The essays in the 2014 edition of Banned Books: Challenging our Freedom to Read, by Robert P. Doyle, outline how case law has extended the protection of the freedoms of speech and press to include freedom of expression of ideas and information. This background reading informs use of the “First Amendment Action Guide,” an advocacy … Continue reading Intellectual Freedom: A Core Tenet
The disruption continues, and it’s hard not to see the announcement of the new Kindle Unlimited Service as a significant challenge to libraries. Let’s review how things stand with libraries right now. Most public library budgets took a hit during the recession, meaning they had less money to provide new content. At the same time, … Continue reading Amazon Unlimited
Radical literature that calls for destroying the status quo and hate speech that assaults various demographic groups may well be uncomfortable to read, but study of the human condition wouldn’t be honest or complete if it didn’t take a hard, thorough look into humanity’s darker corners. On the other hand, maintaining collections for that kind … Continue reading Extremism @ the Library
In 1977, the American Library Association decided to get into the movie business. Produced by the Intellectual Freedom Committee (IFC), The Speaker follows the aftermath of a high school group’s decision to invite a controversial scientist (loosely based on William Shockley, co-inventor of the transistor and an outspoken eugenicist) to speak on campus. The scientist … Continue reading Resurrecting The Speaker
Wayne Bivens-Tatum, philosophy and religion librarian at Princeton University, called upon the research he conducted for his book Libraries and the Enlightenment to explain the origins of the 20th-century academic service model. Prior to the early 19th century, university library collections were small and often built on the materials amassed by teachers and students. “The … Continue reading Examining Our Values
3D printers may be the coolest new tech for libraries, but the complicated relationship between interactive content and libraries means that ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) and Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP) need to set policy. In “3D Printers and Library Policies,” presented by United for Libraries on June 28, Barbara Jones, Corinne … Continue reading 3D Printing and Libraries
Controversy consumed the 1977 ALA Annual Conference in Detroit over The Speaker, a narrative film commissioned by ALA and produced by the Intellectual Freedom Committee (IFC). The film’s story: A student current events committee and a teacher in a small-town high school invite a speaker who theorizes that blacks are genetically inferior to whites. The … Continue reading The Speaker Controversy in the 21st Century
In an alternative universe, I’m a film historian. I got hooked in college, where multiple film society screenings were shown almost nightly for a couple of bucks apiece. Heaven. And among all my genres of interest (terrible 1950s science fiction, cult stuff, noir, silents, splashy MGM musicals, and on and on), there’s a much less-recognized … Continue reading A Cautionary Tale
During the ALA Washington Office Update on Saturday morning, Patrice McDermott, executive director of Open the Government, introduced Spencer Ackerman, national security editor for the Guardian US, who discussed details of how the newspaper acquired information and documents from whistleblower Edward Snowden and came to the decision to publish them. Before Ackerman took the podium, McDermott shared her … Continue reading Putting NSA Under the Microscope
ALA Council wrapped up its business for the 2014 Midwinter Meeting at Council III this morning, announcing the election of three new members—Peter D. Hepburn, Gina L. Persichini, and Gail A. Schlachter—to the ALA Executive Board for three-year terms. Mike L. Marlin was also elected to a five-month term, replacing Sylvia K. Norton, who now … Continue reading Council III Critiques Government Surveillance
Earlier today, a federal district court struck down net neutrality, the nondiscrimination rules of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) governing how internet service providers deliver online information. ALA President Barbara K. Stripling swiftly responded to the decision in Verizon v. FCC (PDF file) by expressing the Association’s disappointment at this blow to a principle ALA has long advocated: … Continue reading Troubling Decision Nixes Net Neutrality Rules
Why did you decide to write a memoir about your childhood experiences in Sierra Leone? ISHMAEL BEAH: It came out of several frustrations about the lack of knowledge about the use of children in war and also the way my country was only presented as a place of violence. I wanted to put a human … Continue reading Newsmaker: Ishmael Beah
