February 15, 2019 – Collated by OIF Staff and News Editors

Highlight

• Intellectual Freedom Was Alive and Well at Midwinter in Seattle | Knowledge Quest
• Andover Public Library will keep transgender children’s books in the kids section | Wichita Eagle
• Hateful conduct in libraries: A new ALA resource
• The First Amendment and Library Services with Theresa Chmara. (4-week facilitated eCourse starting on Monday, March 4, 2019)
• Privacy, Libraries, Patrons, and the Law with Deborah Caldwell-Stone. (4-week facilitated eCourse starting on Monday, April 8, 2019)

Censorship

• Lawmakers rebuff bid to criminalize use of ‘obscene’ materials in Maine schools | Bangor Daily News (ME)
• Drag Queen Story Hour draws support and protest in Exeter | Reading Eagle (PA)
• Drag Queen Story Hour proceeds in Astoria with community support | Daily Astorian (OR)
• Drag Queen Story Hour will happen as planned, organizer says | WYFF (SC)
• First grade teacher investigated for reading book about gay bunnies to kids | WFTV (FL)
• Chinese artist’s exhibit in Cary is missing 3 paintings. The town says they’re too political. | Raleigh News & Observer (NC)

Privacy

• Judge declines to block citizenship question from the 2020 census on privacy grounds | CNN
• ACLU, NAACP call on Congress to address discrimination in privacy laws | CNET
• Bots are terrible at recognizing black faces. Let’s keep it that way. | The Daily Beast
• Lack of rules leaves experts puzzled about data ownership after death | Reuters
• California law could be Congress’ model for data privacy. Or it could be erased | San Francisco Chronicle
• Your company wants to know if you’ve lost weight | Wall Street Journal
• The Technology 202: Bezos dilemma could spark Congress to act on graphic photos | Washington Post
• Senate to hold hearing on potential privacy bill | The Hill
• Chicago Public Schools monitored social media for signs of violence, gang membership | ProPublica

Access

• Should libraries be the keepers of their cities’ public data? | NextGov
• Delayed, denied, dismissed: Failures on the FOIA front | ProPublica
• Kansas lawmaker wants to block online access to porn, charge residents fee to see it | Wichita Eagle
• GoGuardian develops a new AI-enabled cloud filter for K–12 schools | EdTech
• Three ways to extend your library digitally | Knowledge Quest

Net Neutrality and Broadband Access

• Georgia House wants local utilities to provide broadband | Associated Press
• Republicans in Congress are talking net neutrality, at least | Wired
• Texas bill aims to stop companies from ‘throttling’ internet service during disasters | KUT (TX)
• Governor Wolf makes case for statewide broadband to support education | WFMZ (PA)

Academic Freedom & Campus Speech

• Is political bias in grading a myth? | Chronicle of Higher Education
• U. of Nebraska wondered whether conservative students were being silenced. Here’s what it found out. | Chronicle of Higher Education
• Do racial epithets have any place in the classroom? A professor’s suspension fuels that debate | Chronicle of Higher Education
  • How a dispute over the n-word became a dispiriting farce | Chronicle of Higher Education
• Why left and right both get the meaning of academic freedom wrong | Washington Post

First Amendment and Free Speech

• Federal Appeals Court Rejects Challenge to District’s Lessons on ‘the Muslim World’ | Education Week
• Christian student challenged a school history lesson on Islam and lost in court | Washington Post
• Cartoon features bear with a profane message for President Trump | The Enquirer (OH)
• See hate speech, leave it up | Inside Higher Ed
• The president and chilling free speech | Townhall
• Fourth circuit finds public official violated First Amendment rights of constituent on Facebook | Constitutional Law Prof Blog

Around the Web

• The life and death of abolitionist, writer, and civil rights activist: Frederick Douglass | OIF Blog
• Dispatches from the Houghton, part three: Deeper into the shadows | OIF Blog
• Un-American books in American classrooms | OIF Blog
• Newest form of censorship is drowning out the message | Post and Courier (SC)

International Issues

• School board in New Brunswick takes children’s book about scalping off the library shelves | APT News (Canada)
• Kenya Government mandates DNA-linked national ID, without data protection law | Mozilla
• India proposes Chinese-style internet censorship | New York Times
• Russia to disconnect its internet from rest of the world – temporarily | Telegraph
• Mums are BANNING Jacqueline Wilson books saying they’re ‘unsuitable’ for children | Liverpool Echo
• EU states agree on copyright reform compromise | DW
• European parliament approves controversial “meme ban” | Futurism

ALA News

• Revised Library Bill of Rights interpretations adopted at Seattle Midwinter Meeting
• ALA Executive Board releases statement regarding incident at Council Forum
• New workshop: Active Shooter Training for Library Employees
• Applications due March 8 for 2019 ALA Leadership Institute

 

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