Fines for overdue materials are five cents a day. Days when school is not in session do not count toward fines.

Overdue notices are sent to advisories twice a month. Students are encouraged to return items and pay their fines so that they will be allowed to continue borrowing materials.

Students can renew their books up to two times, for a total of six weeks. The only exception to this renewal policy is when a book has been placed on hold.

Renewals may be done in person or by e-mail. You do not need to have the book with you in order to renew it.

TThe media center is a place for you to read and study without being distracted or interrupted. Use your time wisely to do individual or classroom assignments. Use the computer's internet functions for class assignments. If you have "free time", play only the authorized educational games that are already loaded on the computer. Do not visit websites that have nothing to do with your assignment(s)!

You are responsible for maintaining this quiet space for your fellow students. This means no distracting others with loud talking or other forms of interruption.

You are responsible for using and returning materials in an orderly fashion. This means clean up whatever you mess up and return materials or equipment used promptly and properly.

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Slauson Middle School

3.0      COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT

3.1            Materials selection and de-selection

3.1.1      PURPOSE

The purpose of this collection development policy is to ensure that library materials and access to information meet the information and learning needs of Slauson Middle School. The policy will assist in budgeting decisions and responsible use of funds, define the purposes for the collection; and establish limits and priorities on collection parameters.  A policy cannot replace the judgment of individual library professionals and paraprofessionals but only provides guidelines to assist them in choosing from the vast array of available materials. Professional judgment and expertise, based on understanding of user needs and knowledge of authors, publishers, trends, and information resources in all formats is an important element in collection development.

3.2            Basis for Policy

Slauson Middle School’s collection development policy is designed to guide collection building that will provide resources consistent with the District’s Mission Statement. Out of necessity it is also driven by available funding.  The principles contained in ALA’s Library Bill of Rights, Intellectual Freedom Statement, Freedom to View, and the Free Access to Libraries For Minors will be adhered to by Slauson Middle School. These statements are appended to this policy.

3.3            Community Served

Our primary service population is Slauson Middle School students and staff members.  Through resource sharing agreements and interlibrary loan the collection is available to a potentially very broad population.

3.4            Selection of Library Materials

3.4.1      RESPONSIBILITIES

The media specialist selects and deselects library materials with recommendations given by teachers and students.

3.4.2      SELECTION CRITERIA

Library material selection takes place within the framework of a school library system. A set of criteria are identified below, against which all items, whether purchased or donated, are evaluated and which apply to all formats and collections.

The school’s collection includes material on a wide range of subject areas written or produced for the school population.

Materials are selected to meet the needs of a middle school population, whose interests, views, and informational needs are varied. Not all items in the library will be of interest to, or suitable for, all library patrons.  In selecting materials for the library collections, the following general criteria are used:

Appropriateness to library’s mission and service responses

Relationship to existing collection and other titles available

Availability elsewhere or more in keeping with other institutions’ roles

Availability to purchase or access

Requests by patrons, advisory groups, and staff

Suitability of format for user’s need and subject

Community interests and needs

Relevance to the experiences and contributions of diverse populations

Levels of funding and cost of item

Anticipated use

Physical quality of material

Value of resource in relation to its cost

Authority, accuracy and accessibility of presentation

Currency of information

Reputation of author, publisher or issuing body

Attention and response of critics, reviewers and general public

Subject matter and scope

Historical significance

Quality and style of writing

Inclusion of work in bibliographies, recommendation lists, indexes

3.5            Professional Collection

The media specialist has primary responsibility for the selection and maintenance of collections serving the professional population. This will include:

3.5.1      FICTION

Slauson Middle School will acquire fiction material in a wide range of genres. Material is purchased in a variety of formats. Emphasis is on mainstream and genre fiction by American and English authors. Multiple copies are purchased to meet patron demand.

