeted as well. One of the continually proposed possible resolutions to this problem is to have librarians read every book before they purchase it for a library. Today, I am here to tell you why that is not possible in any way, shape or form."

To read her post, stop here. [Jensen, Karen. Things I Never Learned in Library School: You WOn't Get Paid to Read and You Will Never Read Anything in Your Library Collections (See Also: Why we can't pre-read the books we purchase, even when facing massive book bans). Teen Librarian Toolbox. School Library Journal. June 12, 2022]