March 11, 2022 - Collated by OIF Staff and News Editor on the Intellectual Freedom Blog

Highlights

"Libraries represent values that are core to democracy. Trained and certified librarians and library workers provide services and collections that inform, engage, illuminate and help people of all ages learn more about the world around them." from Your Librarian Wants to Challenge, Not Ban in the New York Times by Patty Wong, ALA President in response to “The Battle for the Soul of the Library” by Stanley Kurtz

Upcoming Events

• ALA Virtual Membership Meeting on Thursday, March 17, 2022 at 1pm CT / 11:00am PT

Censorship

• Yorktown considering removing 9 books from school libraries | Yorktown, NY Patch
• 'Gender Queer' is OK to remain on school library bookshelf, Hudson committee determines | Akron Beacon Journal (OH)
• High schools could lose AP classes if they ban 'required topics' from being taught | NBC News / Today
• Book challenged at Lower Township school | Press of Atlantic City (NJ)
• Former Mo. teacher helping lead coalition pushing back on book bans | Hays Post
• Bolstered by CRT, book fights, conservative PACs aim to 'take back' Texas school boards | Dallas Morning News
• Texas Library Association forms coalition against banning books | KXAN
• Anti-censorship group forms to oppose Library Advisory Board | Daily Tribune (TX)
• Texas students push back against book bans for censoring LGBTQ, racial justice issues | Texas Tribune
• Two Texas parents challenged 282 books, including one on teen suicide. Here's how the author responded. | Houston Chronicle
• Request to ban documentary of gay man from Lafayette libraries to be heard in public Wednesday | Acadiana Advocate (LA)
• Penncrest school board vote on anti-CRT policy Thursday | Meadville Tribune
• 'Banning books' discussed at Edmond Public School meeting | KFOR (OK)
• School board policy committee discusses book reconsideration, removal policy | Williamson Herald (TN)
• Library book bans, Russia investments discussed at Brevard School Board meeting | Florida Today
• Auburn school board votes to keep challenged book in high school library | AuburnPub (NY)
• Kansas district bans book after anonymous grandparent complaint | Salina Post
• Book controversy leads to assistant principal's firing after class reading | Newsweek
• Franklin Regional 'pauses' teaching of novel about Iranian Revolution after complaints | TribLive (PA)
• Wake school board panel upholds Cary High School decision to keep 'Lawn Boy' in library | WRAL-TV (NC)
• Removing Books A Bad Precedent | The Dispatch (Worcester County MD)

Privacy & Cybersecurity

• The hidden role of facial recognition tech in many arrests | WIRED
• Chair Raskin, ranking member Mace request GAO review of FBI surveillance of Americans to protect First Amendment rights | House Committee on Oversight and Reform
• 'Constantly afraid': Immigrants on life under the US government's eye | Guardian

More privacy news is available at the Voices for Privacy blog.

First Amendment, Free Speech, & Civil Liberties

• Does Florida's 'Don't Say Gay' bill violate the First Amendment | The Hill
• Supreme Court rules in favor of FBI in case involving surveillance of Muslim community in California | CBS News
• Court: U.S. cannot expel migrant families to regions that risk their persecution | Axios
• A suit by the A.C.L.U. accuses ICE jailers of denying detainees vaccines | New York Times
• Hospital stops therapies after gender-confirming care order | ABC News
• Decoding speech: The implications of giving computer code First Amendment protections | Brown Political Review

Academic Freedom & Campus Speech

• Indiana lawmakers send campus free speech bill to governor | San Antonio Express-News
• I came to college eager to debate. I found self-censorship instead. | New York Times
  • Campus Free Speech Can’t Survive Cultural Change | The Atlantic
• Texas' college tenure decision undermines one of America's proudest accomplishments | NBC News

Legislation

• Bill gives parents ability to review books headed to school library | KOLD (AZ)
  • Bill mandating parental oversight of school library books gets Senate panel OK | Arizona Capitol Times
• Bill preventing divisive concepts like 'critical race theory' in K-12 schools fails | South Dakota Public Broadcasting
• Mississippi legislators pass bill to prohibit critical race theory in schools | WAPT
• Students gather at capitol to protest CRT bill | Georgia Tech Technique
• 'This is not progress': Memphis students oppose bills banning 'obscene' and LGBTQ books | Commercial Appeal (TN)
• Pushback on anti-critical race theory bill continues | WLBT (MS)
  • Bill calling for educational institutions to not teach critical race theory on governor's desk | Daily Journal (MS)
• Book bans accelerate in Ohio as new bill aims to prohibit 'controversial' topics | News 5 Cleveland
• Some parents applaud, teacher groups oppose passage of bill banning porn in schools | KJZZ (UT)
• House committee advances bill prohibiting obscene or harmful reading material to be given to children | KTVB 7 (ID)
  • Librarians worry they could face criminal penalty under bill if kids obtain 'harmful material' | Idaho Capital Sun
  • Idaho lawmaker distributed a 'secret folder' before approving a bill. Here's what it had | Idaho Statesman
• Horry county parents join fight opposing anti-critical race theory bills in SC | Sun News
• Florida legislature passes bill to restrict LGBTQ topics in elementary schools | Washington Post
• Florida ban on critical race theory to get final vote, all amendments fail | WFLA
• No ‘A Brave Little Cookie’? Randolph Bracy argues GOP bill could lead to ban of mother’s story | Florida Politics
• School board term limits headed back to House after Senate change | Florida Politics
• After banning 'critical race theory,' Oklahoma lawmakers seek further school curriculum restrictions | Public Radio Tulsa
• Senate Anti-CRT bill taken up by first House committee | Weirton Daily Times (WV)
• Indiana lawmakers abandon ban on 'harmful' library materials | U.S. News & World Report
• Bill to prevent social media censoring passes Georgia Senate | Moultrie Observer
• Commentary: Lafayette Library board censorship crusade is dangerous | KPEL
• Librarians and school boards could face criminal penalties if 'obscene' books wind up in schools | WPLN (TN)
  • 'Obscene' books bill advances in Tennessee legislature | News Channel 5

