3h
Alejandro Marquez writes: “Organizational toxicity isn’t just about bad bosses or a difficult colleagues. It’s a systemic issue, encompassing behaviors, norms, and values that create a harmful and damaging environment for employees. It’s characterized by a lack of psychological safety, where people fear speaking up, taking risks, or simply being themselves. It can be subtle and it doesn’t always manifest as overt hostility, but it steadily erodes trust, motivation, and well-being. Some common signs are constant comparison, moving goalposts, and vague expectations, all of which are hallmarks of a toxic environment.”
Choice: Toward Inclusive Excellence, Oct. 20
6h
Eric Stroshane writes: “State and local governments are increasingly employing artificial intelligence (AI) to flag ‘inappropriate,’ ‘vulgar,’ or ‘dirty’ books for removal from library collections. In doing so, they rely on machines to make judgments better suited to the training, skills, and experience of the teachers and library workers they employ. While some assume AI provides mechanical objectivity, the reality is that the prompt you give an AI chatbot shapes the response it generates. When a school district references book rating scales from political or religious organizations in their prompts, the responses they get will incorporate those beliefs.”
Intellectual Freedom Blog, Oct. 23
1d
Deborah Walters writes: “October 26, 2001, marked the beginning of a 15-year-long struggle for the privacy rights of library users as a result of the Patriot Act being signed into law by President Bush. Section 215, which became known as the ‘library provision,’ allowed intelligence agencies to ‘obtain information about members of the public, including library records, based on a minimal submission to a secret court,’ according to a statement from ALA and the Association of Research Libraries. ALA’s Washington Office created guidance on consulting legal counsel and reviewing policies.”
ALA150, Oct. 23
