Highlights

• ALA responds to National Archives effort to alter materials
• Meet IFRT’s 2020 Executive Board Candidates | Intellectual Freedom Blog

Censorship

• Interview: Ben Baker speaks about his now controversial library bill | The Rolla Daily News (MO)
  • Missouri’s New Book Banning Bill Would Imprison Librarians And Defund Libraries | Blavity
• Florida GOP leader pushing bill targeting ‘social media censorship’ | Tallahassee Democrat
• The erasure of political history at the National Archives | The New Yorker
  • ACLU demands answers on Women’s March photo | Associated Press
  • The National Archives Say They “Made A Mistake” By Censoring Images From The Women’s March | Refinery29
• Against those who would harm LGBTQ students in Grand Haven | Tribune (MI)
• “Relentless absurdity:” An army photographer’s censored images | The New Yorker

Privacy and Cybersecurity

• YouTube moves to COPPA compliance | Intellectual Freedom Blog
• Facebook, Twitter hold evidence that could save people from prison. And they’re not giving it up | San Frncisco Chronicle
• Columbus Library data breach may have been caused by phishing link | Columbus Dispatch (OH)
• So far, under California’s new privacy law, firms are disclosing too little data—or far too much | Washington Post
• The secret history of facial recognition | Wired
• Microsoft looms over the privacy debate in its home state | Wired
• Google Users Battle Company Over Alleged ‘Assistant’ Privacy Violations | Digital News Daily
• Supreme Court declines to hear Facebook facial recognition case | The Hill
• Barr’s Encryption Push Is Decades in the Making, but Troubles Some at FBI | Wall Street Journal
• The next big privacy scare is a face recognition tool you’ve never heard of | TNW
• Google researchers find serious privacy risks in Safari’s anti-tracking protections | Ars Technica

Additional privacy posts, news, and updates are available at the Choose Privacy Every Day blog.

Access

• 12-and-over library policy raises concerns in Old Saybrook | CT Examiner
• You matter! Make sure you count! | Intellectual Freedom Blog
• Libraries are preparing for the 2020 Census. With plenty at stake, there’s still work to be done | School Library Journal

Net Neutrality & Broadband

• An internet connection can lift people out of poverty (yes, really) | Fox Business

Academic Freedom & Campus Speech

• Writers, academics, and free speech advocates call on Babson to reinstate professor | PEN America

Hate Speech & Libraries

• Anti-semitic graffiti found in Bird Library | The Daily Orange

First Amendment & Free Speech

• Supreme Court considers religious schools case | NPR
• Court upholds district’s limits on parent’s communications with School staff | Education Week
• Ninth Circuit Rules on Court Processes and Media Right to Access | Constitutional Law Prof Blog
• Don’t get stuck on prayers in public schools | Freedom Forum Institute

Around the Web

• Disinformation and the sex ed wars | Intellectual Freedom Blog
• Getting to the truth in a post-truth society: An interview with Lee McIntyre, author of Post-Truth | Intelletual Freedom Blog
• We Need Diverse Books Names 2020 Walter Dean Myers Award Winners | School Library Journal
• Librarian Uses “Little Women” Star Power To Connect Students to the Library | School Library Journal
• News Literacy Project and Scripps Launch National News Literacy Week | School Library Journal
• Reese Witherspoon seeks book club librarian-in-residence | School Library Journal
• Agathe by Robert Musil, review: banned by the Nazis, this existential masterpiece is a shock to the system | The Telegraph
• Lifelines: Banned books and the dangers of peaceful protest | Traverse City Record Eagle (MI)
• Unhinged Way to Make Books ‘More Portable’ Has Sliced the Internet in Half | Time
• 2020 Midwinter Galley Roundup |
• Famed sculptor stood up for civil rights | Freedom Forum Institute

International Issues

• Tavistock Centre accused of silencing debate after book removed from library | The Telegraph (UK)
• Essex campaigners complain of ‘cull’ as library book stock falls by 500k | Maldon Standard
• Cries of censorship in Sudan as media outlets linked to old regime closed | Middle East Eye
• Sex Education is OK but must be ‘culturally sensitive’ | Economy Next (Sri Lanka)
• Werribee library drag storytime protest in Melbourne | QN
• Banned poetry and the Kurdish question | Jerusalem Post
• University of Minnesota student jailed in China over tweets | Axios
• Brazil prosecutes Glenn Greenwald in “attack on press freedom” | Ars Technica

ALA News

• ALA releases updated Libraries’ Guide to the 2020 Census
• United for Libraries offers first-ever chance to livestream Institute during Midwinter Meeting; registration open
• Philadelphia leaders and innovators share insights at 2020 Symposium on the Future of Libraries
• John E. Ulmschneider named 2020 ACRL Academic/Research Librarian of the Year
• Ready to Code Opens Call for Applications: Mini-Grants for Digital Skills Programs
• Free webinar to help libraries anticipate patron questions about 2020 Census; January 30
• Feb. 1 deadline for ALA/Information Today, Inc. Library of the Future Award
• Games and Gaming Round Table announces Game On! Grants; deadline March 1
• Application open for 2020 ALA Leadership Institute; deadline March 9
• ALA seeks proposals for 2020 Diversity Research Grants; due April 15

Subscribe to future issues of Intellectual Freedom News, a free weekly compilation of news delivered to your inbox by the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom, including

• current book challenges in libraries and schools
• articles about privacy, internet filtering and censorship
• ALA activities, conferences and institutes, products, online learning opportunities, awards and grants, international exchanges, and more
• how to get involved and make the most of what ALA offers

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