Intellectual Freedom News 3/18/2022
Highlights
- Celebrate the freedom to read during National Library Week, April 3-9
- American Library Association releases new privacy field guides
Censorship
- Committee denies request to remove gay documentary from Lafayette library | KATC
- Keystone asked to remove 17 books from library | Clarion News
- Bedford County School Board discusses books over “concerning content” | WDBJ (VA)
- Is the Lafayette Parish library self-censoring books and movies or keeping them on shelves? | Acadiana Advocate (LA)
- Woke PA’s book ban push comes to Central Bucks board meeting | Bucks County Courier Times
- Hempfield school board shelves any changes to its library book policy and selections for now | TribLive (PA)
- Foust addresses library book content after parent questions | Hill Country Community Journal (TX)
- Request for information on West Chester LGTBQ students raises concerns | Daily Local (PA)
- Committee denies request to remove gay documentary from Lafayette library | KATC (LA)
- E-town school board considers ways to cut $1M from budget; opt-in system for controversial books discussed | Lancaster Online (PA)
- Should banning books be up to Stamford’s school board? One member says yes, others disagree | Stamford Advocate (CT)
- Ohio County Schools Superintendent Kim Miller: Parents will be heard on books | Wheeling News-Register (WV)
- The insidious rise of ‘soft censorship’ | Book and Film Globe
- Book challenges are becoming more frequent, driven in part by social media | TribLive (PA)
- Hartmann: The Book-Banning Wentzville Mob Gets Uglier | Riverfront Times
- Latest front in the culture wars: school library books | Pike County Courier (NY)
- Book defenders and detractors take the floor as board grapples with lack of high school librarian | Pike County Courier (NY)
- Forsyth County Schools planning for changes to media centers, book challenges in 2022-23 year | Forsyth County News (GA)
- How Texas’ school censorship law is impacting classrooms | Texas Signal
- NCAC and national teacher organizations’ statement on the freedom to teach | National Coalition Against Censorship
- Hamilton County school board’s book review committee members make recommendations | Yahoo! News (TN)
- ‘Vulgar and obscene’: North East ISD pulls 110 books from libraries | San Antonio Express-News
- School board upholds controversial book, opponents vow to press on | The Pilot (NC)
- Group prays for Jonesboro Craighead County Public Library | KAIT (AR)
- Arizona GOP wants books like ‘The Canterbury Tales’ banned from schools | Newsweek
- Wake County Library makes it harder to ban books | Indy Week (NC)
- City of Ridgeland closer to restoring library services contract after funding hold | Mississippi Free Press
- Voices: How censorship came to Lafayette | Current (LA)
Privacy & Cybersecurity
- A US surveillance program tracks nearly 200,000 immigrants. What happens to their data? | Guardian
- Utah to become the fourth state to pass privacy legislation | JD Supra
More privacy news is available at the Voices for Privacy blog.
First Amendment, Free Speech, & Civil Liberties
- Democratic lawmakers, civil liberties groups demand end to Title 42 border expulsions | Washington Post
- DeSantis’ ‘free state of Florida’ faces new restrictions on First Amendment rights | Miami Herald
- First Amendment scholars want to see the media lose these cases | New York Times
- Texas judge temporarily blocks investigations into parents of transgender kids | NBC News
- How Medical Care for Transgender Youth Became ‘Child Abuse’ in Texas | New York Times
- Iowa’s second ‘ag-gag’ law violates First Amendment, federal court rules | Des Moines Register
- Settlement forces ICE to justify detaining immigrants with disabilities | Documented
- The Endless Struggle Between Censorship and Free Speech | Los Angeles Review of Books
Academic Freedom & Campus Speech
- Public School Students Sue West Virginia School District for Holding Mandatory “Christian Revival” Assembly | Reason
- Grove City College caught in crossfire of evangelical CRT battles | Roys Report
- Professors at religious institution urge Missouri lawmakers to uphold critical race theory | Insight into Diversity
- Is self-censorship taking over universities? | Wall Street Journal
- NCAC criticizes Pennsylvania school for stifling student’s political speech by prohibiting “let’s go Brandon” t-shirt | National Coalition Against Censorship
Legislation
- Florida lawmakers pass bill to create term limits for school boards, approval process for books | WTSP
- Florida senate passes GOP-backed ban on teaching students to ‘feel guilty’ for history | CNN
- The Biggest Lie About Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” Bill Erases One Crucial Word | Slate
- Idaho house Republicans pass bill which could lead to prosecution of librarians for certain books | Yahoo! News
- Editorial: Bill criminalizing librarians misses the mark | Idaho Press
- ‘Divisive concepts’ bill may hurt AP courses; some fear they’ll be taken out of schools | WSYX (OH)
- HB666: Mark of the devil | Coeur d’Alene/ Post Falls Press
- State Department of Education officially adopts rules for CRT law in Oklahoma schools | KFOR
- Legislation on local library boards moves out of the Senate | WEKU (KY)
