December 9, 2016

Intellectual Freedom Highlights

• Libraries become unexpected sites of hate crimes | The New York Times; “Because of a “sudden increase” in such crimes — three in a couple of weeks after one in a year — the association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom is starting to formally track them, the office’s director, James LaRue, said in an email. He said it was difficult to know whether the uptick was “a blip or a trend.”
• Student Press Under Pressure | Inside Higher Ed; “Student news organizations face threats of censorship and intimidation from university administrators, sometimes in the form of budget cuts in the wake of unflattering articles and sometimes with the firings of faculty advisers who encourage aggressive student journalism. These are the findings of a report released today called “Threats to the Independence of Student Media.”
• ALA joins new network advocating for technology rights and opportunity | ALA District Dispatch; “The ALA joined 16 other organizations in signing onto “Technology Rights and Opportunity” principles advocating for policies that ensure freedom of speech and equality of opportunity for all, while expanding the ability of the internet to drive economic opportunity and education.

Censorship

• Virginia school district reverses ban on classic novels | WTVR News (VA)
• Dubuque committee votes 10-0 to keep “Perks” book in schools | KWWL News (IA)
• Chase: Warn parents about explicit books | Chesterfield Observer (VA); “Mike Karabinos, a parent with two children in CCPS schools who recently penned a letter to local media criticizing Chase and her positions on this topic, said that making the changes through the VDOE and the Board of Education amounted to “administrative trickery.” “I think it’s a betrayal of our legislative process,” Karabinos said. “Any attempt to try to prejudice or censor information, especially in the form of literature, should be resisted.”
• Kansas and Missouri teachers brace tor the ‘Trump Effect’ | KCUR News (KS) “While the district hasn’t outright banned staff from wearing safety pins, it’s strongly urged them not to do so. Jan Bombeck is the librarian at Ray Marsh Elementary in the Shawnee Mission district. Despite what the district wants, she’s wearing her safety pin.”
• School censors “Charlie Brown Christmas” poster | FoxNews
• ‘We Have Not Banned Any Books’ Lemont High School Says | Lemont Patch (IL)
  • Parents want 8 “X-Rated” books banned from Illinois high school | Bustle
• Norwalk To Remove Textbook That Says Slaves Were Treated ‘Like Family’ | Hartford Courant
• Letter: ISU censors free speech | Iowa State Daily
• Groups defend intellectual freedom and the right to read; stand by embattled publisher | NCAC

Privacy

• Teens deserve same reading rights as adults, library official says | Martinsville Bulletin
• Librarians, act now to protect your users (before it’s too late) | Electronic Frontier Foundation
• NYPL will wipe patron data to protect privacy | Galley Cat
• Forget hackers. Libraries fear that it’s the feds who’ll go after your data | McClatchyDC
• The future of privacy | The New York Times
• Alexa and Google Home Record What You Say. What Happens to Your Data? | WIRED
• New Report Explains Student Privacy under SOPIPA and Similar Regs |The Journal
• These Brooklyn artists are exploring the dark side of Big Data | Technical.ly Brooklyn

Net Neutrality

• Will Donald Trump dismantle the internet as we know It? |The Atlantic

First Amendment Issues

• Does the First Amendment protect fake news? | Chicago Tribune
• When do public rebukes of students cross a line? | The Chronicle of Higher Education

Around the Web

• A twist on controversial ‘Professor Watchlist’: Notre Dame academics want their names added | Washington Post; “We are coming forward to stand with the professors you have called “dangerous,” reaffirming our values and recommitting ourselves to the work of teaching students to think clearly, independently, and fearlessly.”
• Editorial: Readers, not censors, keep fake news from spreading | St. Louis Post Dispatch
• IYSSE Demands Free Speech at NYU | Washington Square News
• GOP bill defunds schools that ban the American flag | Washington Examiner
• Divided times: how literature teaches us to understand ‘the other’ | The Guardian
• News or not: Fake news and K-12 information literacy | Knowledge Quest blog
• Libraries ‘becoming invisible’ to junior scholars | Times Higher Education
• Three ways Facebook could reduce fake news without resorting to censorship | The Conversation
• A New Library Card for Rep. John Lewis | School Library Journal
• Banned books and blockbusters | The New Yorker
• Taslima Nasrin on being a writer in exile: Bans and censorship hurt; but banishment hurt the most | FirstPost (India)
• The top 10 books most challenged in schools and libraries | The Washington Post
• Title IX for campus conservatives | The National Review
• Gene Luen Yang Declares That Comics Belong in School in a TED Talk | Ad Week
• Federal Appeals Court Revives Gay-Straight Alliance Suit in Florida | EdWeek
• We need to resist censorship of cyberspace | Al jazeera
• Introducing Censorpedia, NCAC’s crowdsourced wiki for censorship incidents | NCAC

International Issues

• New Zealand: Bishop’s bill to banish book bans passes first reading | Scoop
• WeChat Censoring Messages Even Outside China, Study Says | Bloomberg
• Kosovo’s president bans sale and distribution of anti-Semitic books | Jewish News Service
• Activists back Google’s appeal against Canadian order to censor search results | The Guardian
• Press exempt from right to be forgotten | The Jakarta Post (Indonesia)
• Q&A: Russia, China Swapping Cybersecurity, Censorship Tips | RadioFreeEurope RadioLiberty
• In meeting, Putin vows to protect artistic freedom in Russia | The New York Times
• The politician behind Britain’s porn filter now thinks it might not even work | Business Insider

Office for Intellectual Freedom

• Intellectual Freedom Sale: OIF marked down dozens of intellectual freedom products! Banned book posters, T-shirts and bookmarks make the best gifts.
• Webinar: Student Rights, Protests and Free Speech
• Call for nominations for the Gerald Hodges IF Chapter Relations Award

 

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