Category «Free Speech»

Brooklyn Public Library Offers Free eCards to Teens Nationwide Facing Book Bans in Local Communities

“Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) is launching a new campaign today, titled Books UnBanned, to help teens combat the negative impact of increased censorship and book bans in libraries across the country. For a limited time, young adults ages 13 to 21 nationwide, will be able to apply for a free eCard from BPL, unlocking access …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Education, Free Speech, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Libraries

Report Censorship

American Library Association: “ALA, established in 1876, has a longstanding commitment to defend intellectual freedom in libraries. Even before the formal adoption of the Library Bill of Rights in 1939, ALA has provided support, guidance, and resources to librarians faced with censorship. Since 1990, the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) has maintained a database on …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Education, Free Speech, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Libraries

Florida school district bans dozens of books based on proposed bill

Judd at Popular Information: “Schools in Clay County, Florida, are withholding dozens of books from students, citing legislation that has been proposed but not approved by the state legislature or signed into law.  In a spreadsheet published by the Clay County school district listing the status of challenged books, 55 titles were categorized as “Pending …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Education, Free Speech, Government Documents, Legal Research, Legislation, Libraries

ICANN and Verisign Proposal Would Allow Any Government In The World To Seize Domain Names

FreeSpeech.com: “ICANN, the organization that regulates global domain name policy, and Verisign, the abusive monopolist that operates the .COM and .NET top-level domains, have quietly proposed enormous changes to global domain name policy in their recently published “Proposed Renewal of the Registry Agreement for .NET”, which is now open for public comment. Either by design, …

Subjects: Digital Rights, Free Speech, Government Documents, Internet

Nearly 1,500 books bans implemented in the first half of this school year

The Hill: “Almost 1,500 school book bans were put into place around the U.S. in the first half of the current academic year, according to PEN America. An analysis from the group released Thursday found 1,477 book bans implemented in the first half of the 2022-2023 school year, affecting 874 unique books. The six months …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Education, Free Speech, Legal Research, Libraries

Libraries are under attack and so are library workers

Fast Company: “Libraries are increasingly being targeted by local and state legislators and protestors trying to ban books and block LGBTQ content. How is that affecting the people who work in them? Scratch nearly any kind of story—political, social, economic, cultural, and so on—and you’ll find a labor story. No matter what’s happening, whether it’s …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Education, Free Speech, Health Care, Libraries

Tennessee’s House expels 2 of 3 Democrats over guns protest

AP: “In an extraordinary act of political retaliation, Tennessee Republicans on Thursday expelled two Democratic lawmakers from the state Legislature for their role in a protest calling for more gun control in the aftermath of a deadly school shooting in Nashville. A third Democrat was narrowly spared by a one-vote margin. The split votes drew …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Free Speech, Government Documents, Legal Research

The Socio-Economic Argument for the Human Right to Internet Access

The Socio-Economic Argument for the Human Right to Internet Access, Politics Philosophy & Economics (2023). DOI: 10.1177/1470594X231167597 PHSY.org: “People around the globe are so dependent on the internet to exercise socioeconomic human rights such as education, health care, work, and housing that online access must now be considered a basic human right, a new study …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Economy, Education, Financial System, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Internet

It’s Their Content, You’re Just Licensing it

The New York Times: “Amid recent debates over several publishers’ removal of potentially offensive material from the work of popular 20th-century authors — including Roald Dahl, R.L. Stine and Agatha Christie — is a less discussed but no less thorny question about the method of the revisions. For some e-book owners, the changes appeared as …

Subjects: Censorship, Digital Rights, Education, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Libraries

As Book Bans Gain Favor, Some Say Libraries Could Go

Pew Stateline: “Amid the national uproar about whether to allow students access to a wide variety of books, the superintendent of a Virginia school district this week proposed a sweeping solution: Get rid of school libraries altogether. Mark Taylor, who leads the district in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, suggested at a recent school board meeting that …

Subjects: Censorship, Education, Free Speech, Legal Research, Libraries

Libraries Need More Freedom to Distribute Digital Books

The Atlantic: “Last week, a district court judge in New York ruled on Hachette Book Group, Inc. v. Internet Archive, a case that is likely to shape how we read books on smartphones, tablets, and computers in the future. Although the case hinged on technical details of copyright law, the source of the conflict is …

Subjects: Censorship, Courts, Education, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Libraries