3.5.2      NONFICTION

The nonfiction collection emphasizes timely, accurate and useful informational materials to support general community interests. It emphasizes materials that are current and in high demand. Materials are selected to represent a continuum of opinions and viewpoints when available. Titles with sustaining value and those of current, accepted authority are part of the library collection. Material is purchased in a variety of formats.

Slauson Middle School emphasizes scholarly materials.

3.5.3      REFERENCE

Reference materials are primarily for in-house use. If necessary, they may be checked out daily for in-school use or on an overnight basis. They provide quick, concise and

up-to-date information. Included are indexes, encyclopedias, bibliographies,

biographical resources, dictionaries, almanacs and directories. Some

reference resources will be provided via electronic access only.

3.5.4      ELECTRONIC RESOURCES

Slauson Middle School is part of the district’s information infrastructure providing people with access to global electronic resources and the opportunity to participate in the electronic arena. Electronic information and networking is a new and rapidly developing area of public and private activity. Slauson Middle School recognizes that these developments pose new challenges as well as new opportunities for library users, board and staff.

These new methods of receiving information enhance the mission of Slauson Middle School. Materials selection and electronic access to

resources are both integral to fulfilling the mission, which is to provide

equal access to information, materials and services in an environment that

welcomes interaction and personal enrichment for all the patrons of Slauson Middle School.Connection with electronic information services and networks provides access and information transfer rather than selecting and acquiring materials in the traditional sense.

3.6            Collections for Youth

The media specialist has primary responsibility for the selection and maintenance of collections for patrons from sixth through eighth grade.

3.6.1      ADDITIONAL CRITERIA

Age and interest, appropriate content, and presentation

Emphasis on quality, critically acclaimed materials as demonstrated by

awards, specialized bibliographies and/or reviews

Quality and aesthetics of illustrations to stimulate the imagination

Awareness of curriculum-based needs of public, private, and home

school students, and secondarily, university students of Children’s

literature

Information and stories, which represent a spectrum of family styles,

values and interests

Materials, which represent the richness and diversity of young people’s

local and world community

Materials which meet the particular developmental needs of youth at

different stages

3.7            Professional Collection

A small collection of specialized materials pertaining to the management and development of school libraries is kept for use primarily by library staff.

3.8            Maintenance & De-Selection Guidelines

De-selection is an essential element of collection development that ensures the libraries’ materials are useful and accessible.

3.9            Censorship and Reconsideration of Library Materials (see Ann Arbor Public School’s District Policy)

3.13      Donated Library Materials

Donated materials are accepted by the Slauson Middle School.  If added to the collection they must meet the same criteria as outlined above. If not added to the collection they will donated to another organization who accepts them.

3.14      Internet Use (see Ann Arbor Public School’s District Policy)

3.16      Appendices

Library Bill of Rights

The American Library Association affirms that all libraries are forums for information and ideas, and that the following basic policies should guide their services.

I. Books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves. Materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation.

II. Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.

III. Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.

IV. Libraries should cooperate with all persons and groups concerned with resisting abridgment of free expression and free access to ideas.

V. A person’s right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views.

VI. Libraries which make exhibit spaces and meeting rooms available to the public they serve should make such facilities available on an equitable basis, regardless of the beliefs or affiliations of individuals or groups requesting their use.

Adopted June 18, 1948, by the ALA Council; amended February 2, 1961; amended June 28, 1967; amended January 23, 1980; inclusion of “age” reaffirmed January 24, 1996.

A history of the Library Bill of Rights is found in the latest edition of the Intellectual Freedom Manual.

Intellectual Freedom Statement

The freedom to read is essential to our democracy. It is continuously under attack. Private groups and public authorities in various parts of the country are working to remove or limit access to reading materials, to censor content in schools, to label "controversial" views, to distribute lists of "objectionable" books or authors, and to purge libraries. These actions apparently rise from a view that our national tradition of free expression is no longer valid; that censorship and suppression are needed to counter threats to safety or national security, as well as to avoid the subversion of politics and the corruption of morals. We, as individuals devoted to reading and as librarians and publishers responsible for disseminating ideas, wish to assert the public interest in the preservation of the freedom to read.

