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
  • Amazon has reinstated Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ after quietly banning the book last week | Business Insider
• 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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