Highlights

• Post Falls librarian wins national award for supporting LGBTQ+ youth despite backlash | Spokesman-Review (WA)
• Library funding becomes the ‘nuclear option’ as the battle over books escalates | NPR
• ALA announces theme for Banned Books Week, October 1-7, 2023 | ALA
  • ALA announces ‘Let Freedom Read’ will be the theme for Banned Books Week 2023 | Library Journal
• Newsmaker: Kelly Yang | American Libraries
• Dr. Emily J. M. Knox receives Beta Phi Mu Award | ALA
• PBS Books and Booklist Announce Booklist Reader Partnership | ALA

Censorship

• Ada Community Library board violated Idaho open meeting law in vote to remove books | Idaho
  Statesman (ID)
• Deckerville Librtary blocks attempted book ban | Port Huron Times Herald (MI)
• A rethink on book banning: How S.F. 496 could affect LGBTQ+ students | Times Delphic (IA)
• Library that planned drag queen story hour receives bomb threat | Post Star (NY)
• ‘Drag queen’ children’s book draws objections during Douglas County library board meeting | Colorado Newsline (CO)
• New lawsuit alleges Pickens County School Board book ban is unconstitutional and politically motivated | ACLU (SC)
  • 1st legal challenge to recent SC book bans comes from Pickens County | Post and Courier (SC)
• Ketchikan city manager nixes drag queen storytime at public library | KTOO (AK)
• Arlington Pride event date changed due to pushback from city officials | King5 (WA)
• Voters decide Algoma Twp. will wtay within Kent District Libraries | WZZM (MI)
• Hempfield school board met with lawyer who helped craft transgender athlete ban | Lancaster Online (PA)
• Three things to know from Tuesday’s Sarasota school board meeting | Herald-Tribune (FL)
• School district sued over book ban | Pickens County Courier (SC)
• Library board rejects book removal | Sanilac County News (MI)
• Hillsdale City Council votes to remove school board representation from library board | Hillsdale Daily News (MI)
• Nebraska’s Plattsmouth Community Schools improperly removeds books under review | NCAC (NE)
• Wilson Co. School Board to keep two books in high schools | WSMV (TN)
• Librarian says she’s being called a child predator over books at school. She’s suing | Miami Herald (FL)
• Windham, Raymond school officials decide to keep controversial book in school library | WGME (ME)
• An SC school board banned his book. The public library invited him to speak | Post and Courier (SC)
• Adaptation of Anne Frank’s diary on the hot seat again, this time in Martin County | Treasure Coast Palm (FL)
• Reoccurring topic at RCAS school board meetings | KEVN (SD)
• Volusia Council changes mind on investigating whether it should vote on library books | Click Orlando (FL)

Privacy & Cybersecurity

• Biden administration to investigate worker surveillance software | Gizmodo
• Spotlighting protestor surveillance: FOIA lawsuit edition | Cato Institute
• Senators reintroduce COPPA 2.0 bill to tighten child safety online | Engadget

First Amendment, Free Speech, & Civil Liberties

• SCOTUS, First Amendment, and University of Alabama | JD Supra
• ACLU sues Montana House Speaker for silencing transgender legislator | Reuters (MT)

Academic Freedom & Campus Speech

• Firing of tenured professor at Bakersfield College ‘blurred lines’ between protected speech and conduct that may merit investigation says PEN America | PEN America

Legislation

• North Dakota House sustains Gov. Burgum’s veto of book ban bill | Inforum (ND)
• Bill banning ‘harmful materials’ from school libraries headed to governor’s desk | Chicago Tribune (IN)
  • Behind closed doors, Indiana lawmakers finalize bill to ban books from school libraries | WYFI (IN)
  • Pronouns, libraries, and textbook fees: The K-12 policy changes Indiana lawmakers made this year | Chalkbeat Indiana (IN)
• Louisiana senators refuse to let opposition testify, advance library restriction bill | Daily Advertiser (LA)
  • Louisiana Senate committee OKs limiting access to library books after blocking opposition testimony | NOLA.com (LA)
• Bill banning drag story hour in public schools, libraries clears House vote | NBC Montana (MT)
• Illinois set to become first state to end book bans | Politico (IL)
  • Bill aimed at deterring library book bans heads to Gov. J.B. Pritzker after party-line vote in Senate | Chicago Tribune (IL)
• Lawmakers enter book review picture as New Hanover proposal creates debate | Wilmington StarNews (NC)
• Expanded teaching ban on gender identity, sexual orientation heads to Gov. Ron DeSantis | WFTS (FL)
• Florida Republicans pass new bills guaranteed to destroy academic freedom | New Republic (FL)
• Bills aim to restrict library books, discussions of race in Maine schools | Portland Press Herald (ME)