Most attempts at suppression rest on a denial of the fundamental premise of democracy: that the ordinary individual, by exercising critical judgment, will select the good and reject the bad. We trust Americans to recognize propaganda and misinformation, and to make their own decisions about what they read and believe. We do not believe they are prepared to sacrifice their heritage of a free press in order to be "protected" against what others think may be bad for them. We believe they still favor free enterprise in ideas and expression.

These efforts at suppression are related to a larger pattern of pressures being brought against education, the press, art and images, films, broadcast media, and the Internet. The problem is not only one of actual censorship. The shadow of fear cast by these pressures leads, we suspect, to an even larger voluntary curtailment of expression by those who seek to avoid controversy or unwelcome scrutiny by government officials.

Such pressure toward conformity is perhaps natural to a time of accelerated change. And yet suppression is never more dangerous than in such a time of social tension. Freedom has given the United States the elasticity to endure strain. Freedom keeps open the path of novel and creative solutions, and enables change to come by choice. Every silencing of a heresy, every enforcement of an orthodoxy, diminishes the toughness and resilience of our society and leaves it the less able to deal with controversy and difference.

Now as always in our history, reading is among our greatest freedoms. The freedom to read and write is almost the only means for making generally available ideas or manners of expression that can initially command only a small audience. The written word is the natural medium for the new idea and the untried voice from which come the original contributions to social growth. It is essential to the extended discussion that serious thought requires, and to the accumulation of knowledge and ideas into organized collections.

We believe that free communication is essential to the preservation of a free society and a creative culture. We believe that these pressures toward conformity present the danger of limiting the range and variety of inquiry and expression on which our democracy and our culture depend. We believe that every American community must jealously guard the freedom to publish and to circulate, in order to preserve its own freedom to read. We believe that publishers and librarians have a profound responsibility to give validity to that freedom to read by making it possible for the readers to choose freely from a variety of offerings.

The freedom to read is guaranteed by the Constitution. Those with faith in free people will stand firm on these constitutional guarantees of essential rights and will exercise the responsibilities that accompany these rights.

We therefore affirm these propositions:

1. It is in the public interest for publishers and librarians to make available the widest diversity of views and expressions, including those that are unorthodox, unpopular, or considered dangerous by the majority.

   Creative thought is by definition new, and what is new is different. The bearer of every new thought is a rebel until that idea is refined and tested. Totalitarian systems attempt to maintain themselves in power by the ruthless suppression of any concept that challenges the established orthodoxy. The power of a democratic system to adapt to change is vastly strengthened by the freedom of its citizens to choose widely from among conflicting opinions offered freely to them. To stifle every nonconformist idea at birth would mark the end of the democratic process. Furthermore, only through the constant activity of weighing and selecting can the democratic mind attain the strength demanded by times like these. We need to know not only what we believe but why we believe it.

2. Publishers, librarians, and booksellers do not need to endorse every idea or presentation they make available. It would conflict with the public interest for them to establish their own political, moral, or aesthetic views as a standard for determining what should be published or circulated.

   Publishers and librarians serve the educational process by helping to make available knowledge and ideas required for the growth of the mind and the increase of learning. They do not foster education by imposing as mentors the patterns of their own thought. The people should have the freedom to read and consider a broader range of ideas than those that may be held by any single librarian or publisher or government or church. It is wrong that what one can read should be confined to what another thinks proper.

3. It is contrary to the public interest for publishers or librarians to bar access to writings on the basis of the personal history or political affiliations of the author.

   No art or literature can flourish if it is to be measured by the political views or private lives of its creators. No society of free people can flourish that draws up lists of writers to whom it will not listen, whatever they may have to say.

4. There is no place in our society for efforts to coerce the taste of others, to confine adults to the reading matter deemed suitable for adolescents, or to inhibit the efforts of writers to achieve artistic expression.

