Intellectual Freedom News 3/20/2020
Highlights
- ALA Executive Board recommends closing libraries to the public
- Tell Congress: Include Libraries in COVID-19 Economic Relief
- ALA welcomes cancellation of Macmillan embargo
- Not Just Tech Support: Librarian Spotlights Social-Emotional Needs Among Remote Learning Resources | School Library Journals
- Libraries Respond: Combating Xenophobia and Fake News in light of COVID-19 | American Library Association
- Pandemic Preparedness: Resources for Libraries | American Library Association
- Privacy During the COVID-19 Pandemic | Choose Privacy Everyday
Libraries and COVID-19
- Booklist announces free online access to all
- Free Webinar: Libraries and COVID-19 | American Libraries; March 20; 11:30AM
- Library COVID-19 Solidarity Network Advocates for Closing Libraries| Library Journal
- 2020 Arbuthnot Lecture featuring Neil Gaiman postponed
- ALA welcomes Penguin Random House’s expanded library access to e-books and audiobooks
- Publisher Macmillan backs off policy restricting ebook sales to libraries | NPR
- Chicago Public Libraries closing 61 locations as ‘fearful’ city workers union blasts decision to keep 20 open | Chicago Tribune
- Chicago Public Libraries Are Staying Open Even Though Librarians Say It Is Not Safe | ProPublica
- Distance read-alouds| Knowledge Quest
- Publishers adjust policies to help educators | School Library Journal
- A news—and media literacy—themed mix tape for tough times | School Library Journal
- Overdue: Closing libraries | Inside Higher Ed
Censorship
- Book With Explicit Language To Stay In School Library | Webster-Kirkwood Times (MO); challenge to The 57 Bus
- Amazon bans sale of most editions of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf | The Guardian
- New Mexico Museum of Art urged to reaffirm artistic freedom after removing project on fracking | NCAC Blogging Censorship
Privacy and Cybersecurity
- Other countries use surveillance to fight coronavirus. Privacy advocates worry the U.S. could follow. | Washington Post
- FERPA and the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) | Protecting Student Privacy, US Department of Education
- YouTube Hit With New Children’s Privacy Lawsuit | Digital Daily News
- ACLU sues federal government over surveillance from facial recognition technology |CNN
- Uber plans to file federal lawsuit against Los Angeles over location data privacy | Los Angeles Times
- Study ranks the privacy of major browsers. Here are the findings. | Ars Technica
Additional privacy posts, news, and updates are available at the Choose Privacy Every Day blog.
Access and Service in a Time of Coronavirus
- As schools close due to the coronavirus, some U.S. students face a digital ‘homework gap’ | Pew Research Center
- COVID-19 Response: Preparing to Take School Online | Consortium for School Networking
- The FCC should send Wi-Fi hotspots to schools to close the homework gap | The Verge
- Global Officials Call for Free Access to Covid-19 Research | Wired
- Coronavirus, campaigns, and connectivity | Brookings
- The coronavirus outbreak and the challenges of online-only classes | NPR
- U.S. Census Bureau Suspends 2020 Census Field Work | Wall Street Journal
- ‘It shouldn’t take a pandemic’: Coronavirus exposes Internet inequality among US students as schools close their doors | Washington Post
- The Law of Public Health: Professor Michele Goodwin on holding onto civil liberties when the world turns upside down | Amicus (Slate Podcast)
Net Neutrality & Broadband Access
- COVID-19 shines light on ‘digital divide’ across the US | CNet
- To Fight Coronavirus, Millions More Americans Need Internet Access | New York Times
- Altice USA Offers Free Broadband to Homes with K-12, College Students During Coronavirus Scare | Multichannel News
- Why It’s So Important for Broadband Companies to Ditch Data Caps Right Now | Slate
- Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon Should Suspend Data Caps Because of Coronavirus | Vice
- Our internet isn’t ready for coronavirus | New York Times
Academic Freedom & Campus Speech
- Progress on campus free speech? | Forbes
Fake News, Free Press, Social Media
- The Internet is drowning in COVID-19-related malware and phishing scams | Ars Technica
- When Facebook Is More Trustworthy Than the President | New York Times
- Can Political Reporters Handle the Covid-19 Disinformation Machine? | Wired
- This Minecraft library is making censored journalism accessible all over the world | The Verge
- Facebook Deleting Coronavirus Posts, Leading To Charges Of Censorship | Forbes
- Media wrestles with public trust as coronavirus intensifies | Axios
First Amendment & Free Speech
- The Blaine Amendment: Bigotry of First Amendment Bulwark? | Intellectual Freedom Blog
- Now More than Ever, Free-Speech Dogma Is Worth Defending | National Review
- Free Speech and COVID-19 | NCAC Blogging Censorship
Around the Web
- Requests for Reconsideration at the Public Library Part Two: Growing Bodies | Intellectual Freedom Blog
- Kidlit authors step up to help educators, students, and parents | School Library Journal
- Dayhoff: Government censorship made the 1918 Spanish flu even worse | Carroll County Times (MA)
- When Racism and Disease Spread Together | CityLab
- A failed case against free speech | LA Review of Books
- Rutgers University Libraries Census 2020 Resource Guide
International Issues
- Netflix and YouTube are slowing down in Europe to keep the internet from breaking | CNN
- To Track Coronavirus, Israel Moves to Tap Secret Trove of Cellphone Data | New York Times
- Pakistan Arrests a Media Owner, and Journalists Cry Foul | New York Times
- Iran Launched an App That Claimed to Diagnose Coronavirus. Instead, It Collected Location Data on Millions of People. | Vice
- The librarian who refused to back down in the name of free speech | The Globe and Mail (Canada)
- We need to hear more voices not fewer | The Star
- A keyboard encryption app used to skirt coronavirus censorship was removed by Apple in China | Quartz
- How China built facial recognition for people wearing face masks | Ars Technica
ALA News
- Rebecca Ginsburg receives Immroth Award
- ALSC announces 2020 Notable Children’s Digital Media list
- AASL to host webinars for school library preparation faculty and instructors; Tuesday, March 24
- ALSC and ACM accepting applications for Forum on Service to Immigrants/Refugees; due March 31
- LLAMA webinar explores how to respond to a new generation of public relations challenges; April 1
- ALA calls for 2020 L. Ray Patterson Copyright Award nominations; due April 1
- ALA seeks proposals for 2020 Diversity Research Grants; due April 15
- Learn how to build your own digital scholarship/humanities curriculum with this LITA webinar; April 22
- K-8 libraries invited to apply for $5,000 award recognizing outstanding programming; due May 4
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