Category: Intellectual Freedom Issues
The Library is Closed: Reflections on Self-Censorship, Pride, Silence, and Solidarity
By guest contributor E. F. Schraeder. These are risks and possibilities when a librarian opts to honor PRIDE month or recognize LGBTQ authors and readers throughout the year in other ways. Each June almost like clockwork, it seems some library or other is on the receiving end of public noise: shame or praise, for hosting or cancelling an event with LGBTQ community members in mind.
Your Bookshelf May Be Part of the Problem: A Rebuttal
I’m relieved that Juan Vidal is not a librarian. The condescending and short-sighted tone of his article “Your Bookshelf May Be Part of the Problem” is so anathema to librarianship and the joy of reading it made my face contort.
Woody Allen’s Book Cancellation is Apropos of Today’s Discourse
The ability to stymy humiliation, to withhold judgement about intellectual pursuits is a pillar of intellectual freedom. Hachette’s recent move to cancel Woody Allen’s memoir represents an irreparable crack in this pillar as it buckles to sentiments anathema to an adult’s right to read.
American Dirt: Book Review and Controversy Analysis
The controversy surrounding American Dirt has eclipsed the novel entirely. And while it has spurred a worthy dialogue about the right to read (and write), the core message of the book has been lost in the midst.
When Free Speech is a Crime
The framers of the Constitution did not anticipate texting your boyfriend to encourage his suicide, or the sending of strobe GIFs that precipitate epileptic seizures. Sometimes, free speech is a crime.
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.