   To some, much of modern expression is shocking. But is not much of life itself shocking? We cut off literature at the source if we prevent writers from dealing with the stuff of life. Parents and teachers have a responsibility to prepare the young to meet the diversity of experiences in life to which they will be exposed, as they have a responsibility to help them learn to think critically for themselves. These are affirmative responsibilities, not to be discharged simply by preventing them from reading works for which they are not yet prepared. In these matters values differ, and values cannot be legislated; nor can machinery be devised that will suit the demands of one group without limiting the freedom of others.

5. It is not in the public interest to force a reader to accept the prejudgment of a label characterizing any expression or its author as subversive or dangerous.

   The ideal of labeling presupposes the existence of individuals or groups with wisdom to determine by authority what is good or bad for others. It presupposes that individuals must be directed in making up their minds about the ideas they examine. But Americans do not need others to do their thinking for them.

6. It is the responsibility of publishers and librarians, as guardians of the people's freedom to read, to contest encroachments upon that freedom by individuals or groups seeking to impose their own standards or tastes upon the community at large; and by the government whenever it seeks to reduce or deny public access to public information.

   It is inevitable in the give and take of the democratic process that the political, the moral, or the aesthetic concepts of an individual or group will occasionally collide with those of another individual or group. In a free society individuals are free to determine for themselves what they wish to read, and each group is free to determine what it will recommend to its freely associated members. But no group has the right to take the law into its own hands, and to impose its own concept of politics or morality upon other members of a democratic society. Freedom is no freedom if it is accorded only to the accepted and the inoffensive. Further, democratic societies are more safe, free, and creative when the free flow of public information is not restricted by governmental prerogative or self-censorship.

7. It is the responsibility of publishers and librarians to give full meaning to the freedom to read by providing books that enrich the quality and diversity of thought and expression. By the exercise of this affirmative responsibility, they can demonstrate that the answer to a "bad" book is a good one, the answer to a "bad" idea is a good one.

   The freedom to read is of little consequence when the reader cannot obtain matter fit for that reader's purpose. What is needed is not only the absence of restraint, but the positive provision of opportunity for the people to read the best that has been thought and said. Books are the major channel by which the intellectual inheritance is handed down, and the principal means of its testing and growth. The defense of the freedom to read requires of all publishers and librarians the utmost of their faculties, and deserves of all Americans the fullest of their support.

We state these propositions neither lightly nor as easy generalizations. We here stake out a lofty claim for the value of the written word. We do so because we believe that it is possessed of enormous variety and usefulness, worthy of cherishing and keeping free. We realize that the application of these propositions may mean the dissemination of ideas and manners of expression that are repugnant to many persons. We do not state these propositions in the comfortable belief that what people read is unimportant. We believe rather that what people read is deeply important; that ideas can be dangerous; but that the suppression of ideas is fatal to a democratic society. Freedom itself is a dangerous way of life, but it is ours.

This statement was originally issued in May of 1953 by the Westchester Conference of the American Library Association and the American Book Publishers Council, which in 1970 consolidated with the American Educational Publishers Institute to become the Association of American Publishers.

Adopted June 25, 1953, by the ALA Council and the AAP Freedom to Read Committee; amended January 28, 1972; January 16, 1991; July 12, 2000; June 30, 2004.

A Joint Statement by:

American Library Association
Association of American Publishers

Subsequently endorsed by:

American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression
The Association of American University Presses, Inc.
The Children's Book Council
Freedom to Read Foundation
National Association of College Stores
National Coalition Against Censorship
National Council of Teachers of English
The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression

Freedom to View

The FREEDOM TO VIEW, along with the freedom to speak, to hear, and to read, is protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. In a free society, there is no place for censorship of any medium of expression. Therefore these principles are affirmed:

1. To provide the broadest access to film, video, and other audiovisual materials because they are a means for the communication of ideas. Liberty of circulation is essential to insure the constitutional guarantee of freedom of expression.
2. To protect the confidentiality of all individuals and institutions using film, video, and other audiovisual materials.
3. To provide film, video, and other audiovisual materials which represent a diversity of views and expression. Selection of a work does not constitute or imply agreement with or approval of the content.
4. To provide a diversity of viewpoints without the constraint of labeling or prejudging film, video, or other audiovisual materials on the basis of the moral, religious, or political beliefs of the producer or filmmaker or on the basis of controversial content.
5. To contest vigorously, by all lawful means, every encroachment upon the public's freedom to view.

