June 2, 2017 – Collated by OIF Staff and News Interns

Intellectual Freedom Highlights

• Whose reviews? and other thoughts on collection development, intellectual freedom, and diversity | Reading While White blog; “How does a school or public library collection development policy support—or inhibit—seeking out books beyond the mainstream—those from large and mid-size presses – to include collecting materials from small presses, or self-published materials, that may speak to the diverse population and diverse needs of their constituencies?”
• Ain’t it a drag? Program challenges at the public library | OIF Blog; “Lately, a number of libraries have offered programs in which drag queens read to children (from San Francisco to New York), or share make-up or fashion tips. Predictably, some among us see this as a sign of the Apocalypse, a sure sign that America’s moral center is collapsing. Therefore, of course, libraries get challenges.”

Censorship

• Sherman Alexie challenged twice in one month | OIF Blog; “It seems the upper Midwest has a problem with Sherman Alexie. Within one month, his 2007 novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian has been challenged in two school districts.”
• Beware the film adaptation of your child’s favorite book | The Federalist (Thirteen Reasons Why)
• How a culture of outrage around politically engaged art endangers our public sphere | NCAC

Access

• Late fees no longer exist at Salt Lake City libraries | Smithsonian

Privacy

• Dewey Decibel Podcast: Protecting our privacy | American Libraries
• In Trump’s America, Black Lives Matter activists grow wary of their smartphones |  Washington Post
• Calling on the U.S. Congress to learn about surveillance. From Batman. | Access Now
• New Social Media Screening for U.S. Visitors Goes Into Effect | Fortune
• Here’s the catch: District relies on filters to monitor content students accessing on web | The Republic (Kentucky)
• Court: Dead daughter’s parents have no right to access her Facebook account | Ars Technica (Germany)

See more privacy updates on the Choose Privacy Week blog.

Net Neutrality

• ‘Losing the Internet’: by 15 year old Editorial contest winner | The New York Times
• A bad broadband market begs for net neutrality protections | Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Victims demand FCC remove fake anti-net neutrality comments | Forbes
• Commission impossible: How and why the FCC created net neutrality | TechCrunch
• The net neutrality debate: Why there is no simple solution | Forbes
• To kill net neutrality rules, FCC saw broadband isn’t “telecommunications” | Ars Technica
• Net neutrality activists have already lost, according to these execs | The Washington Post

Campus Speech/Academic Freedom

• Poster equating LGBT rights to sin stirs free speech debate at small NC high school | News & Observer
• When the left turns on its own | The New York Times
• Why academic freedom should be covered at freshman orientation | Chronicle of Higher Ed

First Amendment Issues

• ‘Hate speech is not protected by the First Amendment,’ Portland mayor says. He’s wrong.  | Washington Post
• There is more at stake than freedom of press | The Daily Star
• Right to speak freely about engineering is subject of 1st Amendment lawsuit | Ars Technica
• State of the news media | Pew Research Center; “Since 2004, Pew Research Center has issued an annual report on key audience and economic indicators for a variety of sectors within the U.S. news media industry. These data speak to the shifting ways in which Americans seek out news and information, how news organizations get their revenue, and the resources available to American journalists as they seek to inform the public about important events of the day.”

Around the Web

• 2nd Noose Found In D.C., This Time At African American History Museum | NPR
• Wikipedia’s switch to HTTPS has successfully fought government censorship | Motherboard
• Rachel Dolezal removed from Book Festival lineup | Baltimore City Paper
• Enticing students to read again | Chronicle of Higher Ed
• June is GLBT Book Month | Knowledge Quest
• Students ‘don’t understand’ plagiarism, research suggests | Times Higher Education

International Issues

• Russia seeks suspended sentence for Ukrainian library director | Radio Free Europe; “Russian prosecutors are seeking a five-year suspended sentence for the former head of Moscow’s Ukrainian Literature Library, who is accused of extremism and embezzlement in a case that has been denounced by rights activists.”
• Index on Censorship brings Banned Books Week to the UK | Index Press Release
• Philippines military to censor press and social media under martial law in Mindanao | The Straits Times
• New Open Data Act in Germany | European Data Portal
• Outspoken Chinese law professor, government critic, silenced | The New York Times
• City of Warsaw revokes comics festival grant after nationalists object | Comic Book Legal Defense Fund

OIF News

• Free Booklist Webinar—Developing and Supporting your LGBTQ Collection; Join Booklist and Gale, a Cengage Company, for this free webinar on the importance of LGBTQ titles in your library’s collection. We will hear from Kristin Pekoll, assistant director of ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, who will review how LGBTQ books can serve an underrepresented population and how to protect these titles from censorship, along with information about self-censorship and tools to empower librarians in their purchasing decisions. Deb Sica, chair of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender Round Table of the ALA and regional manager of Vallejo Libraries, Solano County Library (CA), will speak to the essentialness of offering invisible resources to the LGBTQ community. Finally, Booklist columnist and reviewer Michael Cart will discuss curating a core collection of LGBTQ materials. Moderated by Booklist Associate Editor, Adult Books, Annie Bostrom.

ALA News

• Spotlight on Rural, Native and Tribal Libraries at ALA Annual Conference
• Kathi Kromer new head of ALA Washington Office
• New Workshop: Cyber Security and Privacy: Protecting Yourself and Your Users
• Fight for Libraries! Include #SaveIMLS on Twitter when you advocate for libraries.
• Join the Intellectual Freedom Round Table and volunteer for a committee.
• Registration now open for the 2017 International Book Fair (SIBF)/ALA Library Conference

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