Given the volume of news, commentary, and updates addressing intellectual freedom and privacy issues in libraries across the United States and even internationally, we are experimenting with a twice-a-week publication schedule – moving to Wednesdays and Saturdays. Feedback on the new schedule can be sent to oif@ala.org.

Highlights

• Unite Against Book Bans challenges candidates to oppose censorship, support librarians and educators as election season rolls in

Censorship

• Furious debate over a book ban reignites in central Pa. school district | Penn Live
• ‘It’s not just LGBTQ themes’: Controversial book will remain on JCPS shelves following vote | WHAS11 (KY)
• School Superintendent Moves Questioned Library Books To Parental Opt-In ‘Restricted Section’ | NorthEscambria.com (FL)
• Books With LGBTQ+ Themes Under Review in Poway Unified School District | NBC7 San Diego (CA)
• OKLAHOMA WATCH: Book ban disputes roiled these Oklahoma communities. Here’s what happened | Daily Press (OK)
• Book ban efforts in Colorado see little success amid national uptick | Colorado Newsline (CO)
• Library board chair publicly bullies librarian over LGBTQ books | Los Angeles Blade (SC)
• Sullivan signs petition to decrease Jonesboro library funding | Arkansas Times (AR)
• ‘Handmaid’s Tale,’ ‘Slaughterhouse-Five’: KC area schools now ban these books and more | Kansas City (MO)
• School board member says book that references BLM doesn’t belong in school library | Hendersonville Standard (TN)
• School board to review book banning process | WCNC (NC)

First Amendment, Free Speech, & Civil Liberties

• With anti-LGBTQ laws proliferating, older activists say history is repeating itself | ABC News
• Newsom signs bill to police California doctors on COVID-19 misinformation | Mercury News
• The Onion and the Supreme Court. Not a parody | Associated Press
  • Brief of The Onion as Amicus Curiae in Support of the Petitioner | Supreme Court of the United States
• Kim Davis may be sued for denying same-sex marriage licenses | MetroWeekly

Legislation

• What to know about a new Arizona law and how it could ban books in school libraries | Arizona Republic

Access

• Ballot referendum seeks to cut Norwin Public Library’s funding | CBS Pittsburgh (PA)
• Senator speaks out after signing petition to cut library funding | KAIT (AR)

Academic Freedom

• San Diego Mesa College violates academic freedom, investigates professor for essay example associating GOP with fascism | FIRE
• Abortion info fight targets UI, but affects far more | Lewiston Tribune (ID)
• The Review: Florida’s Totalitarian Academic-Freedom Crackdown | Chronicle of Higher Education
• Professorial Speech, the First Amendment, and the ‘Anti-CRT’ Laws | SSRN
• Limiting academics’ freedom to tell the truth about racism is not new | Washington Post

Social Media

• The Supreme Court takes on Section 230 | TechCrunch

Information Literacy & Disinformation

• They legitimized the myth of a stolen election–and reaped the rewards | New York Times
• Manufacturing consensus and the democratization of propaganda and disinformation | Texas Public Radio
• Right-wing disinformation ramps up on WeChat ahead of midterms, report finds | NBC News

International

• The tech site that took on China’s surveillance state | Atlantic

Around the Web

• Banned in the USA: The growing movement to censor books in schools | Brooklyn Daily Eagle
• Efforts to ban books are working, but why? | The Statesman
• Local youth support banned book authors with library initiative | Lake Oswego Review
• With ties to hate groups, #ParentsUniteRI offers slate of conservative extremists for local office | UpriseRI
• Censoring race and racism lessons defies best practice and may be unlawful, report argues | Education Week
• Libraries feel attacked — but not like the ‘freedom libraries’ of 1964 | Washington Post
• Lawmakers Confront a Rise in Threats and Intimidation, and Fear Worse | New York Times
• Jonathan Zimmerman: One way of stemming the tide of book bans? Allow for compromise. | Chicago Tribune
• Commentary: I’ve seen how reading banned books can enrich kids’ education | Los Angeles Times
• Nikole Hannah-Jones on history, book bans, CRT, disrespect for teachers | SmartBrief
• Reading banned books can enrich kids’ education | Telegraph

ALA News

• American Library Association welcomes newly reinstated President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities
• Core Seeks Library Building Awards Jurors
• Core Classroom: Fundamentals of Hiring

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• articles about privacy, internet filtering and censorship
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