Month: July 2018
Where Artists are Desecrators: A Review of Patricia Forde’s “The List”
The List, a middle-grade novel by Patricia Forde, was originally published in her native Ireland as The Wordsmith. Its recent re-release on American shores is garnering well-deserved attention for this timely dystopian tale.
Intellectual Freedom News 7/27/18
Why the Janus decision matters to library unions; Southern Utah library workers told to remove buttons, displays featuring LGBTQ-themed materials; Choose Privacy Every Day!
An Interview with Author Elliot Wake
Elliot Wake’s interconnected novels, Black Iris, Cam Girl, and Bad Boy, aren’t often mentioned on LGBTQ book lists, and that’s a shame. His sexy, violent, diverse and feminist romance/thrillers have all the fun of a guilty pleasure without the guilt.
Is literacy a right? My internal conflict
A federal district court ruling earlier this month which held that there is no clearly established constitutional right to literacy in the United States has reminded me that the various pieces of my background are sometimes in conflict with one another.
Dispatches from the Houghton Library, Part One
As an academic librarian with a deep interest in historical and contemporary book censorship, I can’t imagine a better way to spend my vacation than with the very books deemed too dangerous to read. This post is my first dispatch as a visiting fellow in publishing history at the Houghton Library, Harvard’s main repository of rare books and manuscripts.
Intellectual Freedom: The Tyranny of the, Maybe, Majority
By: guest blogger Emily Schneider. The name change of the Wilder Award has occasioned a great deal of discussion. We can hope that most of this will ultimately prove productive. Certainly, respect for increased diversity in the representations of children’s experiences in their literature is essential and most participants in this debate embrace this idea. Let’s not forget all the implications for intellectual freedom, because without that value we can’t move forward.
Intellectual Freedom News 7/20/18
American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Releases a New Resource Guide: “Defending Intellectual Freedom: LGBTQ+ Materials in School Libraries”;
Intellectual Freedom News 7/13/18
Library meeting rooms for all; SC Police Union Challenges Summer Reading List with “The Hate U Give” and “All American Boys”; Human Rights Watch calls on Hong Kong government to put LGBT-themed children’s books back on open shelves at public libraries
Library Meeting Rooms for All
The Intellectual Freedom Committee (IFC) crafted a revision of the 1991 “Meeting Rooms: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights.” The revision of the interpretation was broadly inclusive and transparent and was adopted by ALA Council. The revision did not establish any new right to conduct hate speech in libraries. ALA does not endorse hate groups and does not seek to normalize hate speech.
“Spring Awakening,” “Rise” and what’s “appropriate”: A conversation with my daughter
My professional concerns collide with my parenting worries: What is “appropriate” for young people? How should schools and communities respond to “controversial” content and issues? How can teens and adults communicate about difficult topics? Here’s a peek into the talks my daughter and I’ve had about Rise, Spring Awakening, and the tough topics that teens and adults work through every day.