Category: Intellectual Freedom Issues
Safety in Libraries: a Continuum
I’d like to offer an approach I’ll call the continuum of safety, offered from the perspective of the patron, the person who uses the library but is not a member of the staff. My goal is to establish a framework for the supervision of public space, in keeping with the values of the profession.
Libraries and Journalism: Dispelling Disinformation and Advancing Democracy With Diligent Fact-Finding
Librarians and journalists tackle the same challenges and it’s no surprise that the two fields have found natural allies in one another. Both institutions champion the notion of equity in access and intellectual freedoms within their respective mandates. And collaboration is key when one falls short of their charge to serve the community.
How Democracies Die: An Interview with Steven Levitsky, Co-Author of How Democracies Die
If you take a mainstream political science definition of democracy, the United States didn’t become a full democracy until 1965 with the Voting Rights Act because it did not have full adult suffrage until 1965.
Searching for Intellectual Freedom Bloggers 2020
The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) is seeking bloggers for 2020! Here’s what our writers have said about the experience.
Integrity Immutable: Diego Rivera and the Rockefeller Feud
And, as per his reputation, Rivera didn’t skimp when it came to his ardor for agitating expectations with his art.
Stanley v. Georgia, Fifty Years Later
Why is this case still worth our attention? It’s been 50 years. Private freedoms are viewed as a necessary pillar of our society. As Americans, we have the right to privately read and view whatever information or material we wish. It is unconstitutional for the government to come in and try to police the content of the media we’re consuming. Right?
Finding the Truth in Today’s Politics: An Interview with Angie Drobnic Holan Editor of PolitiFact
At PolitiFact, we are trying to correct the misstated or incorrect facts because if you don’t have accurate facts, any conversation becomes impossible.
The FBI and Student Surveillance: A Sputnik for Our Time
A recent push by the FBI for US universities to monitor Chinese students is alarming – but this siren rings with a different tonality depending on your listening equipment. To Senator Mark Warner, it’s about national security. But to me, it sounds a whole lot like government-sanctioned censorship.
Review of Beyond Banned Books: Defending Intellectual Freedom Throughout Your Library
Ms. Pekoll has written a very clear, useful, practical, and even a motivational book.
Lynda’s Privacy Problem
By: guest contributor Samantha Lee – LyndaLibrary, soon to be LinkedIn Learning, is planning a platform update that would require library patrons to create LinkedIn accounts to access the resources, rightly prompting privacy concerns amongst Connecticut librarians. By calling attention to the privacy concerns on Lynda/LinkedIn, librarians can help to create a safer environment for patrons and their privacy.