January 17th, 2010 ~ 6:00 to 8:45pm

Community Church of Boston ~ 565 Boylston Street

In conjunction with the GLBTRT Midwinter Social

Please join us at this fantastic event, where authors Lesléa Newman (Heather Has Two Mommies) and Michael Willhoite (Daddy’s Roommate) will be discussing and signing copies of their groundbreaking books.

Refreshments will be provided. 

Donations will be accepted at the door to cover costs and support the Freedom to Read Foundation’s Conable Scholarship Fund, and the GLBTRT is conducting a book drive of “useful and current” titles for GLBT youth to donate to the Community Church of Boston’s resource library.  Copies of the authors’ books will be available for purchase.

Schedule:

• 6:00 – 7:00pm: Socializing
• 7:00 – 7:30pm: Stonewall Book Award Ceremony
• 7:30 – 8:15pm: Lesléa Newman and Michael Willhoite
• 8:15 – 8:45pm: Book signing and socializing

Heather Has Two Mommies and Daddy’s Roommate have been two of the most frequently challenged books in the U.S. since they were published 20 years ago. They were among the first children’s books to focus on gay and lesbian parents and have been challenged (jointly and separately) innumerable times, including during the well-publicized “Rainbow Curriculum” controversy in New York City. They were also the subject of a Freedom to Read Foundation court case in Wichita Falls, Texas, in which a federal court overturned a law allowing the “banning by petition” of those books and others.

Newman is the author of 57 books for adults and children. She is currently the poet laureate of Northampton, Mass. A resident of Rhode Island, Willhoite has written and illustrated several other children’s books, including Daddy’s Wedding and Uncle What-Is-It is Coming to Visit!!

For more information, contact Jonathan Kelley at (800) 545-2433 x4226 or jokelley@ala.org.

• The John Phillip Immroth Memorial Award honors intellectual freedom fighters in and outside the library profession who have demonstrated remarkable personal courage in resisting censorship. The award consists of $500 and a citation. Individuals, groups of individuals, or  organizations are eligible for the award.
• The Eli M. Oboler Memorial Award is presented for the best published work in the area of intellectual freedom. Works to be considered for the award may be single articles (including review pieces), series of thematically connected articles, books, or manuals published on the local, state, or national level in English or English translation.
• The ProQuest/SIRS State and Regional Intellectual Freedom Achievement Award is given to the most innovative and effective intellectual freedom project covering a state or region. Programs may be one-time, one-year, or ongoing/multi-year efforts. The award consists of a citation and $1,000 donated by ProQuest.

The deadline for nomination is December 1. If you have any questions about these awards, please contact Nanette Perez (nperez@ala.org) at the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom.

From May 2 through May 8, 2010, libraries across the nation will celebrate Choose Privacy Week for the first time. This new campaign invites library users into a national conversation about privacy rights in a digital age. The campaign gives libraries the resources they need to educate and engage their users, helping citizens think critically and make more informed choices about their privacy. Print and online tools provide libraries with out-of-the-box programming and outreach.

Posters, buttons, bookmarks, and a resource guide are now available for purchase in the ALA Online Store. (You can receive a 20% discount to these materials if you order before November 15, 2009 by using code PRIV20.) Be sure to visit the Choose Privacy Week website to learn more about the campaign, programming, and the privacy issues that libraries and their users face every day.

If you have questions or want to get more involved, contact Angela Maycock at (312) 280-4221 or amaycock@ala.org.

(Note: You also can follow Choose Privacy Week developments on Twitter at “privacyala“.)

Stephen Chbosky

Sarah Brannen

Stephen Chbosky, author of the highly acclaimed and frequently challenged book The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and Sarah S. Brannen, author of the award-winning (and frequently challenged) Uncle Bobby’s Wedding will participate in a program at 8am Saturday, November 7 at the AASL 2009 National Conference in Charlotte (Room 202).

Chbosky and Brannen will discuss their works and the controversies that surround them — both books were on ALA’s Top Ten Banned/Challenged Books list this year. Come engage in a lively discussion about challenges, censorship and young people.

Carrie Gardner and Deborah Caldwell-Stone will discuss how best to deal with challenges and complaints; creating strong policies to protect librarians, teachers, and students; and resources available to those facing challenges.

