This is our issue! This is what we, as library people, do for our communities – and the need to protect the intellectual freedom of our communities is very strong right now.
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“Intellectual Freedom Highlights
- Banned books and (nearly) murdered authors | OZY: “When the Nazis first started burning books, Sigmund Freud saw it as a positive thing — even though, as a Jewish author, his books were systematically thrown atop the pyre. The famed psychoanalyst knew, after all, that things could have been a lot worse. His reasoning? ‘Look, we’re becoming more civilized: We’re burning books, not people,’ says James LaRue, director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. But Freud would soon be disillusioned, when, shortly thereafter, ‘the Nazis started burning people too,’ LaRue adds.”
- Censorship or Hate Crime? | Intellectual Freedom Blog; “Book burning, tearing pages, destroying books in disrespectful and obscene ways are all methods of censorship. If the books are representative of a specific group of people like the Qur’an is of Muslims, is the censorship also a hate crime?”
- Apply for a Freedom to Read Foundation Grant for Banned Books Week events! Deadline today, May 12!
Censorship
- District official ordered book removed | The Daily Sentinel (CO); “A School District 51 official ordered school librarians to remove a controversial book [Thirteen Reasons Why] from circulation last month, a move that circumvented the district’s traditional process for reviewing such materials and raised concerns about censorship.”
- ‘I don’t like that school book.’ Bill gives Florida parents more power to object.| Tampa Bay Times (FL)
- Parents request removal of book from NLS curriculum | West Central Tribune (MN)
- Richmond Early College student’s use of Trump’s ‘Build that wall’ quote leads to yearbooks being yanked | Richmond County Daily Journal
- Controversial book still hot topic in Sauk Prairie School District | Sauk Prairie Eagle (WI)
- Censorship or protection – Was Boston Children’s Theatre’s nude scene appropriate? | Broadway World
- Utah school board votes to repeal ‘No Promo Homo’ policy | Fox 13 Salt Lake City
- Editorial: General Assembly should not censor public network | The Hour (CT)
- Ai Weiwei: How Censorship Works| The New York Times
- NCAC demands Ohio high school restore Eleanor & Park to English curriculum | NCAC blog
- Banning a book is foolish, and only serves to make it more popular | Idaho Statesman
Access
- Demonstrators call for equity audit of Evanston Public Library | Evanston Patch (IL)
- Trump’s campaign can’t just erase history on the internet | Wired
- Fair use too often goes unused | Chronicle of Higher Education
- Toronto’s radical librarians critique Little Free Library | The Star; “The ‘take-a-book, leave-a-book’ structures are largely located in white, affluent neighbourhoods in Toronto, study authors say, not areas most in need.”
- Over 200 terabytes of the government web archived! | Internet Archive Blogs
- Bringing the library home: Adding libraries to public housing developments shares resources and costs | American Libraries
- How Universal Design will make your library more inclusive | School Library Journal
- A better way to get kids in libraries: Stop fining them | WNYC
- Trump Objects to Legislated Limits on Secrecy | Federation of American Scientists
- These schools are leveraging E-Rate for a complete digital transformation | eSchoolNews
Privacy
The Library Freedom Project is conducting a survey to assess library privacy practices and policies and is asking librarians to fill out our survey to give some insight into this landscape: surveyrock.com/ts/Z3Q66F. The survey will be open for two months and LFP will share the share anonymized results on its website and on Twitter at the close of the survey.
- Surveillance in the school library | Intellectual Freedom Blog
- Taking the Fight for Digital Rights to Our Libraries| New America Weekly
- Iowa City library’s bathroom cameras removed to comply with new state law | The Gazette
- Libraries strive to protect your privacy | Omaha World Herald
- How privacy became a commodity for the rich and powerful | New York Times
- Fight brews over push to shield Americans in warrantless surveillance| New York Times
- How to prevent your data from being searched at the U.S. border| PC World
- Google exec says ‘right to be forgotten’ needs to be narrow| Law360
- Supreme Court asked to rule if cops need warrant for cell-site data | Ars Technica
- Trump pushes US government to the cloud with cybersecurity order| PC World
- Trump campaign changes web privacy policy after questions from CBS News | CBS News
See more privacy updates on the Choose Privacy Week blog.
