Intellectual Freedom

I enjoyed last weeks presentation by Amy Chow on Collection Development. I was interested in learning the perspectives of other students on the purpose of the collection. The readings for week 7 were about intellectual freedom. The Amy Pattee article on the dilemma of incomplete sexuality education made sense for me as a future librarian who needs to purchase ya materials for the library. There is no federal law that supports sex education which teaches about both abstinence and contraception. In my experience as a teen I think it is mandatory. Some teenage boys didn't know the importance of contraception when I went to school and maybe the lack of education was the reason why they didn't. I agree with the author that teens should see sex as an emotional and not just a physical experience that is special and not to make it trivial. Purchasing the right non-fiction materials for sex education is important for the ya collection.

I also browsed through the YALSA resources for social networking and found them to be helpful for teens, parents, librarians and community leaders. The Toolkit for Librarians discusses what social networking is and how it facilitates learning in schools and libraries. I agree that there should be no block on software that enables people to form virtual communities via the computer. These technologies have many positive uses and are an ideal environment for teens to share what they are learning. It can also improve reading and writing skills and it could be a tool for a meaningful experience as a part of a community with similar interests.