“The nation’s largest publisher and several bestselling authors, including novelists John Green and Jodi Picoult, are part of a lawsuit filed Thursday challenging Iowa’s new law that bans public school libraries and classrooms from having practically any book that depicts sexual activity.
The lawsuit is the second in the past week to challenge the law, which bans books with sexual content all the way through 12th grade. An exception is allowed for religious texts….”
“In that spirit, at a press conference with Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, and UChicago President Paul Alivisatos during Banned Books Week on October 3, I announced that we are taking five steps relating to banned books.
First, the University of Chicago Library has started work to build the Banned Books Collection, an attempt to bring together all books banned in the United States, whether digital or print. We have already a quarter of the more than 1,500 banned books here in our libraries, and we will grow this collection and keep it up to date. We are building this as a research collection, to increase our understanding of book bans, but also to create a historic record. Importantly, this will also be a collection for access, available to everyone who visits our libraries, whether they come from an Ivy League institution or live a few dozen blocks south of us. We will also make this collection available to users of other libraries, through interlibrary loan….
Second, to support those who live in areas where books are banned, we are partnering with the Digital Public Library of America. For more than a decade, the DPLA has worked to widen access to books for everyone in the U.S., through the internet. Through its Palace app, the DPLA already makes two thirds of books banned available in those locations where they are banned. We will work with DPLA to increase that percentage, with the hope to eventually make all banned books available online—in partnership with authors and publishers….”
“This list is as comprehensive a roundup as possible of all the U.S. public libraries offering access to banned books. It includes the name of the library, the people who are being granted access to the collections, materials within the collections, as well as any other pertinent or relevant information.
The list will be updated as more libraries engage in this kind of access activism. Note that many of these programs operate under the banner of “Books Unbanned.” Though they will be quite similar because laws regarding libraries differ state by state and because every library collection differs from another, the breadth of access and catalogs differs in each variation of the program. Folks who qualify may apply for cards at each of the Books Unbound programs—you’re not limited to just one….”
“The US library system, once the model for the world, is under assault from politicians, rightwing activists and corporate publishers. Book bans are at record levels, and libraries across the country are facing catastrophic budget cuts, a fate only narrowly avoided by New York City’s public libraries this summer. In a separate line of attack, library collections are being squeezed by draconian licensing deals, and even sued to stop lending digitized books….
Today, the ownership of digital books is routinely denied to libraries. Many books are offered to libraries in electronic form only, under restrictive temporary licenses; libraries can never own these e-books, but must pay for them over and over, as if they were Netflix movies.
Some publishers have even explicitly named libraries as direct economic competitors….”
“First, the UChicago Library plans to fund online access to banned ebooks for all Illinois residents for at least a year through DPLA’s recently launched Banned Book Club on the Palace e-reader app. Second, the UChicago Library will partner with DPLA to increase online access to books in the communities where they are banned by expanding agreements with publishers. DPLA’s Banned Book Club uses GPS-based geolocation to facilitate access to books that are banned where the app user is currently located. The Banned Book Club includes access to more than 900 titles that have been the target of bans in communities nationwide. By partnering with UChicago Library they will strive to offer access to nearly all the approximately 1,500 titles that have been banned.”
“To get from one side of the U.S. to the other is to criss-cross a veritable snakes and ladders of state and county-level legislation and policy. If you’re after a particular title by Toni Morrison or Margaret Atwood, you might find that it’s available in Georgia, and effectively banned next door in Florida. A new initiative from the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA), launched in concert with the Palace Project, hopes to toss a ladder to people living in places where access is restricted.
The Banned Book Club is a free e-reader app that uses GPS-enabled geotargeting to determine which books are not available in a given area, and upload them to a library. To transcend petty local politics, simply download The Palace app, then select “Banned Books Club” as your “local library.” You will then be able to access all the goodies that someone else has “challenged.”…”
van Gerven Oei, V. W. J., & Joy, E. A. F. (2023). Book Bans Attack the LGBTQ+ Community, Open Access Is Part of Our Defense. Punctum Books. https://doi.org/10.21428/ae6a44a6.8634dbb0
“EveryLibrary is monitoring state legislation during the 2023-2024 session that would limit Americans’ freedom to read and think for themselves. Of most concern are proposed laws that would allow for civil and criminal prosecution of librarians, educators, higher ed. faculty, and museum professionals.
In 2023, we are paying the most attention to state legislative initiatives in eight categories: efforts to limit access to school library databases, proposals to establish book rating systems, mandating or prescribing materials challenge policies, efforts to regulate collection development policies, use of parental control policies to limit free speech, changes to obscenity and harmful to minors definitions that preempt First Amendment guarantees, bills that limit or outlaw the teaching of “divisive concepts”, and bills that would criminalize libraries, education, and museums by removing long-standing defense from prosecution exemptions under obscenity laws.
We do more than monitor bills. EveryLibrary is an active and engaged partner with several state library associations helping them create and field effective legislative advocacy strategies. We provide them with free access to a suite of digital advocacy tools including our Action.EveryLibrary.Org site, FightForTheFirst.org, and SaveSchoolLibrarians.org. If you would like to talk about how EveryLibrary can assist your state library association or advocacy group, please contact our executive director John Chrastka today….”