Social Media

• Tech Trojan horse: How the Senate is poised to codify censorship of social media | The Hill
• Court ignores that Texas social media censorship law was blocked as unconstitutional: Orders Meta to reinstate account | Techdirt

Access

• Connecticut Introduces Library E-book Bill | Publishers Weekly

Net Neutrality & Broadband Access

• Gigi Sohn passes out of committee, nomination to FCC goes to full Senate | Daily Dot

Journalism & Media

• Western news outlets curb reporting, broadcasts in Russia as Putin signs law cracking down on Ukraine coverage | Washington Post
• New York Times pulling journalists from Russia over censorship law passed after Ukraine invasion | CNBC

Information Literacy & Disinformation

• How to spot disinformation and propaganda coming out of the Ukraine-Russia conflict | NPR
• Analysis: How the Biden White House is fighting Russian disinformation | Reuters
• 'Bot holiday': Covid disinformation down as social media pivot to Ukraine | Guardian
• Treasury sanctions Russian online outlets for spreading disinformation | Politico
• Fighting disinformation can feel like a lost cause. It isn't. | New York Times
• In the Ukraine conflict, fake fact-checks are being used to spread disinformation | ProPublica

International News

• Ukraine's libraries are offering bomb shelters, camouflage classes and, yes, books | NPR
• Russia takes censorship to new extremes, stifling war coverage | New York Times
  • Russia instructs teachers to spread disinformation about Ukraine | Human Rights Watch
  • How to get real Ukraine news to Russians: This group is starting with programmatic ad tech | Fast Company
  • The Putin regime obliterates press freedom | Columbia Journalism Review
  • Russia, blocked from the Global Internet, plunges into digital isolation | New York Times
• The war in Ukraine is keeping Chinese social media censors busy | WIRED
  • China erases thousands of social media accounts for vulgarity, negativity and more | NPR
• European universities hit with Russian disinformation about student expulsions | Science Business
• Freedom to read: Mein Kampf challenged at HCPL | The Echo - Halliburton County Canada

Around the Web

• Seattle council floats using public library as emergency homeless shelter | My Northwest
• Libraries Hiring Social Workers as Mental Health Issues and Homelessness Soar | Route Fifty
• Fans defend Dolly Parton after legislator comments about Imagination Library | News Channel 5 Nashville
• The fight over 'Maus' is part of a bigger cultural battle in Tennessee | New York Times
• Savannah Arts Academy English teacher creates little library filled with banned books | Savannah Morning News
• Groups pushing back on schools' book censorship | 4 State News
• Iowa City Public Library board supports intellectual freedom | Gazette
• Large majority of Iowans think book-banning is un-American, poll shows | Iowa Starting Line
• Little Free Library with LGBTQ+ books ransacked again | Boston.com
• School board policy committee discusses book reconsideration, removal policy | Williamson Herald (TN)
• The Peoria Public Library tackles controversial issues and banned books in new book club for youths | WCBU (IL)
• A key conservative instigator of the critical race theory controversies says he now wants to 'bait' the left into fights over Republican-led 'transparency' efforts in schools | Business Insider
• Opinion: Teachers are under fire in increasingly bizarre ways | Washington Post
• The Battle for the Soul of the Library: A Response | R. David Lankes

ALA News

• ALA Neal-Schuman author Jeanie Austin to deliver 2022 Augusta Baker Lecture

eLearning

• Core Classroom: Conversations Worth Having for Library Leaders
• AASL to open dialogs during ASCD conference
• PLA’s trauma-informed framework for supporting patrons
• More eLearning opportunites

Awards & Grants

• Chicago Heights Public Library awarded 2022 ALSC/Baker & Taylor Summer Reading Grant
• ALSC Names Betsy Diamant-Cohen as 2022 Distinguished Service Award Winner
• Friends of Maxwell Memorial Library and Friends of the Lewis County Public Library win National Friends of Libraries Week Awards
• Nominations for ALA Trustee Citation accepted through April 7
• Ernest A. DiMattia, Jr. Award Call for Nominations Deadline Extended to March 28, 2022

More ALA News

ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF)
225 Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60601 1-800-545-2433 x4226

To sign up to receive future issues of Intellectual Freedom News, click here.
To opt out of receiving future issues of Intellectual Freedom News, click here.
To unsubscribe from all ALA emails, click here.
To review ALA's privacy policy, click here.