ALA Council

 
August 20, 2021 - Collated by OIF Staff and News Editor on the Intellectual Freedom Blog

Highlights

• ALA Executive Board releases statement that reinforces commitment to safeguarding intellectual freedom and social justice; "The American Library Association is committed to upholding our core values, which include equitable access to knowledge, social justice, and intellectual freedom. As members of a profession committed to free and equitable access to information and the pursuit of truth, we stand firm in opposing any effort to suppress knowledge, to label "controversial" views, or dictate what is orthodox in history, politics, or belief."
• Texas Library Association: Statement Opposing Restrictions on Education Related to Racism and History
• Journal of Intellectual Freedom and Privacy: Special Call for Papers: The COVID-19 Pandemic, Libraries, and Privacy Concerns

Censorship

• Alabama Board of Education resolution bans critical race theory-type teachings in schools | Montgomery Advertiser
  • Board votes to ban teaching critical race theory in Alabama schools | Montgomery Independent
• California school board bans critical race theory | Fox News
• SPLC calls on Superintendent at Bigelow High School to reprint censored yearbook pages with an apology. | Student Press Law Center
• Campbell library board tells people to follow procedure | Gillette News Record
  • Commissioners: Censorship is not our job | Route 17
• Board fails to approve CRT statement | Leavenworth Times
• Banning books takes many forms [opinion] | Times News

Privacy & Cybersecurity

• The Lesson to Learn From Apple's Tool to Flag Child Sex Abuse | The New York Times
• A simple software fix could limit location data sharing | WIRED

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

First Amendment, Free Speech, & Civil Liberties

• A First Amendment Precedent | The New York Times
• DOJ civil rights official urges Congress to act soon on voting rights | Wisconsin Examiner
• Rachel Maddow Wins in 9th Circuit; OAN Loses Appeal in Defamation Case | Times of San Diego
• 10th Circuit finds Kansas 'Ag Gag' Law Unconstitutional | Courthouse News Service
• "Ag-Gag" Laws Set Precedent for 8th Circuit | SDPB
• Controversial billboard allowed to stay up in Harrison, Ark. | KY3

Copyright

• Provocateur copyrights a Magic: The Gathering Deck | Cory Doctorow
• Spotify Snags Copyright Office Legal Chief as Public Policy Head | Bloomberg Law
• Production Company Behind John Oliver's Show Sues Federal Agency for "Unlawfully' Withholding Records on Use of Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the U.S.A." | Law & Crime
• Federal Judge Finds Copyright Issues "Embedded" in Social Media Re-Posts | JDSupra
  • Embed Copyright Cases Could Multiply as Server Test Faces Siege | Bloomberg Law
• Can the Library Protect Itself from Copyright Suits? | American Libraries

Academic Freedom & Campus Speech

• 'Gag Order' on Mask and Vax Speech | Inside Higher Ed
• Nebraska Regents reject anti-critical race theory proposal | AP
  • A Win for Academic Freedom in Nebraska | Inside Higher Ed
• Indiana attorney general investigating whether Valpo institute is front for Communist Party | Shelbyville News
• Be Paranoid': Professors Who Teach About Race Approach the Fall With Anxiety | Chronicle of Higher Education
• Univ. of Iowa reverses policy on faculty discussing masks and vaccines | KCRG
• Faculty, We Have Met the Enemy, and It Is Us | Chronicle of Higher Education

Social Media

• Florida Enjoined form Enforcing Law Targeting Some Social Media Platforms | JDSupra
• All These Artworks Have Been Censored By Instagram [NSFW] | HyperAllergic
• Al Cutrona to introduce bill preventing social media censorship | WFMJ
• Facebook takes action against 'disinformation dozen' after White House pressure | CNN

Journalism & Media

• Politicization of Science | American Bar Association
• One in five scientists report pressure to delay or dump public health research | Courthouse News Service

Information Literacy & Disinformation

• Opinion: Running a disinformation campaign is risky. So governments are paying others to do it. | The Washington Post
• Racist disinformation COVID-19 vaccine campaigns are endangering the Black community | Yahoo! News
• TTP Investigation: Militia Groups are Actively Spreading Vaccine Disinformation on Facebook | Campaign for Accountability
• Confusion Over Health Privacy Law Seen Impeding Covid Battle | Bloomberg Law
• The Lawfare Podcast: With Disinformation, The Past Isn't Past | Lawfare
• Facebook is obstructing our work on disinformation. Other researchers could be next | Guardian

International News

• Hungarian booksellers fear self-censorship as decree curbs sale of LGBTQ-themed books | Reuters
• Turkish Govt Increasing Internet, Social Media Censorship: Report | Balkan Insight
• U of O prof wins appeal in Holocaust case testing academic freedom | Ottawa Citizen
• Citizen Lab finds Apple's China censorship process bleeds into Hong Kong and Taiwan | ZDNet

Around the Web

• Deep Divisions in Americans' Views of Nation's Racial History -- and How To Address It | Pew Research Center
  • How Americans feel about 'cancel culture' and offensive speech in 6 charts | Pew Research Center
  • How should we address the US's history of slavery and racism? Here's what Americans think. | Brookings
  • Who Decides What History We Teach? An Explainer | Education Week
  • Our future looks very diverse. So should education | New Times
• The School Culture Wars: "You Have Brought Division to Us" | The New York Times
• School Committee member questions Westport's "gloomy and heavy" summer reading list | The Herald News
• Is anything missing from that reading list? | Evanston Roundtable
• No Single Staffer Should Control Collection Decisions | School Library Journal
• Resident's Query About Books With Bias at Pasadena Public Library Prompts City Council Discussion On How books Are Selected | Pasadena Now
• In Backlash to Racial Reckoning, Conservative Publishers See Gold | The New York Times
• Why Doula M Illustrated a Children's Book on Abortion | Remezcla
• Dean of UNC-Chapel Hill's journalism school announces that she's stepping down | News Observer
• Apple censors engraving service, report claims | BBC

ALA News

• AASL to host screening of "Trust Me" during AASL National Conference
• AASL partners with the Getting Better Foundation to share award-winning documentary
• 2022 ALA Annual Conference program proposals submission opens

eLearning

• PLA launches Public Libraries: Partners in Workforce Development webinar series
• ALA eLearning-webinars, courses, workshops, e-forums and more-covers library-related fundamentals, advances, trends, and hot topics for all types of libraries. Find the online options that can best keep you and your colleagues and staff current.

Publishing

• Administrator support empowers school librarians as literacy leaders
• Transforming print collections at academic libraries

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 review ALA's privacy policy, click here.