New OIF Director Announced
ALA has announced that they have chosen Barbara M. Jones to be the new head of the Office for Intellectual Freedom, replacing the long-serving Judith Krug, who passed away in … Read more New OIF Director Announced
Category: Intellectual Freedom
A.Word.A.Day this week
Anu Garg’s “A Word A Day” newsletter is the greatest thing in the world right now for (English) word lovers. He sends out an email each weekday that is all … Read more A.Word.A.Day this week
Free speech in the workplace
Just want to alert you to this article by John Buschman in Academe, the magazine of the AAUP (American Association of University Professors): “Who Defends Intellectual Freedom for Librarians? The … Read more Free speech in the workplace
SRRT Councilor’s report
ALA Council Report to SRRT, Chicago, July 2009 Before reporting on the business of the meetings, let me first honor the life of E.J. Josey, who died just before Annual … Read more SRRT Councilor’s report
Alternative Media Reception at Annual Conference
Alternative Media Reception at Annual Conference On Monday, July 13, from 7-10 pm, the Alternative Media Reception (ALA Annual, Chicago) will join forces with the SRRT 40th Anniversary Celebration in … Read more Alternative Media Reception at Annual Conference
Group Storms Greek-Macedonian Dictionary Promotion
It’s easy to think that politics has no place in the production of reference materials and that objective reference works are by nature apolitical. Yes, solid reference sources tend to … Read more Group Storms Greek-Macedonian Dictionary Promotion
Attempted Censorship by U.S. Attorney
Attempted Censorship by U.S. Attorney — A Book to Watch! By Ann Sparanese On June 16, the paperback edition of Triple Cross: How Bin Laden’s Master Spy Penetrated the CIA, … Read more Attempted Censorship by U.S. Attorney
Judith Krug has passed on
Judith Krug, head of ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom since 1967, has died of stomach cancer at age 69. Library Journal has published an obituary rapidly; I am sure we … Read more Judith Krug has passed on
Review of Shiraz Durrani’s Information and Liberation
The new issue of the SRRT Newsletter has a review of Shiraz Durrani’s book, Information and Liberation: Writings on the Politics of Information and Librarianship. Jenny Bossaller, an Assistant Professor … Read more Review of Shiraz Durrani’s Information and Liberation
Three from Arts & Letters Daily
I found these three items in Arts & Letters Daily…. In the New Yorker, a look back into the distant history of newspapers, “The Day the Newspaper Died,” by Jill … Read more Three from Arts & Letters Daily
Age Appropriateness and IF
Intellectual Freedom is a right that has a range of threats to it. Most obviously, governments have banned books and censored the internet. But there are other dimensions to the … Read more Age Appropriateness and IF
Barack Obama on libraries
You may have seen this already, but I have to share it: Bound to the Word: Guardians of truth and knowledge, librarians must be thanked for their role as champions … Read more Barack Obama on libraries
Book of note: technological censorship
Edited Clean Version: Technology and the Culture of Control, by Raiford Guins. This new book from University of Minnesota Press is about how media technologies are being built for consumers … Read more Book of note: technological censorship
The Izzy Award – Call for Nominations
From the site: The Izzy Award is named after legendary maverick journalist I. F. Stone, who launched I. F. Stone Weekly in 1953 and exposed government deception, McCarthyism, and racial … Read more The Izzy Award – Call for Nominations
The Minerva Controversy (Saad Eskander, Iraq National Library)
Minerva Research Initiative: Searching for the Truth or Denying the Iraqis the Rights to Know the Truth? by Saad Eskander, Iraq National Library and Archives “What has prompted me to … Read more The Minerva Controversy (Saad Eskander, Iraq National Library)
Bibliographic and Web Tools for Alternative Media
For many years Byron Anderson has been producing a bibliography of tools for helping librarians attend to the alternative press. The new edition of his guide is out: Bibliographic and … Read more Bibliographic and Web Tools for Alternative Media
MediaLens on journalism’s filtering system in action
MediaLens is a UK organization dedicated to raising awareness of the way the media system distorts reality as a result of the forces of free-market capitalism. Their analysis of things … Read more MediaLens on journalism’s filtering system in action
Blanche survives Katrina in a FEMA Trailer Named Desire, only to face off with the copyright police
Marjorie Heins of the Free Expression Policy Project has some commentary published on the FEPP site about an interesting copyright case. It’s a Fair Use case that even copyright moderates … Read more Blanche survives Katrina in a FEMA Trailer Named Desire, only to face off with the copyright police
Nancy Kranich on Sarah Palin, would-be censor
Former ALA President Nancy Kranich has an editorial in the current issue of The Nation magazine, titled, “What’s Daddy’s Roommate Doing in Wasilla?” Kranich is writing about Sarah Palin’s attempt … Read more Nancy Kranich on Sarah Palin, would-be censor
Mother Jones article on Connecticut librarians’ defiance of the PATRIOT Act
Amy Goodman and David Goodman (of Democracy Now) have an article in the current Mother Jones magazine about the great Windsor, Connecticut librarians’ defiance of the FBI and the PATRIOT … Read more Mother Jones article on Connecticut librarians’ defiance of the PATRIOT Act