This statement was originally drafted by the Freedom to View Committee of the American Film and Video Association (formerly the Educational Film Library Association) and was adopted by the AFVA Board of Directors in February 1979. This statement was updated and approved by the AFVA Board of Directors in 1989.

Library policies and procedures that effectively deny minors equal and equitable access to all library resources available to other users violate the Library Bill of Rights. The American Library Association opposes all attempts to restrict access to library services, materials, and facilities based on the age of library users.

Article V of the Library Bill of Rights states, "A person's right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views." The "right to use a library" includes free access to, and unrestricted use of, all the services, materials, and facilities the library has to offer. Every restriction on access to, and use of, library resources, based solely on the chronological age, educational level, literacy skills, or legal emancipation of users violates Article V.

Libraries are charged with the mission of developing resources to meet the diverse information needs and interests of the communities they serve. Services, materials, and facilities that fulfill the needs and interests of library users at different stages in their personal development are a necessary part of library resources. The needs and interests of each library user, and resources appropriate to meet those needs and interests, must be determined on an individual basis. Librarians cannot predict what resources will best fulfill the needs and interests of any individual user based on a single criterion such as chronological age, educational level, literacy skills, or legal emancipation.

Libraries should not limit the selection and development of library resources simply because minors will have access to them. Institutional self-censorship diminishes the credibility of the library in the community, and restricts access for all library users.

Children and young adults unquestionably possess First Amendment rights, including the right to receive information in the library. Constitutionally protected speech cannot be suppressed solely to protect children or young adults from ideas or images a legislative body believes to be unsuitable for them.¹ Librarians and library governing bodies should not resort to age restrictions in an effort to avoid actual or anticipated objections, because only a court of law can determine whether material is not constitutionally protected.

The mission, goals, and objectives of libraries cannot authorize librarians or library governing bodies to assume, abrogate, or overrule the rights and responsibilities of parents. As "Libraries: An American Value" states, "We affirm the responsibility and the right of all parents and guardians to guide their own children's use of the library and its resources and services." Librarians and governing bodies should maintain that parents—and only parents—have the right and the responsibility to restrict the access of their children—and only their children—to library resources. Parents who do not want their children to have access to certain library services, materials, or facilities should so advise their children. Librarians and library governing bodies cannot assume the role of parents or the functions of parental authority in the private relationship between parent and child.

Lack of access to information can be harmful to minors. Librarians and library governing bodies have a public and professional obligation to ensure that all members of the community they serve have free, equal, and equitable access to the entire range of library resources regardless of content, approach, format, or amount of detail. This principle of library service applies equally to all users, minors as well as adults. Librarians and library governing bodies must uphold this principle in order to provide adequate and effective service to minors.

¹See Erznoznik v. City of Jacksonville, 422 U.S. 205 (1975)-"Speech that is neither obscene as to youths nor subject to some other legitimate proscription cannot be suppressed solely to protect the young from ideas or images that a legislative body thinks unsuitable [422 U.S. 205, 214] for them. In most circumstances, the values protected by the First Amendment are no less applicable when government seeks to control the flow of information to minors. See Tinker v. Des Moines School Dist., supra. Cf. West Virginia Bd. of Ed. v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943)."

Adopted June 30, 1972, by the ALA Council; amended July 1, 1981; July 3, 1991, June 30, 2004.

[ISBN 8389-7549-6]