February 24, 2017 – Collated by OIF Staff and News Interns

Intellectual Freedom Highlights

• Review your Library’s Policies and Procedures | Intellectual Freedom Blog; “The core value of librarianship is intellectual freedom (IF) — the belief, rooted in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, that the government will not establish or prohibit the free exercise of religion, infringe the people’s freedom of speech and right to peaceably assemble, or to prohibit the petitioning for governmental redress of grievances. In library terms, that means that the thoughtful institution has adopted — or will adopt — a solid framework for assuring access to the intellectual content of our culture. Policies matter, and setting in place a series of best practices will head off a lot of conflict.”

Censorship

• Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker goes from censorship to killing state nature magazine | Citypages
• Jeffco library scrubs tweets after getting complaints that posts are politically biased | Denver Post
• At UCLA, book on ‘Islamic Totalitarianism’ censored at free speech event | The College Fix
• Posters deemed anti-Trump removed from Westminster High classrooms | Carroll County Times (MD)
• Concerned parents debate books removed from Nome Schools’ alternative reading list | KNOM (Alaska)

Access

• Information Access and the 800-Pound Gorilla | Inside Higher Ed
• Supreme Court advances push to share court records | Houston Chronicle (TX)
• Children now have access to the NC Kids Digital Library | Salisbury Post
• Douglas County Libraries face closure | Library Journal (OR)
• Trump rescinds rules on bathrooms for transgender students | The New York Times
• Supreme Court Asks Parties’ Views on Trump Shift in Transgender Policy | Education Week School Law Blog
• White House quietly removes data from transparency website | The Blade; “Dozens of data sets disappeared last week from open.whitehouse.gov, a site the Obama administration created to promote government transparency.”
• Supporting open access | Library Journal

Privacy

• Electronic media searches at border crossing raise worry | Hamilton Spectator; “Watchdog groups that keep tabs on digital privacy rights are concerned that U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents are searching the phones and other digital devices of international travellers at border checkpoints in U.S. airports.”
• How US Intelligence Surveillance May Affect Immigrants | Human Rights Watch
• Threats to online privacy: What a Trump administration may do to cyberspace | Tech Radar
• Privacy versus security: How Americans view the issue of encryption [Infographic] | Forbes
• Papers AND passwords, please… | District Dispatch
• Your Biggest Online Security Risk Is You | Morningstar
• How Peter Thiel’s Palantir Helped the NSA Spy on the Whole World | The Intercept
• Republicans are trying to let internet providers sell your data | Wired
• Judge: No, feds can’t nab all Apple devices and try everyone’s fingerprints | Ars Technica

Net Neutrality / Broadband

• The implications of the end of net neutrality | TechCrunch
• With net neutrality, researcher says ‘not every deal is bad’ | Penn State News
• First Lifeline, Now Broadband Program for Schools and Libraries in the FCC’s Crosshairs (E-Rate) | Benton Foundation

Academic Freedom

• Iowa Bill Would Force “Partisan Balance” in Hiring | Inside Higher Ed

First Amendment Issues

• Free speech in college: University’s rejection of conservative club ignites debate | University Herald (CA)
  • The 10 worst colleges for free speech: 2017 | The Huffington Post
• In Trump Era, censorship may start in the newsroom | The New York Times
• How Twitter’s new censorship tools are the Pandora’s Box moving us towards the end of free speech | Forbes
• Arizona bill: Police can now arrest peaceful protesters to prevent riot | Arizona Daily Star/Tucson.com
• Where Protests Flourish, Anti-Protest Bills Follow | Moyers & Co.
• Good news for the First Amendment | Intellectual Freedom Blog
• Amazon refusing to hand over data on whether Alexa overheard a murder | Ars Technica

Around the Web

• Publishers are hiring ‘sensitivity readers’ to flag potentially offensive content | Chicago Tribune; “Before a book is published and released to the public, it’s passed through the hands (and eyes) of many people: an author’s friends and family, an agent and, of course, an editor. These days, though, a book may get an additional check from an unusual source: a sensitivity reader, a person who, for a nominal fee, will scan the book for racist, sexist or otherwise offensive content.”
• I Was a Muslim in Trump’s White House | The Atlantic
• The 96 hours that brought down Milo Yiannopoulos | The Washington Post
• US libraries join struggle to resist the Trump administration | The Guardian
• Professor’s research of segregated public libraries in the South available online | Southern Miss Now
• Role of the school librarian has changed dramatically | LancasterOnline (PA)
• Meet Fatima Al-Fihri: The founder of the world’s first library | Ventures Africa (Morocco)
• RPGs play a positive role in public libraries | Intellectual Freedom Blog
• Intellectual freedom and #WhyIMarch | Intellectual Freedom Blog
• Have we lost sight of the promise of public schools? | The New York Times Magazine

International Issues

• Thieves steal £2m of rare books by abseiling into warehouse | The Guardian (UK)
• Three cases that threaten the open Internet | BloombergQuint (India)
• India Bans Female Empowerment Movie ‘Lipstick Under My Burkha’ | Variety

Office for Intellectual Freedom News

• The University of Maryland in partnership with the Maryland State Department of Education’s Division of Library Development & Services, the American Library Association’s Center for the Future of Libraries, and CASA de Maryland, is recruiting librarians to participate in virtual focus groups in the upcoming months. The focus groups will address the challenges librarians face as information intermediaries and the resources that would best benefit them in serving in that role more effectively. If you are a librarian working in a public library, help us by participating in a virtual focus group to identify and address privacy challenges in the digital age. We’re developing a suite of educational and professional development resources for librarians and low-socioeconomic families to minimize risks to the privacy and security of individuals’ personal information.All participants will receive a $15 Amazon gift card. More information about this project can be found at http://safedata.umd.edu/. Sign-up by completing this form
• Oregon Library Association Intellectual Freedom Committee receives the 2017 Gerald Hodges Intellectual Freedom Chapter Relations Award | ALA Member News

ALA News

• Libraries Respond: Immigrants, Refugees and Asylum Seekers. The Office for Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services has added some information about Responding to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
• Ann K. Symons: ALA names Honorary Member 
• Making ALA Great Again | Publishers Weekly
• ALA to launch Book Club Central with Sarah Jessica Parker
• A scalable guide to getting started with digital collections
• New resolution addresses accurate information and media manipulation

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