June 9, 2017 – Collated by OIF Staff and News Interns

Intellectual Freedom Highlights

• How to get your hands on the new Censorship “Field Report” | Intellectual Freedom Blog; “The Field Report is a great resource to showcase the variety of books and unique situations of each challenge….The office hands the Field Reports out at all of the intellectual freedom programs at ALA’s conference, and they’re available for purchase through the ALA Store if you want to give them out during Banned Books Week — only $35 for 50 copies.”
• Location, location, location | Intellectual Freedom Blog; Valerie Nye interviews a rural library director about classification choices that present intellectual freedom issues in small library collections: “I chose to move the book because in its original location the book on abortion and the titles surrounding it created a biased association.”
• School yearbooks as free speech | Intellectual Freedom Blog; “The decision to pull all of the yearbooks smacks of viewpoint discrimination. Justice William Brennan in his dissent on Hazelwood v Kuhlmeier warned that the decision to protect students from controversial or sensitive topics is actually “camouflage” for viewpoint discrimination: “Even in its capacity as educator the State may not assume an Orwellian ‘guardianship of the public mind.’”
• Ex-head of Ukraine library in Moscow Natalia Sharina guilty | BBC News
  • Russia: conviction of librarian for ‘extremist’ Ukrainian books condemned | Amnesty International

Censorship

• Collier School Board OKs new textbooks after remarks on bias, facts | Naples Daily News
  • Textbook battle in Collier County could head to court | Fox 4 News (FL)
• Thirteen Reasons Why controversy | OIF Blog; “The Netflix series 13 Reasons Why has been the center of controversy since it was released in March. Graphic depictions of rape and suicide have re-triggered a censorship debate stretching back to the book’s publication.”
• Viewpoint: Censorship at the library | Evanston Now; “On Friday June 2, the Evanston Public Library held a hearing that may lead to the firing of librarian Lesley Williams this week. Her alleged crime? Posting a message on her personal Facebook page criticizing the library’s efforts at racial equity.”
• A teachable moment, but not censorship, at Harvard| Boston Globe
• ‘Militant’ fights to reverse censorship in Florida prison | The Militant

Access

• Learn how this state is expanding off-campus connectivity for students | eSchoolNews
• Why Social Justice in the Library? Outreach + Inreach | Library Journal
• State department press briefings go dark | Federation of American Scientists
• Announcing #SubwayLibrary: Free e-books for your commute | New York Public Library
• The internet is getting faster — but how fast depends on where you live| Recode
• Infrastructure is not just roads and bridges | New York Times

Privacy

• Privacy @ ALA Annual 2017 | Choose Privacy Week
• Confessions of a privacy novice: I gave my students’ privacy to Google | Intellectual Freedom Blog
• The datafied child: The dataveillance of children and implications for their rights |  New Media and Society
• U.S. Supreme Court to settle major cellphone privacy case | Reuters
  • Privacy in the cellphone age | New York Times (editorial)
• Lawmakers demand more information and privacy protections before reauthorizing FISA snooping powers| Washington Times
• Trump administration rolls out social media vetting of visa applicants | Ars Technica
• Cellphone privacy: Homeland Security chief acknowledges searches of U.S. citizens’ devices | Newsweek
• Security news this week: OneLogin had very bad breach | Wired
• Digital privacy is making antitrust exciting again | Wired
• FTC Announces Third PrivacyCon, Calls for Presentations | FTC

See more privacy updates on the Choose Privacy Week blog.

Net Neutrality

• The end of net neutrality could shackle the internet of things | Wired
• Legal Sidebar: Net Neutrality: Back to the Future (Part One) | CRS Reports & Analysis

Campus Speech/Academic Freedom

• Islam and the fine line of academic freedom | The Conversation
• The new censorship on campus | Chronicle of Higher Education
• The campus speech police come to Fresno State | National Review
• Watered-down campus ‘free speech’ bill passes | NOLA.com
  • Why Conservative Lawmakers Are Turning to Free-Speech Bills as a Fix for Higher Ed |Chronicle of Higher Education
• Northwestern faculty senate defends free speech after students shut down ICE speaker| The College Fix
• Ban official Chinese student organizations abroad | Forbes; “Chinese embassies frequently finance the student organizations, including through dinners, parties and travel. The manner in which the CSSA controls speech of not only Chinese students, but Chinese dissidents, professors, and even the Dalai Lama, means that CSSA erodes the richness of critical Chinese and other voices, decreasing the diversity of viewpoints available on campus.”
• California State University halts Middle East studies search due to outside pressure | Truthout

