Intellectual Freedom News 9/28/2018
September 28, 2018 – Collated by OIF Staff and News Editors
Intellectual Freedom Highlights
- Dear Banned Author | What would you say to your favorite banned and challenged author? This Banned Books Week (September 23-29), we’re hosting a Dear Banned Author letter-writing campaign, and we hope you’ll join us! Visit the website to find author addresses, programming tools and printable postcards.
- Dear Banned Author: A collection of 29 powerful letters | OIF Blog
Censorship
- Public library moves drag queen story time to SLCC | KATC.com
- Cherry Creek schools ditches EBSCO student database after prolonged complaints about accessible porn | Sentinal Colorado
Banned Books Week
- Ethics and Libraries: A reflection on Banned Books week | IFLA/FAIFE Blog
- Conflicting Visions | Unity Temple (Podcast) “Often the most challenged books are the stories that need to be heard the most,” they muse on bannedbooksweek.org. Reflections on banned books week, the silencing of stories and why what we share and how we listen matters.
Read more at http://unitytemple.libsyn.com/conflicting-visions#bHmlHrglfZKO6U0r.99 - The Biblioracle: During Banned Books Week, reflecting on the dangers of censorship | Chicago Tribune
- The 35 most frequently banned books of the past 5 years | Mental Floss
- Do we really still need Banned Books Week? | The Washington Post
- The Hate U Give author Angie Thomas on why it’s wrong to ban her Black Lives Matter novel | Entertainment Weekly
- By the numbers: Banned Books Week | American Libraries
- PRH bolsters We Need Diverse Books for Banned Books Week | Publishers Weekly
- Banned Books Week 2018: What books are banned most frequently | Newsweek
- Dear Banned Author: Letters to Jay Asher, Leslea Newman, and Todd Parr | OIF Blog
- Banned Books 2018: The titles, data, self-censorship – and crafts | School Library Journal
- A look inside comic book challenges and bans | CBLDF
- Why comics are banned | CBLDF
Privacy
- US privacy law is on the horizon. Here’s how tech companies want to shape it | C|Net
- Commerce Department Seeks Comments on Outcome-Based Privacy Protections | NextGov
- Congress wants to hear from everyone but consumers in a hearing on consumer privacy | Los Angeles Times
- Legislators pushing a Patriot Act, but for human trafficking in the wake of FOSTA | Tech Dirt; “Specifically, H.R. 6729 would allow financial institutions, federal regulatory bodies, nonprofit organizations, and law enforcement to share customer bank records between them without running afoul of rules regarding consumer privacy and without opening themselves up to lawsuits.”
- EFF opposes industry efforts to have Congress roll back state privacy protections | EFF
- Just don’t call it privacy | The New York Times
- How students learned to stop worrying – and love being spied upon | The Chronicle of Higher Education
- A seemingly small change to Chrome stirs big controversy | Wired
See this week’s additional privacy news and updates on the Choose Privacy Everyday blog.
Net Neutrality and Broadband Access
- The New York Times sues the FCC to investigate Russian interference in net neutrality decision | Tech Crunch
- Cities are teaming up to offer broadband, and the FCC is mad | Wired
Access
- GDPR/Right to be Forgotten Being Used To Try To Disappear Public US Court Docket | TechDirt
- Prisons are switching to ebooks – but that’s not a good thing | Quartz
- Congress renews $5 million open textbook pilot for second year | SPARC
- National Screening Room of free motion pictures now online | Library of Congress; “The Library of Congress announced today that it has digitized hundreds of hours of motion pictures that will be freely available on the newly launched National Screening Room website. Most of the content in the National Screening Room is in the public domain.”
- The end of fines? | Library Journal
- Accessibility on campus | Library Journal; “Legal requirements, the growth of dedicated positions, and enhanced technology are helping academic libraries make content accessible for all.”
Copyright
- Music Modernization Act heads to President Trump for signature | Variety
- Miracle in Marrakesh makes it to US | American Libraries
Free Press, Social Media, and Fake News
- Inside the private Justice Department meeting that could lead to new investigations of Facebook, Google and other tech giants | Washington Post
- Attorneys General Zoom In On Tech Privacy And Power | NPR
- Regulating free speech on social media is dangerous and futile | Brookings Institute
- Twitter releases new policy to ban dehumanizing speech | The Verge
- Survey says: Twitter wants its users to help craft its dehumanization policy | Adweek
- Trump allies propose nationalizing Facebook, Google data | ABA Journal
- Class-action lawsuit against Facebook alleges moderator’s job gave her PTSD | CBS News
Academic Freedom & Campus Speech
First Amendment and Free Speech
- Alabama Revisits Ten Commandments, Hoping for Help From Kavanaugh | The New York Times
- AG Ken Paxton joins court fight in defense of Texas law requiring schoolkids to say Pledge | Dallas News
Around the Web
- In Banned Books class at College of Charleston, Salman Rushdie meets Captain Underpants | The Post and Courier
International Issues
- After a Portuguese museum director stepped down to protest censorship, artists such as Wolfgang Tillmans and Tania Bruguera offered support | Artsy
- A new age of censorship is dawning on us | The Times (United Kingdom)
- Google CEO Sundar Pichai is headed to Washington this week to discuss censorship and China | The Verge
- Can Hungary’s fourth estate survive? | The New York Times
ALA News
- Nominations open for 2019 IFRT John Phillip Immroth Memorial Award
- Volunteer to serve on ALA, Council, and joint committees for 2019 – 2021
- National writing contest launches to engage communities with literature
- Nominations open for 2019 EMIERT Distinguished Librarian Award
- Joint Conference of Librarians of Color 2018 embraces culture, community
- ASGCLA’s Announces New Mentoring Program
- New Technology Planning LITA Guide is Out Now
- New session: Offering Service and Support to the LGBTQIA Community and Allies Workshop
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One thought on “Intellectual Freedom News 9/28/2018”
In reflection of banned books week, I would like to raise concerns about the dangers of censorship in our modern world. As all things evolve, so do our concepts. Today, books are still banned for covering topics of sex, LGBT+ rights, transgender rights, and violence. But another type of censorship is prevalent and rooted in our daily lives; every day, our social media pages, even our search results, are censored and weighed in our to maximize our time spent on a website and appeal to our preferences. These created “echo chambers” are essentially censorship of ideals outside of our own, and because of the lack of exposure to opposing ideals, our society becomes increasingly warped one way or another. Therefore, I believe it is in our best interest, in order to preserve the integrity of information, to create online spaces that share unbiased representation of different viewpoints. A wonderful example is the Points of View Reference Center. If there are any other useful tools promoting this activity, please share them.