Hateful conduct in libraries: A new ALA resource

During the 2019 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Seattle, the ALA Office for Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services and the Office for Intellectual Freedom launched a new resource, “Hateful Conduct in Libraries: Supporting Library Workers and Patrons,” in response to a spike in reported hate crimes in libraries across the US, which the two offices began tracking in 2016. The resource outlines best practices on how to create environments that discourage hate speech and hateful conduct in the library, what steps library workers should take after an incident, and how libraries can better meet community needs.

Office for Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services, Feb. 14

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Kim Bellware writes: “A 5th-grade classroom has become the latest collision point for America’s cultural reckoning with racial bias, police violence, and academic freedom after Florida’s second-largest school district temporarily pulled an award-winning youth novel over a police complaint that the book was ‘propaganda’ against law enforcement.”

Washington Post, May 10
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In Closing the Impact Gap, a survey conducted by the UK’s Emerald Publishing, researchers say they’re not satisfied with how academic publishing presents their work to a world that needs to understand it. A total of 1,500 academics in an international pool drawn from more than 100 countries were queried for this study—45% say they agree that research papers are too long, 57% say they feel that research summaries could help to more effectively present findings to decision-makers outside of academia, and 64% say that videos, podcasts, and infographics could help when presenting research.

Publishing Perspectives, May 11
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Amy Dodson has been named the 2020 recipient of the Robert B. Downs Intellectual Freedom Award. Dodson, director of the Douglas County (Nev.) Public Library, faced enormous public criticism last year for posting a diversity statement on the library’s Facebook page that included the line, “We support #BlackLivesMatter.” The Douglas County sheriff perceived it as support for violence against law enforcement and said library staff should no longer call 911 for help with disturbances, which led to national media coverage and protests.

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign iSchool, May 11
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Starting May 12, families and households struggling to afford internet service during the COVID-19 pandemic can get help from a new federal program. The $3.2 billion Emergency Broadband Benefit program, administered by the Federal Communications Commission, provides a discount up to $50 per month for broadband service (or up to $75 per month on qualifying tribal lands) and a one-time discount up to $100 for a laptop, desktop, or tablet computer purchased through a participating provider. Library staffers in all settings and other broadband equity advocates can help raise awareness of this new emergency funding.

AL: The Scoop, May 11
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Mercedes Rutherford-Patten and Nicki Viso write: “Across the country, the makeup of university student populations is changing. First-generation students are organizing on campuses and prompting MLIS programs—such as the one we were enrolled in at San José State University iSchool—to rethink how they are engaging with students. As representatives of the first generation of college graduates in our families, we face a distinct set of challenges entering grad school.”

American Libraries column, May 11
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Author Carmen Maria Machado writes: “I have teamed up with Margaret Atwood, Jodi Picoult, Jacqueline Woodson, and many other authors whose works have been targeted for removal from class reading lists in Leander, Texas. In conjunction with PEN America, a group that promotes free literary expression, we wrote a letter to the school district demanding that our books remain available to students. While our books may contain passages that are potentially uncomfortable, challenging, or even offensive, exposure to our books is vital to expanding minds, affirming experiences, creating appreciation for the arts and building empathy—in short, respecting the adults that the students in Leander, Texas, will soon become.”

New York Times, May 11
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Queens (N.Y.) Public Library Assistant Director Fatma Ghailan writes: “Libraries have long been seen as safe havens for students, providing homework assistance and summer reading programs. Over the last decade, libraries have continued to embrace their role in training adults as well, offering them ways to learn digital skills that employers desperately need.”

American Libraries column, May

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