Intellectual Freedom News 5/19/17
May 19, 2017 – Collated by OIF Staff and News Interns
Intellectual Freedom Highlights
- OIF and Intellectual Freedom in Chicago | IF Blog; “ALA’s 2017 Annual Conference is in Chicago, and the Office for Intellectual Freedom will be there staffing committee meetings and programs. Committee meetings and programs are open to any attendee, and they’re often a good way to learn about the business of ALA and its intellectual freedom initiatives. You can find all of these sessions and others about intellectual freedom in the conference scheduler; download your own IF Calendar so you don’t miss a thing!”
- Want to lend a hand while protecting literary liberties at the ALA Annual Conference? Volunteer to help with OIF’s Stand for the Banned recording booth. Find out more.
- Communism for kids? Intellectual Freedom for all | IF Blog; “In late March, MIT Press published a slim volume written and illustrated by Bini Adamczak called Communism for Kids. Inevitable howls of outrage followed from conservative news outlets, blogs, Twitter, and a flurry of one-star reviews on Amazon from people who haven’t and will never actually read the book.”
Censorship
- American Library Association urges schools not to remove ’13 Reasons Why’ | HuffPost; (Colorado); “People have been writing about suicide because it happens. It doesn’t happen because people write about it. — ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom Director James LaRue.”
- School district pulls suicide book ‘Thirteen Reasons Why’ | Times Telegram (Colorado)
- Colorado school district briefly banned ’13 Reasons Why’ book | TeenVogue
- NCAC Urgest Wisconsin superintendent to retain award-winning novel in curriculum | NCAC; ‘Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian’
- North Carolina high school censors yearbook with Donald Trump quote | NCAC
Access
- Pilot program provides internet access in rural Oklahoma | NewsOK
- Library of Congress makes 25M records in online catalog available for bulk download | Talking New Media
- ‘Pop-Up’ library brings internet access to rural Virginia | GovTech
Meeting Rooms and Programs
- Let’s talk about sex — the debate continues | The BayNet (MD)
- Debate continues over sex-ed class st St. Mary’s library | American Libraries
Filters
- Internet filters coming soon to public library | Watertown Public Opinion (SD)
Privacy
- FCC’s O’Rielly Hopes To Block State Privacy Laws | MediaPost Policy Blog
- Big data in education: Balancing research needs and student privacy | Report from the National Academy of Education
- New Congressional push for student outcomes data | Politico
- Twitter rolls out new privacy tools as it ditches Do Not Track and expands data sharing | PCWorld
See more privacy updates on the Choose Privacy Week blog.
Academic Freedom
- Academic freedom is the key to truth – and to democracy | The Boston Globe
- Revamped ‘Anti-Science’ education bills in U.S. find success | Scientific American
Net Neutrality
- ALA condemns FCC vote to undermine net neutrality protections, vows to defend open internet| ALAnews
- FCC kicks off effort to roll back net neutrality rules | Politico; “The FCC voted along party lines Thursday to begin the process of repealing Obama-era net neutrality rules, which require internet service providers like Comcast and Verizon to treat all web traffic equally.”
- Net Neutrality debate focuses on key metric: Is investment up or down? | Variety
- The Republican push to repeal net neutrality will get underway this week | The Washington Post
- Rolling back net neutrality would hurt minorities and low-income families | The Hill
- John Oliver skewers critics in latest plea for Net Neutrality | Variety
- Big Cable push-polled america on Net Neutrality, still found majority in favor of it | BoingBoing
First Amendment Issues
- US officials criticize Turkey after attack on DC protestors | The New York Times
- Ohio Supreme Court upholds school search of unattended student backpack | EdWeek
- Attacking a free press: Actions speak louder than words | Newseum Institute
Campus Speech
- Is free speech fading at colleges? Some defenders think so | The New York Times
- A state’s effort to head off campus-speech fights gets mixed reviews | Chronicle of Higher Education (TN)
- Students stop U.S. immigration officer from speaking at Northwestern U. | Chronicle of Higher Education
Around the Web
- Transgender library employee settles health care lawsuit | The New York Times (Ohio)
- IMLS announces the 10 recipients of 2017 National Medal for Museum and Library Service | InfoDocket
- Chelsea Manning, who served more prison time than any US leader, is freed | Ars Technica
- The Airport Lawyers Who Stood Up to Trump Are Under Attack | The Nation
- Librarians brainstorm solutions to build and defend graphic novel collections | Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
- The Seth Rich conspiracy theory: A tale of two filter bubbles | Wired
International Issues
- Iran is using indirect censorship methods to avoid international criticism | The Conversation
- Thai government backpedals on threat to block Facebook over royal insults | ABCNews (Thailand)
- Three years of striking the right (to be forgotten) balance | Google: The Keyword
- Toronto Public Library expanding program that lends out wireless internet | CBCNews
- Hollywood helps China set up national surveillance and censorship system to tackle copyright infringement | TechDirt
- Urgent call for school librarians to halt slide in literacy standards | The Herald (Scotland)
- Public outcry saves saskatchewan library funds | Library Journal (Canada)
- Farghadani gives firsthand account of imprisonment for cartoon | Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
ALA News
- New Workshop: Cyber Security and Privacy: Protecting Yourself and Your Users
- Businesses unite to fight for library funding [Corporate Committee for Library Investment] | American Libraries
- Fight for Libraries! Include #SaveIMLS on Twitter when you advocate for libraries.
- Join the Intellectual Freedom Round Table and volunteer for a committee.
- Webinar: Do They Still Teach that in School? Ethics in LIS Curricula with FTRF President Martin Garnar on May 25 at 1 p.m. CST.
Subscribe to future issues of Intellectual Freedom News, a free weekly compilation of news delivered to your inbox by the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom, including
- 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
You can also find us at Facebook, Twitter, and online. Or email us at oif@ala.org