“In 2023-2024, we anticipate that many legislators whose bills failed the last session will reintroduce language in this session and anti-access activists will be inspired to sponsor their own regressive initiatives. The EverLibrary Institute is releasing a new Policy Brief “Opposing Attempts to Criminalize Libraries and Education Through State Obscenity Laws” to help state library associations anticipate this legislation and prepare properly to oppose unnecessary politicized changes to settled state law….”
“Yesterday, we wrote about the importance of fair use as a safeguard for free expression. But all too often, fair use and other legal limits on copyright are not enough to stop copyright enforcement from serving as cover for silencing critics.
Time and again, we see copyright claims getting textbook fair uses erased from the internet, taking particular advantage of the Digital Millenium Copyright’s (DMCA) takedown regime. One culprit, the ironically named No Evil Foods, went after journalists and podcasters who reported on accusations of union-busting, claiming copyright in a union organizer’s recordings of anti-union presentations by management….”
“Saudi Arabia has infiltrated Wikipedia and jailed two administrators in a bid to control content on the website, weeks after a former Twitter worker was jailed in the US for spying for the Saudis.
One administrator was jailed for 32 years, and another was sentenced to eight years, the activists said.
An investigation by parent body Wikimedia found the Saudi government had penetrated Wikipedia’s senior ranks in the region, with Saudi citizens acting or forced to act as agents, two rights groups said….”
“On March 12, the “World Day Against Cyber Censorship”, The Uncensored Library opened its doors [inside the online game, Minecraft].
Providing access to independent information to young people around the world through a medium they can playfully interact with. Journalists from five different countries now have a place to make their voices heard again, despite having been banned, jailed, exiled and even killed.
Their forbidden articles were republished in books within Minecraft, giving readers the chance to inform themselves about the real political situation in their countries and learn the importance of press freedom.
Let’s empower the next generation to stand up for their right to information and give them a powerful tool to fight oppressive leaders: knowledge. Together with the ever-expanding gaming community, we will show the world that the truth will never be silenced!…”
“Five years on from Cambridge University Press’ controversial compliance with a Chinese government request to make more than 300 articles unavailable to Chinese readers, publishers are increasingly self-censoring content on ‘sensitive’ topics….
The issue came to light five years ago, when it emerged in the UK’s national press that Cambridge University Press (CUP) had removed “sensitive” content from its prestigious China studies journal, China Quarterly. Since then, other publishers have faced similar accusations of bowing to pressure from Beijing. Springer Nature has restricted access to more than 1,000 articles, while Taylor & Francis, Sage Publishing and Brill have navigated strict content restrictions.
Although some publishers have found routes to navigate these restrictions without self-censoring their online platforms, others appear to be more deeply enmeshed in China’s censorship apparatus – and in recent years, the access constraints facing so-called controversial papers have gone much further than many believe, straying beyond familiar red-flag topics on an unprecedented scale.
By comparing UK-based and China-based IP addresses and the content discrepancies between the two, I’ve managed to gain some handle on the scale of publication data that is now inaccessible in China. My analysis suggests that more than 28,000 records of publication have been suppressed on publisher platforms accessible by Chinese scholars or the public….”
“Five years on from Cambridge University Press’ controversial compliance with a Chinese government request to make more than 300 articles unavailable to Chinese readers, publishers are increasingly self-censoring content on ‘sensitive’ topics….
The issue came to light five years ago, when it emerged in the UK’s national press that Cambridge University Press (CUP) had removed “sensitive” content from its prestigious China studies journal, China Quarterly. Since then, other publishers have faced similar accusations of bowing to pressure from Beijing. Springer Nature has restricted access to more than 1,000 articles, while Taylor & Francis, Sage Publishing and Brill have navigated strict content restrictions.
Although some publishers have found routes to navigate these restrictions without self-censoring their online platforms, others appear to be more deeply enmeshed in China’s censorship apparatus – and in recent years, the access constraints facing so-called controversial papers have gone much further than many believe, straying beyond familiar red-flag topics on an unprecedented scale.
By comparing UK-based and China-based IP addresses and the content discrepancies between the two, I’ve managed to gain some handle on the scale of publication data that is now inaccessible in China. My analysis suggests that more than 28,000 records of publication have been suppressed on publisher platforms accessible by Chinese scholars or the public….”
“Literacy opens the door for lifelong opportunity and economic success. To make sure this door is open to every child, U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) and U.S. Representative Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ-03) introduced the Right to Read Act (S. 5064 / H.R. 9056), which will address disparities in access to school library resources and surge federal investment in support of increasing student literacy across America. The Right to Read Act would reauthorize the Comprehensive Literacy State Development grant program at $500 million and the Innovative Approaches to Literacy program at $100 million….
The Right to Read Act reaffirms that first amendment rights apply to school libraries in response to the alarming trend of book banning, and it protects school librarians and other educators in carrying out their duty to protect students’ right to read….