Intellectual Freedom News 9/20/2024
Highlights
- American Library Association Hosts Historic Intellectual Freedom Summit at the Library of Congress | ALA
- Freedom to Read Advocates Look to Expand Efforts Beyond the Courtroom | Publishers Weekly
- Reminder: Call for ALA Committee Volunteers for 2025-2027 – submit by October 14, 2024 | ALA
- On National Voter Registration Day 2024, ALA President urges library professionals to get Reader Voter Ready | ALA
- ALA invites applicants for $3.5 million in grants as part of third round of Libraries Transforming Communities: Accessible Small and Rural Communities | ALA
Censorship
- Florida county restoring dozens of books to school libraries after ‘book ban’ lawsuit | Politico (FL)
- Florida school board pays over $100K to defend ban on book about same-sex penguin pair | Talahassee Democrat (FL)
- Williams Field High School Teacher claims harassment over book assignments | Gilbert Sun News (AZ)
- Banned books are returning to shelves in one Florida school district | NPR (FL)
- Controversy over new guidelines for book shelving in Columbia County libraries | WJBF (GA)
- Under Tennessee’s stricter school library law, some books quietly disappear | Chalkbeat Tennessee (TN)
- School board holds off removing books from library shelves | WWNY (NY)
- Billings school board approves new book policy after nine-month saga | Billings Gazette (MT)
- The Fight To Save A Swing-State School Board From Far-Right Extremists | HuffPost (NC)
- Requests to remove books from public libraries are on the rise in Oregon. Here are the titles most in jeopardy | Oregonian (OR)
- Rutherford County Schools to potentially ban books from school libraries due to new law | WZTV (TN)
- Modern Day McCarthyists: The Fight Against Book Bans in Llano County | Publishsers Weekly (TX)
- Prince William Schools Address Book Controversy with New Parental Control System After Parent Challenges Popular Novel | Potomac Local News (VA)
Privacy & Cybersecurity
- Senators, parents ramp up pressure on House to pass Kids Online Safety Act | Hill
- FTC finds ‘staggering’ level of user surveillance by social media, streaming services | Fox4
- Workplace and remote work company surveillance hurts workers’ mental health | WTOP
First Amendment & Civil Rights
- Civic Engagement Groups Seek to Intervene in Challenge to Executive Order on Voter Registration | ACLU
- Court orders release of reasons behind Oklahoma teacher’s certification revocation | KTUL (OK)
- Your Rights to Free Speech in Public Schools | NYCLU
- Penn State launches First Amendment resource | Daily Collegian
- Free speech coalition urges Supreme Court to strike down Texas’ unconstitutional age verification law | ACLU TX (TX)
Academic Freedom & Student Speech
- What studentes need to know about classroom censorship laws in Arkansas | Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (AR)
- Florida Students and Faculty Deserve Better than the Stop W.O.K.E. Act | NEA (FL)
- ACLU sues IU and Purdue over SEA 202 free speech policies | IndyStar (IN)
- Real Echo Chambers Aren’t at Harvard. They’re at Voucher-Funded Religious Schools. | Harvard Crimson
- ‘Academic freedom is on life support,’ say professors surveyed on tenure, censorship | News from the States (FL)
- Stanford bans encampments on campus after year of Gaza protests | San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
- Provost Croson to select academic freedom review committee | Minnesota Daily (MN)
State & Local Governance
- Florida Attorney General’s Office heading out of state to defend Texas library book bans | Tallahassee Democrat (FL)
Net Neutrality & Broadband Access
- “Net Neutrality”: A crucial, high stakes battlefield | My Broadband
- Tech Think Tanks Fighting N.Y. Broadband Law in Supreme Court | Broadband Breakfast
- Modern Broadband is a Telecom Service, Says Former FCC Technology Head | Broadband Breakfast
Social Media
- History Has Already Discredited the TikTok Ban | Just Security
Disinformation & Media Literacy
- G20 nations agree to join efforts to fight disinformation and set AI guidelines | ABC News
- How A.I., QAnon and Falsehoods Are Reshaping the Presidential Race | New York Times
- Russia goes all-out with covert disinformation aimed at Harris, Microsoft report says | CNBC
- Blinken accuses RT of being worldwide Kremlin intelligence network | Guardian
- Five things to know about global disinformation in 2024 | George W. Bush Presidential Center
Around the Web
- Voices: I’ve seen books change lives — mine included. Young Utahns must have the freedom to read. | Salt Lake Tribune
- How the Far-Right Uses Educational Takeover to Impose Its Agenda | Literary Hub
- Samuels Public Library Honored as Virginia Library of the Year | Royal Examiner
- Velshi Banned Book Club: Laurie Halse Anderson and the coalition fighting book banning in the courts | MSNBC
- Black stories crucial as Banned Book Week approaches | Afro News
- Discussing book bans with Dave Eggers | MSNBC
- New Support for New York City’s Public Libraries from the Foundation Established by Andrew Carnegie | Carnegie.org
- Johnny Weir encourages support for Quarryville Library in new video | Lancaster Online
- Fort Worth ISD calls special meeting to review superintendent’s job performance | NBCDFW
- NC superintendent candidates clash over extremism, school vouchers, resegregation | News & Observer
- Christian Conservatives Face Reality: Increasingly, They Stand Alone | New York Times
- Drag Queen Storytime Kentucky announces it’s closing; ‘We made our impact.’ | WHAS
- Trump’s Road Map for Taking ‘Woke’ Out of American Education | Wall Street Journal
- On the Front Lines Fighting for the Freedom to Read, Sourcebooks Remains Diligent | Publishers Weekly
- Education Matters: Banned Books Week raises awareness of threats to free speech | San Diego Union-Times
- ‘Racism is embedded in our society’: how attacks on immigrants in Ohio highlight US disinformation crisis | Guardian
- RI Authors Against Book Bans unveils scorecards for school committee candidates | Steve Ahlquist
- Fighting back on book bans | NPR
- Anti-Racist Teachers: Disrupting Resegregation [Overrepresentation] in Special Education | Diverse Education
- Not-so-great expectations: Students are reading fewer books in English class | KSAT
- The Resistance: Five People Standing Up to Book Banners | Publishers Weekly
- Are censorship and lack of challenging books factors in why teens can’t read? | Dominion Post
- Book Bans Are Already Doing What They’re Supposed to Do | Balls and Strikes
ALA News
- American Library Association announces the appointment of Donna Seaman as Booklist Editor-In-Chief
- New Grant Supports the Creation of 500 Adult and Family Literacy Support Centers in Libraries Nationwide
- AASL Commends the Maryland State Education Association
- AASL Commends the Title Wave Book Mobile
- ALA Nominating Committee extends deadline for ALA President-elect, ALA Treasurer, & ALA Councilor at Large candidates for 2025 election
- Building library environments for learning and creativity
- Carnegie-Whitney awards up to $5,000 for guides to library Resources
- AASL Commends the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching
- Choice and LibTech Insights publish white paper to understand the place of artificial intelligence literacy in information literacy instruction
- New from ACRL – “Assessment and Advocacy: Using Project Outcome for Academic Libraries”
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