IF Statement

1. Alina Odom
FRIT 7332: Intellectual Freedom Personal Statement
According to the American Association of School Librarians, “intellectual freedom is the
right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without
restriction. It provides for free access to all expressions of ideas through which any and all sides
of a question, cause, or movement may be explored” (AASL, 2008). This means that everyone
should have access to information that is available without any restriction created by anyone
else’s views or feelings. Individuals should be able to find information about a topic of choice or
of study even if the topic is not accepted by others. Students need to be provided with any
information about a topic of interest. It is the job of the media specialist to provide a student
with the information needed within reason.
I agree that students should be provided with materials and resources that they need or
want in order to further their knowledge. Even if this means providing information that is
different from my beliefs and values. It is important that the media specialist is respectful to all
students no matter their background. Students come to school to learn and a media specialist
should work with the teachers to provide knowledge and not hinder any student from gaining
new knowledge. “Libraries must provide the ideas and information, in a variety of formats, to
allow people to inform themselves” (AASL, 2008). It is also important for media specialists to
know that if they do have certain material for students to have access to, it doesn’t mean that
they are promoting it or even supporting it. “The presence of any particular materials in a library
collection does not imply endorsement of the ideas expressed in those materials” (AASL, 2008).
The only thing that the media specialist should promote is the fact that a wide variety of
materials and resources are available to students and teachers.

2. This is my first year working in a media specialist position. I have been blessed with a
job in the school where I worked as a classroom teacher for 15 years. Although I was familiar
with our media center, I have now learned that I only knew the very basics of what we have
available for our students. I walked in to a room full of so many resources that I felt
overwhelmed. It has taken me a while to learn all that we do have available and I am asked
multiple times a day, “Mrs. Alina do you know where I can find books about ____?” The
number of resources provided is amazing and I am very proud to be able to help students and
teachers find what they are looking for in their reading. It is extremely satisfying to help
someone find a book, CD (yes we still have some of those), or internet resource that they can use
to gain knowledge in some way. Our school media center offers over 12,000 books,
Chromebooks for exploring the internet, a makerspace for exploring the design process, and a
Lego wall to foster creativity and imaginative play. This job is rewarding in that students want
to come see me! Time in spent in the media center is a reward that students can choose for
various reasons (good behavior, finished work early, earned so many classroom points, met a
goal, etc.). Students like to come to the media center because they have the freedom to choose.
They can choose a book of interest or that is needed for a specific project, they can choose a
project to work on in the makerspace or Lego wall, they can choose what to research or find on
the internet. Intellectual freedom is promoted in my school library.
Again, this is my first year working as the media specialist at my school. There are
materials available for students that are also available to teachers. However, there are materials
available to teachers that are not available to students. Most of these materials are housed in
places that students cannot access. Some of these materials are housed in the media center.
Although students will have access to these materials if their teacher checks them out to use in

3. their classrooms, I am slowing trying to make them available to students to have access to as
well. For example, we have some talking books. A student wanted to check out a book that was
already checked out to another student. Since I had the book on CD (that would normally only
be allowed for teacher checkout), I asked the student if they would be interested in checking out
the book on CD. They were interested, so I allowed it to happen. In another situation I had a
student telling me that it was her last day at our school and she was moving away. She was
checking out two books as she shared this information with me. I allowed her to check the books
out anyway and she did move away. I lost two books, but I did not deny her access to the books
she wanted while she was there. I firmly believe that students need books in their hands. It does
no good to have the books on the shelves. I will do everything in my power to make sure that
students at our school have access to all they are interested in and need within reason.
American Association of School Librarians. (2008). Intellectual freedom. Retrieved from
http://www.ala.org/advocacy/itfreedom/censorship/faq