Intellectual Freedom News 4/14/2017
April 14, 2017 – Collated by OIF Staff and News Interns
Intellectual Freedom Highlights
- Top Ten Challenged Books: Resources and Graphics | OIF; “The list of the Top Ten Challenged Books of 2016 is here. This year’s list explores a range of genres (young adult, fiction, memoir) and formats (novels, graphic novels, picture books), but they have one thing in common: each book was threatened with removal from spaces where diverse ideas and perspectives should be welcomed.”
- ‘We’re number one’: Award-winning Canadian book tops annual ranking of books Americans tried to ban | National Post
- Bill Cosby’s ‘Little Bill’ books targeted for censorship, library group says| CNN
- The Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2016, considered | Booklist
- These are the 10 most banned and challenged books in America right now | Huffington Post
- Spotlight on Censorship Check out the Intellectual Freedom Blog for OIF’s “Spotlight on Censorship” series, with profiles on books from the 2016 Top Ten Challenged Books list, written by staff members Kristin Pekoll and Ellie Diaz. The series includes Gino’s George, Jennings and Herthel’s I Am Jazz, Levithan’s Two Boys Kissing, Green’s Looking for Alaska, Fraction and Zdarksy’s Big Hard Sex Criminals, Palahniuk’s Make Something Up, Bill Cosby’s Little Bill series, Rowell’s Eleanor & Park
- Need help getting your Banned Books Week program off the ground? The Freedom to Read Foundation is awarding $1,000 and $2,500 grants to support events during Banned Books Week. Grantees also receive a Banned Books Week promo-kit, filled with new Banned Books Week products. Apply by May 12.
Censorship
- Parents object to placement of sexually explicit books in Charleston library | Palmetto Business Daily
- NCAC protests AZ school district’s unjustifiable removal of ‘The Kite Runner’ from English curriculum | NCAC Blog
- Pics Or It Didn’t Happen: reclaiming Instagram’s censored art | The Guardian
- Public university takes down ‘hate speech’: an art display that criticizes sexual harassment | The College Fix
- Prisons ban book by local attorneys | Register Guard
Access
- Appeals court judge lauds transgender student’s ‘brave’ fight for justice | Education Week
- OER: One Size Does Not Fit All | Knowledge Quest
- Infographic: The ed-tech challenges faced by immigrant students | eSchoolNews
Privacy
- Spying on Students: School-Issued Devices and Student Privacy | Electronic Frontier Foundation
- The U.S. Congress Is Not the Leader in Privacy or Data Security Law | Teach Privacy
- Bill banning bathroom cameras in government buildings gets Iowa Senate OK| Des Moines Register (IA)
- Protest the proposed ban of restroom cameras in public libraries | Iowa City Press Citizen
- Protest the proposed ban of restroom cameras in public libraries | Iowa City Press Citizen
- Trump & Co. just picked the wrong fight with Twitter | Wired
- Suing to see the Feds’ encrypted messages? Good luck | Wired
- Line-by-line, We Corrected the Record on Broadband Privacy and Net Neutrality | Public Knowledge
- Apathy about privacy is a myth: why users do care about data collection | Open Democracy
- 4 ways Congress can provide stronger privacy protections | The Hill
- EU to US: Undoing Broadband Privacy Signals U.S. Is Not Serious About Privacy Protections | Public Knowledge
- Trump wants to search cellphones at the border. These lawmakers are trying to stop him. | The Washington Post
Net Neutrality
Libraries and Hate Speech
- Disturbing anti-Semitic voicemail left at Washington University on St. Louis library | Huffington Post
Academic Freedom
- Critique vs. Harassment | Inside Higher Ed
First Amendment Issues
- The man who wants to tax porn thinks his past assault case is ‘fake news’ | The Daily Beast; “Chris Sevier, who wants to put a porn filter on every internet-connected device, jokingly calls himself ‘the mentally ill stalker who wants to marry his computer’—and has a warrant out for his arrest.”
- Wichita State student government refuses to recognize libertarian group Washington Free Beacon
- Federal appeals court considers Facebook post a true threat | Newseum Institute
- These high school journalists investigated a new principal’s credentials. Days later, she resigned. | The Washington Post
- Free speech zones abolished on Colorado public college campuses | Denver Post
Around the Web
- Why Gen Z needs librarians now more than ever | eSchool News
- From Helicopter to Velcro | Intellectual Freedom Blog; “Some now argue that parenting has become even more overprotective, almost suffocating. This is known as “Velcro parenting.” They’re not hovering. They’re attached, tight as a second skin. And again, it’s not just in the early years. These are the parents who cannot accept the idea that a 17-year-old Advanced English student is reading a book in which there is a frank discussion of sex, or of racism. Their babies need to be shielded from such “inappropriate” knowledge, even though in a year or two, they’ll be old enough to enlist, or vote, or marry.”
- Is book publishing too liberal? | Publishers Weekly
- Two studies suggesting a link between violent video games and real-life behavior have been retracted| Quartz
- Marvel pulls X-Men comic that had a hidden Koranic message. Says the artist: ‘My career is over.’| Washington Post
- You have the right to feel offended, and we have the right to offend | Herald Sun
- The Fake-News Fad: Let it Fade | School Library Journal; “Our focus on fake news, ‘alternative facts,’ and general media mendacity distracts us from a very real educational challenge: teaching students the skills and dispositions that make them careful and thorough researchers. This is hard work, and there are no easy recipes to facilitate the process.”
International Issues
- Netizen Report: Censorship spikes with Venezuela’s ‘self-inflicted Coup’ | Global Voices Advox
- ‘Academic freedom is not negotiable’: American university in Hungary criticizes new law | Washington Post
- Hungary’s assault on freedom | New York Times
- China’s WeChat is a censorship juggernaut | Fortune
- Dutch shop apologises for colouring book featuring Adolf Hitler | The Telegraph (UK)
- University freedoms are at risk, say critics | Herald (Scotland)
OIF News
- Choose Privacy Week, May 1-7
- Webinar Recording: Practical Privacy Practices with Michael Robinson, Marshall Breeding and Alison Macrina
ALA News
- The State of America’s Libraries 2017: A Report from the American Library Association
- ALA honors Haipeng Li with Equality Award
- PLA to offer strategic planning workshop at conference for rural and small libraries
- Fight for Libraries! Include #SaveIMLS on Twitter when you advocate for libraries.
- The Freedom to Read Foundation is offering $1,000 and $2,500 grants to execute Banned Books Week programs. Apply now!
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