Alex Gino Shares What it’s Like to Author the #1 Most Banned Book
By: guest contributor Alex Gino. “Censorship of my writing is both so upsetting and unsurprising that it can be hard to talk about.”
Intellectual Freedom News 9/20/19
“Keep the Light On” with these helpful tools; The Constitution, annotated: The Constitution explained in plain English; Facebook plans launch of its own “Supreme Court” for handling takedown appeals
Intellectual Freedom Fighters, Part 5: Rural Internet Access Groups
The final installment in the Intellectual Freedom Fighters Series looks at different projects to bring internet access to rural communities.
Review: Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are
However, I think even when it isn’t explicitly discussed, the reader must be thinking about privacy – it’s hard to read about how data was collected regarding racism toward Barack Obama or about sexual problems, for example, without reflecting on what your own search history might say. I think the reader cannot avoid considering privacy issues while reading about just how much data Google (and others) can collect.
“Keep the Light On” with these Helpful Tools
There are a lot of great tools, resources, and ideas available to celebrate Banned Books Week but I’m going to highlight my three favorite.
Common Sense Media and ‘Positive Messages’ About Youth
In Common Sense Media’s reviews, conflating the the amount of “inappropriate” content and the value of the messages within the same five-star rating system does a disservice to parents, youth, and art as a whole.
Intellectual Freedom News 9/13/19
ALA Announces eBooks for All Campaign; Nominations open for 2020 IFRT John Phillip Immroth Memorial Award; Windows, not walls: Defending incarcerated peoples’ right to read
Easy Banned Books Week Programming for the Busy Academic Librarian: The Banned Books Whiteboard Survey
September is a busy month for academic librarians, but whiteboard surveys offer a relatively easy way to mark Banned Books Week and raise awareness of the issue of banned and challenged books.
Windows, Not Walls: Defending Incarcerated People’s Right to Read
The right of incarcerated people to read and the fight to allow them to do so were explored in “Minds Unlocked: Supporting Intellectual Freedom Behind Bars,” at the 2019 ALA Annual in Washington, DC. Librarians, whether they work with incarcerated people or not, are key to helping defend the right to intellectual freedom, and this presentation provided important information on the context of censorship policies and the subjective realities of what incarcerated people are and are not allowed to read.
“Suggested Reading” Book Review
Dave Connis’ new YA novel is a book about banned books, but it’s also much more than that. It’s about the power of narrative told through the personal story of the exceptional Clara Evans; literature-lover and library evangelist. Despite the YA category, she’s a main character that readers of any age can identify with.