Five positions on the FTRF board of trustees will be filled in the election to be held April 1 – May 1, 2010.  Newly elected trustees will serve a two-year term on the board, beginning at the close of the 2010 American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference and continuing through the end of the 2012 ALA Annual Conference.  Trustees are required to attend two one-day meetings per year, in conjunction with the ALA Annual Conference and Midwinter Meeting.

Only FTRF members are eligible to seek election to the board.

Nominations should be sent by Jan. 13, 2010 to: Freedom to Read Foundation, Attn: Candace Morgan, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611.  In addition, nominations may be e-mailed to ftrf@ala.org.  FTRF members also may be slated for candidacy by petition by submitting 25 signatures of current FTRF members in support of the candidate.  The executive director of the Foundation must receive names of petition candidates and the required signatures to support each no later than Jan. 29, 2010.

Senator Sessions (R-AL) offered several amendments (apparently sought by the Obama administration) that further limited provisions intended to increase civil liberties protections. All the amendments were adopted.

Of greatest interest to the library community is Sessions’ amendment to the proposed higher Section 215 standard for library records. The amendment eliminates the language “records pertaining to libraries” so that the higher standard only applies to library circulation records. Library records other than circulation records will therefore be subject to the same relevance standard applicable to all other business records and tangible things sought by a Section 215 order, even if such records associate users with the use of electronic books and other resources. For library circulation records, the government would have to prove that the records sought pertain to an agent of a foreign power, to a person in contact with or known to an agent of a foreign power, or to the activities of an agent of a foreign power.

Sessions’ amendments also alter proposed language that would have placed limits on NSL gag orders. One amendment eliminated the requirement that the FBI review all NSL non-disclosure orders on an ongoing basis and rescind the gag order when circumstances no longer warrant continuing it; instead, the FBI will only be required to review the facts supporting a gag order when an NSL recipient notifies the FBI that it would like the gag lifted. The second NSL amendment eliminated the court’s discretion on lifting a gag order: if the government makes the necessary showing, the court has no discretion to lift the gag; it “shall” keep it in place (previous language used “may”.)

The remaining Sessions amendments limited the minimization requirements for pen register/trap-and-trace orders.

Notably, Senator Durbin (D-IL) offered an amendment that would have imposed higher standards on NSLs. It was voted down.

Senator Feingold (D-WI) offered an amendment to impose minimization standards on the data collected by NSLs; it passed. But Senator Kyl (R-AZ) asked for, and won, an amendment that eliminated the requirement that the FBI offer “specific and articulable” facts to show that the NSL is relevant to an investigation; instead, the FBI will only be required to show “specific facts.”

(Thanks to the Center for Democracy and Technology for sharing their report on the hearing.)

Students whose graduation date was Aug. 1, 2009 or later can, upon their graduation, download a membership form at www.ftrf.org/graduates and mail, fax or e-mail it to the Freedom to Read Foundation.

“We are very excited to offer this gift to new librarians,” said FTRF president Kent Oliver. “By becoming members of the Freedom to Read Foundation, these professionals will be helping the librarians and library supporters who are on the front lines defending intellectual freedom as well as vital First Amendment litigation that helps uphold many of the core values of librarianship. Offering these free memberships is our way of encouraging the long-term support of the organization and the intellectual freedom principles it upholds.”

As benefits of their membership, the graduates will receive the Freedom to Read Foundation’s quarterly newsletter, be eligible to vote in the annual trustee election, and attend FTRF member receptions. The membership will be good through December 2010.

The Freedom to Read Foundation, an affiliated organization of the American Library Association, was founded in 1969 to promote and defend the right of individuals to freely express ideas and to access information in libraries and elsewhere. FTRF fulfills its mission through the disbursement of grants to individuals and groups, primarily for the purpose of aiding them in litigation, and through direct participation in litigation dealing with freedom of speech and of the press.

Questions? Contact Jonathan at (800) 545-2433 x4226 or jokelley@ala.org.

Also below are some photos – you can see lots more at the ALA Flickr site.

Enjoy!

Video courtesy of AL Focus.

Watch as Chad, Rustle, and Mooch misinterpret the meaning of Banned Books Week and Herb comes to the rescue.  Also check it out at AL Focus.