Highlights

• Library advocates deliver ebook petition to Macmillan | American Libraries
• Deborah Caldwell-Stone appointed director, ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom and executive director of the Freedom to Read Foundation

Censorship

• Censorship resisted: A look at the Edmonton library’s shortlist of banned books | CBC (Canada)
• Sex, nudity, and satanism are why parents believe in school book censorship | Book Riot
• Omaha mom upset with ‘inappropriate’ book her daughter brought home from school library | KETV (Nebraska)
• These watchdogs track secret online censorship across the globe | CNet
• Judge: Florida Corrections Department incorrect in censorship of magazine, must pay $1.2 million | Tallahassee Democrat

Privacy and Cybersecurity

• The Cybersecurity 202: Facebook spyware lawsuit opens a new front in encryption battle | The Washington Post
• Which U.S. states best protect privacy online? | Security Magazine

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

Access

• Boston Public Library to eliminate fines for people under 18 | Boston Globe
• Anonymous signs help Brookline library patrons find sensitive information | Wicked Local
• The internet is for everyone, right? Not with a screen reader | Wired
• How a publisher is punishing library users with eBooks limit | San Francisco Chronicle
• Welcoming students with special needs to the library | Knowledge Quest

Net Neutrality & Broadband Access

• The fight to keep the internet free and open for everyone | BBC

Filtering

• Editorial: Lebanon Public Libraries make the sound and principled decision to reject internet filters | Valley News (NH)

Copyright

• Learning Engine Copyright video series released | Copyright.gov

Academic Freedom & Campus Speech

• Yale in academic censorship row in Singapore | International Business Times

Fake News, Free Press, Social Media

• Twitter blocking all political ads globally starting in November | Ars Technica
• Facebook’s new political-ad policy already showing cracks, loopholes | Ars Technica

First Amendment & Free Speech

• Update: Victory! NCAC opposes proposed protest fees on National Mall | NCAC
• How not to protect religious freedom: The strange case of the Department of Labor’s proposed rule on the religious exemption | Freedom Forum Institute

Around the Web

• As the internet turns 50, we must protect it as a force for good | Web Foundation
• The complicated role of the modern public library | Humanities (NEH)
• Welcome to year 50 of the Information Age | Wired
• Happy Birthday, Rudolfo Anaya | OIF Blog
• What librarians can do to get out the vote: An interview with Ari Berman, author, ‘Give Us the Ballot’ | OIF Blog
• Seeing its patrons needed more than books, a library struck up a unique partnership | Hawaii News Now
• Reading scores fall on Nation’s Report Card | School Library Journal

International Issues

• Public libraries and freedom of expression | Newswire (Canada)
• Meghan Murphy: Hundreds protest outside Toronto Public Library as feminist gives talk on transgender rights | Independent
• Russia’s internyet: Kremlin readies test for its ‘sovereign’ firewall | Independent
• Kashmir: Twitter removes almost 1 million tweets, accused of bowing to Indian censorship | Newsweek
• Australia sues Google over alleged misuse of location data | CNN

ALA News

• Author Julia Alvarez is the Arthur Curley Memorial Lecture Speaker at the 2020 ALA Midwinter Meeting & Exhibits in Philadelphia
• Nominations open for 2020 IFRT John Phillip Immroth Memorial Award
• IFRT accepting nominations for 2020 Eli M. Oboler Memorial Award
• New from ACRL: “Copyright Conversations: Rights Literacy in a Digital World”
• New from ACRL: “Libraries Promoting Reflective Dialogue in a Time of Political Polarization”
• Rainbow Round Table seeks nominations for outstanding service to the LGBTQIA+ community

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

You can also find us at Facebook, Twitter, and online. Or email us at oif@ala.org