Highlights

• ALA COVID-19 response; “The resources on this page represent the ongoing work at ALA during these challenging times. We are pressing forward in anticipation of what you and your library need from us and what your communities need from you.”
• IFRT Webinar: Privacy Literacy Work at the Frontier of Intellectual Freedom; April 15
• Freedom to Read Foundation Launches Webinar Series

Library Services & COVID-19 Resources

• Pandemic Preparedness: Resources for Libraries | American Library Association
• Staying open during COVID-19 | American Libraries
• Public libraries launch, expand services during COVID-19 pandemic
  • How Public Libraries Are Responding to the Pandemic | American Libraries
• COVID-19 School Librarianship – Part 2 | Knowledge Quest
• The School Library Is Still Open! Ten Ways to Change Our Physical Spaces into Virtual Libraries |Knowledge Quest
• IMLS, CDC: On Staff Safety, Handling Paper In COVID-19 Pandemic | Library Journal
• Library workers fight for safer working conditions amid coronavirus pandemic | NBC News
• Directory of Upcoming and On-Demand Recordings of Webinars from Library Organizations, Vendors, Publishers, and Others | Library Journal InfoDocket

Censorship

• FCC denies petition to censor Trump press briefings | Jurist
• Government secrecy is growing during the coronavirus pandemic | The Conversation

Privacy and Cybersecurity

• Privacy During the COVID-19 Pandemic | Choose Privacy Everyday (Updated Weekly)
• Privacy Cannot Be a Casualty of the Coronavirus | New York Times
• Kushner’s team seeks national coronavirus surveillance system | Politico
• The Lesson We Are Learning from Zoom| New York Times
  • School districts ban Zoom over security concerns | Engadget
  • Zoombombing Is Just the Start. How To Protect Student Privacy During the Remote Learning Explosion. | School Library Journal
  • How to keep your Zoom chats private and secure | Wired
• Facebook begins sharing more location data with COVID-19 researchers and asks users to self-report symptoms | The Verge
• Google Reveals Location Data to Help Public Health Officials | Wired

Additional privacy posts, news, and updates are available at the Choose Privacy Every Day blog.

Access

• Coronavirus Is Threatening One of Government’s Steadiest Services: The Mail | New York Times

Net Neutrality & Broadband Access

• Rural North Dakotans Get Free, High-Speed Internet Access Thanks to Electric Cooperative Responding to Covid-19 Emergency | Institute for Local Self Reliance
• I live in rural America cut off from the internet. The pandemic has made me more isolated than ever. | Vox
• Verizon refuses to give DSL users its low-income deals during pandemic | Ars Technica
• Our lack of will to expand broadband access has left millions of students disconnected during closures | Fast Company
  • As School Moves Online, Many Students Stay Logged Out | New York Times
  • Campaign aims to get students connected | Axios
  • OTI Urges FCC to Authorize $2.2 Billion in Available E-Rate Funds to Connect Students Left Behind During COVID-19 Pandemic | New America
  • 4 in 10 U.S. teens say they haven’t done online learning since schools closed | NPR
  • When School Is Online, the Digital Divide Grows Greater | Wired

Academic Freedom & Campus Speech

• Academic freedom and internalization | Inside Higher Education
• Fake news laws may ‘catch on’ during coronavirus | Times Higher Education; “Such legislation could curtail academic freedom, say scholars”
• Students Without Laptops, Instructors Without Internet: How Struggling Colleges Move Online During Covid-19 | Chronicle of Higher Education
• The Other Homework Gap: Post-Secondary Education During COVID-19 | Benton Institute for Broadband and Society

Hate Speech | Hate Crimes

• White Supremacy’s Gateway to the American Mind | The Atlantic
  • Also available online at ProPublica

Fake News, Free Press, Social Media

• Prominent Figures Filling Apps With Fake News | Media Post
  • Types, sources, and claims of COVID-19 misinformation | Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism / University of Oxford
• On Twitter, almost 60 percent of false claims about coronavirus remain online — without a warning label | Washington Post
• Trump’s chloroquine hype is a misinformation problem bigger than social media | The Verge
• Why Censoring Different Viewpoints About Coronavirus Will Make It Worse | The Federalist (Opinion)

First Amendment & Free Speech

• Liberty University police issue arrest warrants for NYT, ProPublica reporters | The Hill
• Virtual First Amendment Classroom | NCAC Blogging Censorship

Around the Web

• Banned Books Symposium discusses controversial literature | New Jersey Herald
• An Intro to Brazil’s History of Censorship | Remezcla
• These Yosemite Webcams Are the Cure for Your Cabin Fever | Travel + Leisure
• Miss the Sounds of Your Office? | Kids Creative Agency

International Issues

• China’s coronavirus threat is waning. Its propaganda fight is not. | New York Times
• Coronavirus: Contact tracing app raises privacy concerns | Irish Times
• France working on ‘StopCovid’ contact-tracing app, ministers say | Reuters
• European Data Protection Board to issue guidance on data processing in the fight against COVID-19 | European Data Protection Board
• Data sharing during this public health emergency | Gov.UK
• Turkey to track citizens via mobile phones to enforce quarantines | Reuters

ALA News

• Wong wins 2021-2022 ALA presidency
• New Wonder Woman, Banned Books Week materials, and more from ALA Graphics
• ALA awards additional 21 Library Census Equity Fund grantees
• ALCTS, LITA, and LLAMA members vote overwhelmingly to create new ALA division
• Access to ALA Editions | ALA Neal-Schuman textbooks during the COVID-19 pandemic
• Celebrating reading wtih a free downloadable READ poster
• ALA seeks proposals for 2020 Diversity Research Grants; due May 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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• current book challenges in libraries and schools
• articles about privacy, internet filtering and censorship
• ALA activities, conferences and institutes, products, online learning opportunities, awards and grants, international exchanges, and more
• how to get involved and make the most of what ALA offers

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