Guidance on the Management of Controversial Material in Public Libraries has been issued today by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA). The new publication, commissioned by the Department of Culture, Media and Sports (DCMS) and Cabinet Office, provides support for public libraries in making difficult choices when managing books, information and internet content that may be deemed to be controversial.
The MLA guidelines, developed as a result of extensive consultation with library and information professionals throughout the UK, aims to provide good and consistent practice in the selection and management of library stock.
The publication addresses issues that may impact on the public library�s responsibility for the selection and provision of information by outlining current legislation on terrorism, local government, freedom of expression and human rights, race relations and equality.
Sue Wilkinson, Director of Policy at MLA commented, �Libraries are doing some great work in ensuring their collections reflect the ideas and views of their communities in a continually evolving cultural, political and social climate. In doing this, libraries will hold materials that some may find challenging and controversial. We hope this guidance will help library and information professionals deal with controversial items; support their difficult decision-making and help them respond to challenges.�
Barbara Follett, Culture Minister, said: "The democratic principles of free access and expression are the foundations upon which Britain�s public library service is built. We have to give their staff the tools to enable them to make decisions about what materials they can and should stock whilst, at the same time, promoting learning, education and cultural inspiration for all.�
A family of resources to help information workers be more effective, raise the value of information in their organisations and contribute to success. Read more »
Recently I have found myself cooing over visualisation maps (and heat maps) of health and well being resources. The content rich data is overlayed with mapping technologies, and some interesting themes and patterns are emerging.
A lot of the talk around social media in the last year has been around information overload. Social media has provided us with new and exciting ways to create content. But it has also meant learning new ways to manage and engage with social media tools. Are we teetering on the edge of an information overload precipice?
Information overload is a figment of your imagination. Or a failure of your filter. Or a symptom of your technological submissiveness. Depends on who you ask.
What if you had to sort through 3.5 million articles and social media posts a day and try to pull out the most relevant items for your organisation? What if you then had to cobble it all together into something readable for your top groups and executives in your organisation?
Alacra Compliance saves time by aggregating information from both free and fee-based sources and enabling users to conduct an accurate federated search across these sources (coined “simultaneous search” by Alacra).
FreePint Family
Quilting big data threads
The fallacy of information overload
Information overload: fact, fantasy or filter failure? 