Academic Freedom
- ‘Academic freedom’ bill provides cover to teach creationism, climate denial in classrooms | Texas Observer
- Alabama legislature passes academic freedom resolution | Evolution News
Net Neutrality
- Net Neutrality II | Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
- FCC site crashes after John Oliver segment | The Hill
- The FCC says an attack — not John Oliver — hampered its website| Washington Post
- After net neutrality comment system fails, senators demand answers | Ars Technica
- Cable lobby conducts survey, finds that Americans want net neutrality| Ars Technica
First Amendment Issues
- Former librarian faces jail time for laugh at Sessions’s confirmation| American Libraries
- FCC to investigate, ‘take appropriate action’ on Colbert’s Trump rant | The Hill
- FCC can’t fine CBS for Stephen Colbert’s sex joke about Trump and Putin, experts say | The Wrap
- Colbert, the FCC, and the First Amendment | Constitutional Law Prof Blog
- ABC, CBS, NBC also refuse to air Trump ad | TVNewsCheck; “A “fake news” graphic superimposed over the faces of news anchors in the Trump commercial was cited by CNN, ABC and NBC for not airing the ad. The networks contend that makes it inaccurate, and ABC said it represents a personal attack.”
- How one major internet company helps serve up hate on the web| ProPublica; “Cloudflare, a prominent San Francisco outfit, provides services to neo-Nazi sites like The Daily Stormer, including giving them personal information on people who complain about their content.”
- Hate speech and the misnomer of ‘The Marketplace Of Ideas’ | NPR
- A reporter was arrested for asking Secretary Tom Price a question | Esquire
- First amendment doesn’t protect public employees from all Facebook posts| Newseum Institute
- Oklahoma student forced to remove a ‘Black Lives Matter’ T-shirt he wore to school| Newseum Institute
Campus Speech
- It’s been a messy semester for free speech on campus. What’s next? | Chronicle of Higher Education
- States Consider Legislation To Protect Free Speech On Campus | NPR
- Tennessee Law Is Hailed as Offering Unprecedented Protection of Campus Speech | Chronicle of Higher Education
- Oklahoma governor signs anti-protest law imposing huge fines on “conspirator” organizations | The Intercept
- When can U. Of C. ban protesters? Faculty to vote on new rules| DNAinfo (IL)
- Does the First Amendment protect ‘liking’ a racist Instagram post? Some Calif. students say it does. | Washington Post
- Washington Post editorial calls for universities to ‘make crystal clear that racist … speech [is] off-limits’| Washington Post
Around the Web
- Americans’ Attitudes About the News Media Deeply Divided Along Partisan Lines | Pew Research Center
- Trump call for Muslim ban deleted from site after reporter’s question | The Hill
- Donated book about sexual abuse, homosexuality ends up in Jacksonville third-grader’s hands | Action News Jax (FL)
- The puzzling irony of censoring The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | The Good Men Project
- Fake news, echo chambers and filter bubbles: Underresearched and overhyped | The Raw Story
- Once controversial, ‘Heather Has Two Mommies’ is now collectible| Los Angeles Times
International Issues
- Sudan’s silent conflicts – state censorship in the war zones | AllAfrica
- Mass censorship and burial of truth under Yemen’s Houthis | The New Arab
- Dear Europe: Please Don’t Kill Free Speech In The Name Of ‘Privacy Protection’| TechDirt
- UK parliament takes first step towards making Google & Facebook censor everything | TechDirt
- New Chinese game invites players to break ‘The Wall’ of online censorship | South China Morning Post
- An Austrian court ordered Facebook to censor speech worldwide| The Outline
- Thailand warns Facebook to block content critical of the monarchy | BBC
- Inside Turkey’s war on Wikipedia | The Daily Dot
ALA News
- New Workshop: Cyber Security and Privacy: Protecting Yourself and Your Users
- Fight for Libraries! Include #SaveIMLS on Twitter when you advocate for libraries.
- Join the Intellectual Freedom Round Table and volunteer for a committee.
- Webinar: Do They Still Teach that in School? Ethics in LIS Curricula with FTRF President Martin Garnar on May 25 @ 1pm CST.
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