"New" Study About TV and Babies

This week, researchers from Children's Hospital in Boston and Harvard Medical School released findings of their recent study regarding infants and television. According to the CNN article, authors of the study said, "we found no evidence of cognitive benefit from watching TV during the first two years of life."

My question about the article is this: Is anyone surprised? I know many librarians who have been expressing this same fact to their new-parent patrons. These librarians encourage reading and talking to babies as a better way to develop those little synapses in babies' brains. Yet most of our public libraries still have assorted "baby friendly" movies/DVDs in the collection, and items such as Baby Einstein DVDs still circulate well at most libraries. Past studies such as this recent one have shown that even these kinds of "educational" videos are not healthy for babies. Should libraries then continue to carry these kinds of materials? After all, if we realized that a particular puzzle in the children's room had repeated documented choking hazards, I'm guessing that most libraries would pull those puzzles out of the children's room.

I'm reminded of a comment a respected library colleague friend of mine once posted to her own blog. She questioned whether public libraries should purchase Kevin Trudeau's books. (Trudeau is author of books about natural cures.) With many of Trudeau's ideas being challenged by the federal government, cases of fraud being filed against Trudeau, and possibly even allegations that Trudeau is promoting dangerous and unhealthy ideas, my friend wondered if she (as a collection development librarian) had a responsibility to keep Trudeau's books away from unsuspecting patrons. Would this be akin to censorship, or would she be ensuring that patrons had access only to viable health information?

I am debating the same kinds of questions about the so-called educational baby videos. Should my library keep such items on the shelf as an effort to avoid censorship, or should I pull all of the Baby Einsteins (and other similar DVDs) from the shelves in an effort to protect children? We librarians walk a tight rope. For now, the DVDs will stay on my library's shelves. I may, however, post copies of the CNN article near those shelves where the kids' DVDs are located! I won't consider it a "disclaimer," but simply a "here's some information that may interest you" service to parents.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/03/03/babies.watch.TV/index.html?iref=allsearch