Getting websites unblocked

I am back working on the revised version of Indispendable Librarian this week and I'll be sharing some things I'd like input on from my brilliant Blue Skunk readers. 

I am working from the Friendship Beach Resort in Phuket, Thailand, a real hardship post as you can see from this picture taken as I started work this morning about 6:30: 

I have two offices: the table and the lounge chair. 

The section below has driven me crazy. I know I've written on this topic before, but I'll be damned if I can find the blog post. I am sure the original was pure genius (as most lost writings are.) Anyway, I'd appreciate knowing any strategies you've used to a website unblocked in your school that I can add to my list. Thanks.

Getting websites unblocked

There are few situations more frustrating for a librarian than learning of an Internet resource or tool that would be of value to students but finding it blocked by the district. Here are some strategies for dealing with this problem:

1. Know and be able to articulate the educational value of the blocked site.
2. Be able to share examples of how librarians and teachers in other districts are using the resource.
3. Ask to have the resource provided on a limited basis – for a certain period of time or on specific computers. Report at the end of the test period if any problems were encountered and what uses students made of the resource.
4. Speak as a member of a group that wants the resource unblocked.
5. Know exactly who makes the filtering decisions in your district and if there is a formal process for getting a site unblocked.
6. Know local, state, and federal laws pertaining to filtering and student Internet access to avoid “hyper-compliance” by your district.
7. Communicate in writing your requests and responses when seeking to get a site unblocked. Always copy the supervisor of the decision-maker on all communications.
8. Seek to establish a formal review process for unblocking Internet resources or seek to have the reconsider policy in your district revised to cover online resources.
9. File a challenge on the resource to start the due-diligence process on school materials. (Yes, you can do this as a staff member.)
10. Don’t give up after the first denied request. Come back with other uses, examples, and partners. Sometime the squeaky wheel gets some grease.

Reading incognito

Women can now download electronic erotica on their Kindles, Nooks and iPads anywhere they want, with no bodice-ripping Fabio cover to give them away. Maureen Dowd, March 31, 2012

When I started reading on my Kindle six years ago, the LWW must have asked me three times a day what I was reading. My standard response was always, "Porn." I don't know why she stopped asking.

I have a love/hate relationship with book covers. They've sucked me into buying a title many times. They are great icebreakers with your seatmate on a long flight ("So how do you like that Dan Brown?") They look pretty on the coffee table.

But at the same time, I am just as happy reading incognito. I think it stems from when as a kid I finished reading all the Hardy Boy mysteries and moved on to Nancy Drew, definitely a "girl's" book I didn't want to be seen reading. And as an adult it was embarrassing to have to go the romance section of B&N to get the latest in the Gabaldon Outlander series. It is historical fiction, not romance, I'd advise the store clerk.

As sad and troubling as these trials may have been for me, I think we all know kids in our schools and libraries who might read more, read more broadly, and certainly read more at an appropriate reading level, if other students couldn't see what they are reading. 

Who want to be seen reading a "baby" book? A book written for the other gender? (The old rule of thumb is that girls will read boys' books but boys won't read girls' books.) A book that may identify a personal problem being experienced. (A book on divorce written for teens, for example.) Even books that are controversial or have strong political or religious messages, can subject the young reader to teasing or questioning.

We need to figure out how to get our materials into digital format as soon as possible. Reading on a digital reader will remove stigmas that may well discourage reading.

Oh, Ms Dowd, I'm guessing it's not just women who are downloading erotica to their Nooks. I a little suprised B&N didn't call it the Nook-E.