censorship Archives | American Libraries Magazine

Left to right: Susan Harris, Ross Ufberg, Jamie LaRue, Inci Sariz, and Peter Blackstock

“If People Don’t Read It Here, It Doesn’t Help Much”

By Carrie Smith | June 27, 2017

On Monday, June 26, the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF), the Association of American Publishers, and the Global Literature in Libraries Initiative brought together for the program “Banned Abroad: Stories of International Censorship” panelists who have worked as publishers, translators, editors, and researchers to discuss their experiences with works that have been censored … Continue reading “If People Don’t Read It Here, It Doesn’t Help Much” →

A volunteer with Books to Prisons Seattle searches the donated books to fulfill prisoner requests.

The Freedom of Reading

By Kaitlin Throgmorton | October 31, 2016

Books-to-prisoners programs across the country are doing their best to address this need by taking book requests from prisoners by mail, then having volunteers match those requests to books that have been donated by the public or purchased with monetary donations. Volunteers also prep books for shipment, assess and sort donations, keep track of the … Continue reading The Freedom of Reading →

Dewey Decibel Podcast: Banned Books

October 5, 2016

James LaRue, director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom and the executive director of the Freedom to Read Foundation. James and Phil talk about the difference between a challenge and a ban, the reasons behind books bans in the US, and more. Sara Stevenson, a librarian at O. Henry Middle School in … Continue reading Dewey Decibel Podcast: Banned Books →

Forget Me Not

By Joseph Janes | May 31, 2016

A few days ago brought a minor news item describing refinements Google has made to the process to request the removal of links in search results that are “inadequate, irrelevant, or no longer relevant,” popularly known as the “right to be forgotten,” in response to a 2014 ruling by the European Court of Justice. Ever … Continue reading Forget Me Not →

Safe and Sound

By Joseph Janes | March 1, 2016

I had the opportunity to indulge a while ago. My former doctoral student Elisabeth Jones invited me to come and be part of a session she was doing with her first-quarter graduate students on the future of libraries. They had done some initial readings, and naturally had their own ideas, many of which brought them … Continue reading Safe and Sound →

Scholarly Communication

By Karen Muller | October 30, 2015

Some aspects of the scholarly cycle have persisted for centuries: Scholars write to one another discussing their work, present findings at departmental colloquia or conferences, publish an article, and when there’s a body of research, revamp it into a book. In Scholarly Communications: A History from Content as King to Content as Kingmaker, John J. … Continue reading Scholarly Communication →

Banned Books Week Roundup 2015

By George M. Eberhart | September 29, 2015

Kristin Pekoll, assistant director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, says that librarians and teachers often feel frustrated by these efforts to restrict the scope of reading. “More and more, they are reaching out to our office for support because they’re feeling silenced by their administrations,” she says. “While the fear of … Continue reading Banned Books Week Roundup 2015 →

Challenges by Initiator, 2014: Who challenges books?

Don’t Take the Freedom to Read for Granted

September 22, 2015

Banned Books Week, September 27–October 3, celebrates the idea that the freedom to read and access ideas can transform lives, but when books are banned, readers are blocked from seeing all viewpoints and perspectives. Because so many books that include racial issues and diverse characters are challenged, it is particularly important that we create public … Continue reading Don’t Take the Freedom to Read for Granted →

Gloria Steinem: Rescued by Librarians

By Amy Carlton | June 28, 2015

True to form, Steinem wanted to use her Auditorium Speaker Series presentation to upend the traditional notion of an author speech. She opened by saying, “We have something very special this morning: an hour in this room with a combination of people that has never happened before and never will happen again.” She then expressed … Continue reading Gloria Steinem: Rescued by Librarians →

Newsmaker: Judy Blume

By Claire Bushey | April 15, 2014

I know you’re not supposed to ask this of writers, but how’s the current book going? Slowly! It’s never good for me to stop and start, and with this book I’ve had to do that several times. Two years off to write and produce the Tiger Eyes movie. Months away from it for other reasons. But … Continue reading Newsmaker: Judy Blume →

Latest Library Links

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Carrie Russell writes: “The Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing April 18 on the Marrakesh Treaty Implementation Act (S. 2559). If passed, the legislation would make available an additional 350,000 accessible books for people with print disabilities living in the US, according to Manisha Singh, assistant secretary of the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. Jonathan Band spoke on behalf of the Library Copyright Alliance, a coalition consisting of ALA, the Association of Research Libraries, and ACRL.”

District Dispatch, Apr. 19
20h

Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani officially opened the new Qatar National Library in Doha on April 17 and symbolically presented its one-millionth acquisition, an 843-year-old manuscript copy of Sahih al-Bukhari. The building was designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas’s firm, the Office for Metropolitan Architecture. The 42,000-square-meter facility, conceived as a single room that houses both people and books, also serves as a public library and university library.

Designboom, Apr. 17
23h

Craig Silverman writes: “Technology to trick our eyes and ears is advancing rapidly. This ObamaPeele video was created using another emerging technology: FakeApp. Part of the process for creating this video involved taking an original video of Barack Obama and pasting Jordan Peele’s mouth into it. It looked really clumsy at first. But things got remarkably better the longer FakeApp was left to process a more believable blend. Here are some basic tips you can follow to ensure you don’t get fooled easily.”

BuzzFeed, Apr. 17
23h

The Institute of Library and Museum Services has awarded YALSA a Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program grant to work with the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies to train 11,000 library staff in all 50 states and 5 US territories. Building on the ALA Ready to Code Initiative, the grant will provide professional development to librarians so they can help prepare teens for computational thinking. The grant is one of 42 totaling $10.4 million to support libraries across the US.

Institue of Museum and Library Services, Apr. 18
23h

United for Libraries has awarded its 2018 Thriftbooks Friend Conference Grant to Jennifer Kaminski, secretary of the Friends of the Daviess County (Ky.) Public Library. Kaminski will receive $850 plus full conference registration to attend the 2018 ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans.

United for Libraries, Apr. 17
23h

Peter Pearson, lead consultant and cofounder of Library Strategies Consulting Group, was elected 2019–2020 president of United for Libraries. Pearson will serve as vice-president/president-elect during 2018–2019 and will assume the presidency in July 2019. As president of the Friends of the Saint Paul (Minn.) Public Library, he led three capital campaigns and coordinated an annual grassroots advocacy campaign that added millions of dollars of public funding to the library’s budget.

United for Libraries, Apr. 17
23h

Diana Haneski, library media specialist at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and Yvonne Cech, director of the Brookfield (Conn.) Library and a former library media specialist at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, have been awarded the 2018 Lemony Snicket Prize for Noble Librarians Faced with Adversity. Haneski and Cech will receive a cash prize and an object from Daniel Handler’s private collection during the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans.

Office of ALA Governance, Apr. 17

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