- Anti-CRT bill one of several bills passed by House | Weirton Daily Times (WV)
- ‘Age-appropriate’ school library bill heads to Tennessee governor’s desk | Tennesseean
- Mississippi governor signs into law prohibition on schools teaching critical race theory | CNN
- Bill banning ‘obscene’ books from public school libraries passes Okla. Senate | KXII
Social Media
- How social media is shaping book ban debates | Education Week
Access
Journalism & Media
Information Literacy & Disinformation
- The spectacular collapse of Putin’s disinformation machinery | WIRED
- China and QAnon embrace Russian disinformation justifying war in Ukraine | France 24
- Censorship exposes Putin’s leaky internet controls | WFLA
- Beware the never-ending disinformation emergency | WIRED
- Marie Yovanovitch reflects on disinformation and her removal as ambassador to Ukraine | NPR
International News
- Russia continues its online censorship spree by blocking Instagram | Vox
- Russian internet users are learning how to beat Putin’s internet crackdown | CNN
- Fines, fear, self-censorship: Russia’s new Ukraine law casts chill | VOA
- ‘No future for us left in Russia,’ say fleeing academics | Times Higher Education
- Guatemala increases abortion penalty, bans same-sex marriage | AP/ Register-Herald
Around the Web
- Book bans are the new front in the culture wars. What’s really going on? | Deseret News
- Want to understand the red-state onslaught? Look at Florida. | The Atlantic
- Florida’s controversial anti-gay law sparks Disney censorship scandal | El Pais
- We asked Texas Republicans banning books to define ‘pornography.’ Here’s what they told us | My San Antonio
- ‘Librotraficantes’ fire up to fight latest attacks on race, ethnicity, LGBTQ studies | NBC News
- The political benefit of book bans | NPR
- PEN America receives $500,000 to fight book bans | Education Week
- Battles over book bans reflect conflicts from the 1980s | San Antonio Report
- Texas students protest proposed book bans at State Capitol | Newsy
- Family Literacy Night at Huntington East Middle to explore banned books | Herald-Dispatch (WV)
- Republicans’ election strategy is to stoke fear about critical race theory | Herald-Times
- A critic of critical race theory says the campaign against CRT is ‘abhorrent and dangerous and deeply disturbing’ | Current
- Why the school wars still rage | New Yorker
- There’s been an uptick in book challenges. How are N.H. librarians preparing? | New Hampshire Public Radio
- College Board warns against censoring its AP courses | Education Week
- Claims about ‘white genocide’ pushed Kansas City-area library leader to resign | Kansas City Star
- Trump tells supporters they must fight to the death to stop schools from teaching kids about systemic racism | Vanity Fair
- Barr sounds alarm about CRT, gender theory in American public schools | KATV
- British publishers censor books for western readers to appease China | Financial Times
- Education professors fight back against bans on divisive topics | Insight into Diversity
- Texas’ traditionally sleepy school board races are suddenly attracting attention — and money | Texas Tribune
- Book bans affect everybody — Here’s how you can help | Tor
ALA News
- ALA elections now open – cast your vote today!
- Free National Library Week tools now available from ALA
- The 2022 ALA Annual Conference & Exhibition offers a virtual opportunity — The Digital Experience
- ALA announces $1.55M second round of emergency fund for libraries impacted by COVID-19
- Discover the impact of digital preservation on the environment
- Disheartened by mixed FY 2022 budget outcomes, ALA predicts hard fight in FY 2023 for federal funding for libraries
- Core ALA Preconference: Crisis Communication/Message Dissemination for Libraries
- Core ALA Preconference: Core Library Buildings Tour
- Core ALA Preconference: AvramCamp: An Unconference for Women and Non-binary Technology Library Workers
- Core ALA Preconference: Assembling Your Consultant Tool Kit: What you Need to Know to Become a Successful Consultant
- Core ALA Preconference: New Connections in the RDA Toolkit
- Core ALA Preconference: Choose Your Own Adventure Scholarly Communication Assessment Rubrics
- Core ALA Preconference: Evidence-based Practice in Libraries
- UPROSE Executive Director Elizabeth Yeampierre named 2022 Preservation Week® Honorary Chair Elegida Elizabeth Yeampierre, Directora Ejecutiva de UPROSE, como Presidenta Honorífica de Preservation Week® 2022
eLearning
- Preservation Week® Webinar: How to Implement Sustainability in your Facility
- Core Classroom: Hearing the Story: Creating an Oral History Project
- More eLearning opportunites
Publishing
Awards & Grants
- ALA Neal-Schuman author Jeanie Austin to deliver 2022 Augusta Baker Lecture
- Jillian Rudes wins Scholastic Library Publishing Award
- Marie Jarry wins Sullivan Award for Public Library Administrators Supporting Services To Children
- Baylor University Libraries presented the LIRT 2022 Innovation in Instruction Award
- Las Vegas-Clark County Library District winner of Information Today, Inc. Library of the Future Award
- Sara Lowe chosen as the 2022 recipient of the LIRT Librarian Recognition Award
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