Canadian Library Association CLA Digest for November 2015

The Canadian Library Association (CLA) publishes a regular news bulletin known as CLA Digest.

In the most recent issue, there are a number of items that caught my interest:

• 2014 Survey of Challenges to Resources and Policies in Canadian Libraries: "Nazi occultism in a graphic novel; a DVD laced with the 'F word'; a children's picture book rebuked for"promoting" a negative female body image; a series of graphic novels portraying violence and explicit sexuality; an adult novel deemed 'too explicit for a public library collection' and inappropriate for any age group; allegations in a biography of Dwight D. Eisenhower of a wartime extra-marital affair; grammatical errors in two children's picture books; an audiobook with offensive language and explicit sexuality ('porn') that was mistakenly thought to be a self-help book; a graphic novel purportedly showing a one-sided view of the Gaza Strip conflict; deeply racist portrayal of blacks in a famous classic film; a DVD with no warning it was about 'the homosexual lifestyle'; a book with allegedly defamatory references; a DVD with disturbing police footage of a crime scene. All of these were among the 83 items in library collections somewhere in Canada that were challenged in 2014 for expressive content deemed objectionable, offensive, unsuitable, or otherwise unacceptable.Twenty-five library policies involving intellectual freedom and access principles were also challenged."
• The Canadian Library Association (CLA) released of a new Statement on Intellectual Freedom and libraries: "This new Statement replaces the previous 30 year old Position Statement on Intellectual Freedom. The Statement seeks to provide a broader national and international context for the role of libraries in ensuring intellectual freedom as well as a framework for Canadian libraries to provide, defend, and promote equitable access to the widest possible variety of expressive content and resist calls for censorship and the adoption of systems that deny or restrict access to resources."
•  Soft Launch of the Newly Re-vamped Feliciter [Feliciter is the association's magazine]
• 2016 Canadian Library Association Forum: " Over the past couple of months Executive Council (EC) has been discussing the future of a national conference and in particular, how to approach the upcoming conference scheduled to take place June 1 - 3 in Ottawa. In recent weeks, EC has made some decisions regarding the 2016 conference structure that we would like to share with you. These decisions were made taking into account many factors including both formal and informal feedback from delegates and the community at large, opportunities provided through a national gathering, and finances. The CLA 2016 will be a national policy summit and convention as opposed to a general conference and it will be called the 2016 Canadian Library Association Forum."