State and Local Governance

• Book bans are a local affair in Alabama schools. That could change. | AL.com (AL)
• Budget cuts gutted most Stamford school librarians. 3 years on, parent volunteers are doing the work. | Stamford Advocate (CT)
• Indianapolis voters oust 3 Democratic incumbents from City-County Council | IndyStar (IN)

Social Media

• Tweets become harder to believe as labels change meaning | New York Times
• FTC proposes blanket prohibition preventing Facebook from monetizing youth data | FTC
• Montana legislature approves outright ban of TikTok | New York Times

Disinformation & Media Literacy

• Tucker Carlson is only one part of Putin’s disinformation war in the western media | TIME

International

• Southern Manitoba libraries battle defunding attempts over sex-ed content in children’s books | CBC
• Why China’s censors are deleting videos about poverty | New York Times
• Melbourne council forced to call off drag story time event after threats of violence | 9News
• The comedian taking on India’s new censorship law | WIRED
• Social media censorship and information manipulation after Sadyr Zhaparov’s rise in Kyrgyzstan | Global Voices

Around the Web

• Author Judy Blume stands up to book bans, promotes ‘freedom to read’ | Page Six
• Iowa librarian pens ‘Library’s Bill of Rights’ in 1938 (and it’s relevant again) | Iowa Starting Line
• Book bans: What do Michigan residents really think? | CBS Detroit
• The editorial board: Parents can do their jobs without banning books | Buffalo News
• ‘Do-it-yourself terrorism’: Neo-Nazi accused of firebombing Geauga County church highlights rise of white supremacist activity in Ohio | Cleveland.com
  • Nazi “Blood Tribe” protests Ohio drag brunch | LGBTQ Nation
• Opinion: Attacks on the nation’s libraries are about class as much as censorship | HuffPost
• Seattle Library rents room to Kirk Cameron, right-wing crusader against “Woke Marxist librarians” | PubliCola
• Inside this year’s fight over Pa. school board seats and what happens in the classroom | PhillyBurbs
• Protesters gather at keiki event featuring drag queen storytime | Hawai’i Public Radio
• Why the Brooklyn Public Library is providing 500,000 books to teens across the U.S. | Fast Company
• The author of one of America’s most challenged kids books says ‘trans people are unsafe’ | Des Moines Register
• The culture war’s latest casualty: The high school musical | Washington Post
• Critical race theory curriculum brings crucial discussions on race, gender, and history to classrooms across the U.S. | Ms. Magazine
• Demonstrations staged nationwide denounce restrictions on teaching, book bans | EducationWeek

ALA News

• 2023 AASL Research Grants Awarded
• LRRT Library Research Forum 2023
• Dr. Carla Hayden Receives the Ken Haycock Award for Promoting Librarianship
• 2023 ALA Library Research Roundtable Shera Award Selected
• Chapel Cowden chosen as the 2023 recipient of the LIRT Librarian Recognition Award
• The Ohio State University Libraries presented the LIRT 2023 Innovation in Instruction Award
• The Coretta Scott King Book Awards Round Table Invites Submissions for the 2024 Awards
• West Maple Elementary School named National School Library of the Year
• Susan Kusel is named Winner of 2023 ALA Equality Award.
• Julius C. Jefferson Jr. wins the Joseph W. Lippincott Award
• Nominations are being accepted for ALA honorary membership
• ARTivist Nikkolas Smith to open AASL National Conference
• Five projects receive 2023 AIA/ALA Library Building Award
• The Las Vegas–Clark County Library District wins the ALA/Information Today, Inc. Library of the Future Award
• IRRT Preconference: Global Libraries as Advocates for Information Policy Change
• Jim Neal receives 2023 John Ames/Humphry/OCLC/ Forest Press Award
• Cultural humility in library work
• #1 Bestselling author, poet, and advocate Amanda Gorman and award-winning artist Christian Robinson to close ALA 2023 Annual Conference & Exhibition in Chicago

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