Highlights

• National Library Week, April 19-25, 2020, celebrates libraries’ resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic; On Monday, April 20, the ALA will release its “State of America’s Libraries Report.” The annual report provides trend information for all types of libraries and will include the highly anticipated “Top Ten List of the Most Challenged Books of 2019.” #BannedBooksList
• “Fundamental to life”: Library Workers, Advocates Share Predictions, Freedom to Read Experiences Ahead of National Library Week | Intellectual Freedom Blog
• Connecticut Library Association Intellectual Freedom Committee receives the 2020 Gerald Hodges Intellectual Freedom Chapter Relations Award
• To Zoom or Not to Zoom | Choose Privacy Everyday
• Newest issue of The Journal of Intellectual Freedom & Privacy is now available.

Library Services & COVID-19 Resources

• 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.”
• Pandemic Preparedness: Resources for Libraries | American Library Association
• ALA praises IMLS for rapid COVID-19 relief; “Today the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) today announced measures to award the first $30 million of $50 million appropriated to the agency in the CARES Act.”
• IMLS Announces New Stimulus Funding for Communities Across America
• Staying open during COVID-19 | American Libraries
• Closed libraries are offering parking lot Wi-Fi, e-books, and Zoom story time | Fast Company
• Snapshot of School Librarian Roles during School Closures | Knowledge Quest
  • AASL Launches Second School Library Closure Survey; Reports Additional Results from First Survey | Knowledge Quest
  • School Librarians Curate More Than Just Books | Knowledge Quest
• From Publishers to Booksellers and Librarians: COVID-19 Accelerates Book Industry Shift to Digital, Interdependence | Library Journal

Censorship

• S.C. librarian sues over Drag Queen Story Hour firing | NBC News
• South Carolina LGBTQ Students Win Fight Against Disinformation | Intellectual Freedom Blog

Privacy and Cybersecurity

• Privacy During the COVID-19 Pandemic | Choose Privacy Everyday (Updated Weekly)
• Half of Americans have decided not to use a product or service because of privacy concerns | Pew Research Center
• Broadband Industry Presses Judge To Scrap Maine Privacy Law | Digital Privacy Perspectives
• Coronavirus Surveillance Is Entering Dystopian Territory | Vanity Fair
• The tech ‘solutions’ for coronavirus take the surveillance state to the next level | The Guardian
• COVID-19 and children’s digital privacy | UNICEF
• How coronavirus is eroding privacy | Wall Street Journal

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

Access

• Prison Ereaders and Tablets Should Be Free During COVID-19 | BookRiot
  • “Today PEN America, the American Library Association, and a team of partners advocating on behalf of the rights of incarcerated people have called for companies to end fees associated with tablets and digital materials.” Link to full letter.
• Knocked Off Track by Coronavirus, Census Announces Delay in 2020 Count | New York Times
• How Does a Shared School and Public Library Work? Take a Look at Mine | School Library Journal
• Libraries and the Census in the Time of COVID-19 | Library Journal

Net Neutrality & Broadband Access

• To Stay In Touch With Students, Teachers Bypass Computers, Pick Up Phones | National Public Radio
• AlticeUSA Extends Free Broadband to Students | Multichannel News
• US’s digital divide ‘is going to kill people’ as COVID-19 exposes inequalities | The Guardian
• ‘We Can Do Better’: One Plan to Erase America’s Digital Divide | New York Times
• Why E-rate Should Fund Home Broadband During COVID-19 | Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition
• Internet service in western Colorado was so terrible that towns and counties built their own telecom | Colorado Sun
• A partisan debate emerges of internet dead zones | Wall Street Journal

Academic Freedom & Campus Speech

• Coronavirus: What Are We Learning About Online Instruction? | Center for Digital Education

Hate Speech | Hate Crimes

• Coronavirus: website launched in US to track pandemic-inspired hate speech and abuse online | South China Morning Post

Copyright

• COVID-19 Publisher Information Directory | School Library Journal
• Judge smacks down copyright suit over Instagram embedding | Ars Technica

Fake News, Free Press, Social Media

• One-third of people have seen misleading info on Covid-19 on social media | Politico
• The pandemic is killing the truth, too | Washington Post
• Fighting fake news: The new front in the coronavirus battle| Aljazeera America
• Is coronavirus making the internet better? | New York Times

First Amendment & Free Speech

• The Right to Protest in a Pandemic | NCAC Blogging Censorship
• Justice Department takes church’s side in 1st Amendment suit | Associated Press
• Fox News fights coronavirus misinformation lawsuit: First Amendment protects “false” speech | Salon
• Trump campaign sues Wisconsin TV station over critical ad | Associated Press

Around the Web

• The Case for Teaching Depressing Books | LitHub
• The Supreme Court Will Hear Arguments by Phone. The Public Can Listen In | New York Times
• Good News: They Followed the Policy! | Intellectual Freedom Blog
• Disney Plus censorship: All the movies and TV shows edited and censored on the streaming service | Newsweek
• Why Frankenstein’s Most Disturbing Scene Was Censored Until the 1980s | Screen Rant
• All your library book are belong to us | Jurist
• Naruto Fixes Accidental Censorship in Recent Boruto Manga | Comicbook.com
• Mariko Tamaki & Gene Yang Celebrate National Library Week Live — Register Now! | Comic Book Legal of Defense Fund

International Issues

• Coronavirus: Mobile data helps Norway track cases | BBC
• Commission COVID-19 sharing data aims to be operational as soon as possible| Euractiv
• China is censoring research on COVID-19 origins, deleted page on Wuhan University website suggests | Newsweek
• Coronavirus: NHS contact tracing app to target 80% of smartphone users | BBC
• German tech startups plead for European approach to corona tracing app | Reuters
• China Post-Coronavirus: Signs of Life, Censorship and Paranoia | New York Times
• India Virus-Track App Gets 50 Million Users Amid Privacy Concerns | Bloomberg

ALA News

• Donna Morris receives AASL Intellectual Freedom Award and Martha Hickson receives AASL Intellectual Freedom Award
• Unlocking the Library of Congress
• ALA awards additional 13 Library Census Equity Fund grantee
• New Wonder Woman, Banned Books Week materials, and more from ALA Graphics
• Access to ALA Editions | ALA Neal-Schuman textbooks during the COVID-19 pandemic
• Learn how to build your own digital scholarship/humanities curriculum with this LITA webinar; April 22
• Freedom to Read Foundation Launches Webinar Series; next webinar April 28
• K-8 libraries invited to apply for $5,000 award recognizing outstanding programming; due May 4
• ALA seeks proposals for 2020 Diversity Research Grants; due May 15

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