8 The Art of Communication institutions and personal behaviors fall short of the ideal. Dena Simmons, writing in EL Educational Leadership, changed EDI to DEB, replacing Inclusion with Belonging.5 Simmons’s use of Belonging is a significant step. Inclusion means people have a “seat at the table.” Belonging takes it further. When you belong, your voice is heard, sought, and welcomed, and you feel comfortable in expressing it. Intellectual Freedom This is a pillar of ALA. You cannot have democracy if people are denied access to information. But having materials that deal with topics others disagree with leads to challenges and book banning. As the most recent lists of the Top Ten Most Challenged Book Lists6 show, books concerning LGBTQ+ individuals are now the most likely targets. Challenging forces have become more organized in an attempt to elimi- nate references to shameful periods and actions in U.S. history. Both school and public librarians have been targeted and some have been accused of promoting pornography. State legislatures have become involved as well. ALA, along with state associations, has responded. Con- cerned citizens and students have also stood up against these attacks. Dealing with a challenge, whether you are a public or school librarian, is a frightening thought. Depending on your community, you may quietly decide to self-censor and avoid the possibility of facing a public challenge and putting your job at risk. For school librarians, it is a particularly lonely experience as they rarely have other school librarians to support them, and the public library does not usually comment, although the rise of orga- nized opposition has changed things. No one will compel you to purchase these potentially controversial items. The decision to order them or not is yours, and it should depend on your core values of librarianship. The hard part is what to do when your values put your job at risk. If you don’t contemplate the possibilities and draw on these core values, you are apt to respond in the moment. Make your choice with fore- thought rather than as a knee-jerk reaction. You might order a title because your core value outweighs the financial risk. Alternately, you
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