First Amendment Issues

• Defend Your Institutions: Dissent | Intellectual Freedom Blog; “The biggest questions concerning intellectual freedom in this country have always revolved around the right to speak, write or otherwise express dissent on any given topic — most importantly on political or social issues.”
• Paying for Free Speech: Proposed laws would regulate public protests | ABA Journal
  • America’s freedom to protest is under attack | The Nation
  • When the Nazis come marching in | Slate; “I never feared the First Amendment until white supremacists came to my hometown.”
  • Surround hate speech with peaceful counter-protests | The Oregonian
  • Trump Supporters Accuse Liberal Communities Of Hostility Toward Free Speech | NPR
  • Actually, hate speech is protected speech | Los Angeles Times
• Supreme Court rejects religious liberty case| Newseum Institute
• Does First Amendment protect augmented reality games like Pokémon Go? Suit raises the issue | ABA Journal
• Charges show peril for leakers, journalists alike | Politico
  • Red Alert: The First Amendment Is in Danger   Moyers and Company
    If anyone believes that under the First Amendment gagging the media can’t happen here, the answer is that it already has.
• Twitter users blocked by Trump seek reprieve, citing First Amendment | New York Times
  • Trump’s not the only one blocking constituents on Twitter | ProPublica

Around the Web

• With freedom comes great responsibility | Intellectual Freedom Blog; “More than 500 librarians and library supporters attended Library Legislative Day in Washington D.C. on May 1-2. With the Institute of Library and Museum Services threatened for elimination with President Trump’s “skinny  budget,” this year’s event saw more attendees at Library Legislative Day than any previous year.”
• Victor parents pursue lawsuit in wake of vulgar book | 13 WHAM (NY)
• Does an offensive sculpture deserve to be burned? | The New Yorker
  • ‘Scaffold’ sculpture may not be burned after all, as Dakota take time to consider | Star Tribune (MN)
• Congress ‘Fixes’ Child Porn ‘Loophole’ With 15-Year Prison Sentences For Teen Sexting | TechDirt
• Hacking online hate means talking to the humans behind it | Wired
• ‘Parthenon of Books’; monumental artwork protests censorship | The Guardian
• 100 years ago: Americans debated whether to censor the press | Ashbury Free Press (NJ)
• Milo Yiannopoulos will self-publish “Dangerous” book after getting dropped by Simon & Schuster | CBS News
• FCC security denies that guards pinned journalist against a wall | Ars Technica
• 10 banned and challenged comics for summer reading!| CBLDF
• Where does accountability end and censorship begin? | Huffington Post
• Netflix and Bill Nye the Science Guy didn’t censor old episodes to remove sex chromosomes explanation | The Independent
• Making smart toilet humour a test for Captain Underpants crew as antihero hits big screen | CBC News

International Issues

• How other countries are trying to censor the Internet | Boston Globe
• Theresa May says the internet must now be regulated following London Bridge terror attack | The Independent
  • Theresa May doesn’t rule out regulating the internet like China: ‘Let’s work with the companies’ | The Independent
  • Callan: We can’t censor our way out of terrorism | CNN
  • Privacy campaigners are outraged with Theresa May’s ‘draconian’ internet regulation plans Business Insider
• Remembering Tiananmen Square: Despite censorship, Chinese share images on social media | First Post (China)
• Venezuelan crisis comes with censorship, mounting death toll | Local 10 ABC News (FL)
• Wonder Woman and a dangerous precedent for censorship in Lebanon | The Independent
• Wikipedia seems to be winning its battle against government censorship | Slate
• Japan hotel won’t remove books that deny Nanjing massacre during Olympics | U.S. News & World Report

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

• Nominate a librarian for 2017 I Love My Librarian Award | ALA
• ALISE Awards, Grants, and Competitions: The Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) sponsors several funding opportunities, including the the ALISE/Eugene Garfield Doctoral Dissertation Competition, due June 30
• Spotlight on Rural, Native and Tribal Libraries at ALA Annual Conference
• 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.

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