Category: Legislation
New Hampshire’s “Teachers’ Loyalty” Bill Could Affect How History Is Taught in Public Schools
A bill introduced to the New Hampshire State House earlier this year expands on prohibiting advocating for communism to include other doctrines, including theories “promoting a negative account or representation of the founding and history of the United States of America in New Hampshire public schools.” Teachers and organizations across the state are concerned about the bill’s implications on how history will be able to be discussed in the classroom.
Beyond Book Banning: Efforts to Criminally Charge Librarians
Both the Indiana and Iowa State Legislatures have introduced legislation regarding criminally charging libraries and librarians over “inappropriate” material. These bills are closely related to widespread book challenges occurring at schools and public libraries across the nation, with people trying to remove books that address certain topics relating to gender, sexuality, and race from library collections. In many cases there is already a clear process for reconsidering materials in a collection, so how do legal defenses play a role in this and what do the bills change?
Intellectual Freedom on College Campuses: An Update on Current State Legislation
The term intellectual freedom has been recently tossed around by state lawmakers to justify new laws targeting college campuses. The recent laws and policy changes mainly target one of three things: faculty tenure, curriculum, or freedom of speech. This post will provide an update on new laws or incidents happening in various states.
Fair Use Gone Viral: Predicting the Future of Copyright
Learn the future of fair use in less time than it takes to watch (an excellent) webinar! Our recap of “Fair Use Gone Viral: Predicting the Future of Copyright“ featuring Kenneth Crews, copyright scholar and librarian.
State Legislatures Eye Regulating Social Media in Wake of ‘Big Tech Censorship’
Many of the bills use very similar language, referencing “unfair trade practices” and “censorship.” Several bills would require social media platforms to warn users of their specific electronic speech transgressions and give violators a grace period to clean up whatever part of their act that would see them banned. Some bills empower the banned to file consumer complaints with state attorneys general or, like Texas’ SB 2373, to file suit.
Political Affiliation is Not an Employer’s Business — Especially in Education
Faculty should not push their opinions on students – or make students feel denigrated for their opinions – but they should encourage students to question and strongly analyze their opinions. That’s part of the point of college.
Build America’s Libraries
The Build America’s Libraries Act seeks to provide more equitable access for all and calls for funding to be prioritized to “underserved and distressed communities, low-income and rural areas, and people with disabilities and vulnerable library users including children and seniors”.
Contact Tracing and Library Workers
Some see contact tracing as an intrusive privacy concern and some see it as necessary for combating the virus. Like it or not, it would appear that contact tracing is going to be a new reality for American library workers. Let’s start a conversation on the Dos and Do-Nots of conducting contact tracing in our libraries.
Oregon’s Stand-Against-Hate Initiative: DOJ compelled to document extralegal speech under amended intimidation statute.
Oregon’s new stand-against-hate initiative is, in part, a reaction to the fatal MAX stabbings in Portland three years ago. But asking the government to intervene in our extralegal interactions does more to divide us than it does to unite. Especially when these interventions call for the compiling of data on speech that is of no legal consequence whatsoever.
Advocating for our patrons
Overall, going to legislative advocacy day was a really positive experience. I think it is important for librarians to speak up about the importance of libraries and the needs of our patrons. Many of our patrons – especially in school libraries – can’t speak up for themselves about what they need. In today’s fiscal climate, I think we need to speak up to make sure we can continue to serve our patrons’ needs.