Judith Krug

Judith Fingeret Krug, 69, the long-time director of the American Library Association’s (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) and executive director of the Freedom to Read Foundation, who fought censorship on behalf of the nation’s libraries, died April 11 after a lengthy illness.

Full story here

New Year - same old stuff

There is an interesting discussion over at the Huffington Post about internet censorship and libraries - feel free to jump into the fray

I didn't realize that by default Google safe-search is turned on until I couldn't find a page that I know existed when I ran a search. If you have never changed the setting just go to the Google page, click on preferences and select Do not filter my search results.

The U.K. Minister of Culture has proposed ratings for websites which should concern us all

The Research Advisory Board of the Internet Safety Technical Task force will be releasing their full report in January but preliminary info shows “…the increased popularity of the Internet in America has not been correlated with an overall increase in reported sexual offenses; overall sexual offenses against children have gone steadily down in the last 18 years”. You can read the literature review on their website.

Happy New Year

Parents Against Bad Books in School

I ran across this site the other day. The authors of the website list hundreds of books that they consider inappropriate, along with lengthy excerpts from each book that they find objectionable.

Privacy of Library Records

In response to the debate in Vermont about a new privacy law, the Burlington Free Press published an eloquent piece from Judah Hamer, who is president of the Vermont Library Association

In a library, the right to privacy means the right to open inquiry. Individuals must be able to seek information about any subject without fear of judgment, criticism or scrutiny of others. Freedom of speech is meaningless without the freedom to receive information; they are the underpinnings of a healthy democracy. While many Vermont libraries already provided confidentiality protection, the new law provides greater assurance to patrons across Vermont that their reading habits and research interests are private matters that they alone can decide to share with others. It's just one of the many ways we continue to serve our communities.

Philip Pullman on Censorship

How appropriate that Philip Pullman, author of "The Golden Compass" has a great piece on censorship in the Guardian this week

The inevitable result of trying to ban something – book, film, play, pop song, whatever – is that far more people want to get hold of it than would ever have done if it were left alone. Why don't the censors realise this?

Banned Books Week

From the ALA Website

Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read is observed during the last week of September each year. Observed since 1982, this annual ALA event reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted. This year, 2008, marks BBW's 27th anniversary (September 27 through October 4).

BBW celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them. After all, intellectual freedom can exist only where these two essential conditions are met.

BBW is sponsored by the American Booksellers Association, American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, American Library Association, American Society of Journalists and Authors, Association of American Publishers, National Association of College Stores, and is endorsed by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.

So what do you have planned? Feel free to post events, activities or ideas here

or if you need some ideas, check the ALA Presskit or the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression free online handbook.

Fahrenheit 451 in Weld County

This from the PR Department at High Plains Library District:

This event is part of the Big Read celebration featuring Fahrenheit 451 and will feature David Kipen, Literature Director with the National Endowment for the Arts and community leaders reading the names and brief excerpts from the American Library Association's list of Banned Books while burning the mock novel.

For more information on this event, please contact Kelli Johnson.

The Big Read 2008: Fahrenheit 451 will take place from September 21 - October 31. A full schedule of events is available on line at www.MyLibrary.us.

The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museums and Library Science and Arts Midwest.

Fahrenheit 451 is one of my favorite novels, for many reasons, but I'm not sure yet how I feel about a "mock" book burning even as part of banned books event .... how about you?

If you want to read a real treasure of book about book burning gone wild, try Out of the Flames by Lawrence and Nacy Goldstone, one of the best books that I've read in the last year

ttnf goes bye-bye

An outraged parent prompts middle school administrator to pull ttfn from library shelf.
Full story.

Privacy, computers and libraries

Several interesting items regarding libraries and the net and law enforcement....

In Vermont, Children's Librarian Judith Flint, held off the police who came in demanding to seize the computers in the children's area.

Flint demanded a search warrant, touching off a confrontation that pitted the privacy rights of library patrons against the rights of police on official business.

"It's one of the most difficult situations a library can face," said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, deputy director of intellectual freedom issues for the American Library Association.

Investigators did obtain a warrant about eight hours later, but the June 26 standoff in the 105-year-old, red brick library on Main Street frustrated police and had fellow librarians cheering Flint..... A new Vermont law that requires libraries to demand court orders in such situations took effect July 1, but it wasn't in place that June day. The library's policy was to require one.

Jessamyn West has blogged more on the incident and some of the ramifications. Amy Grasmick, Library Director of the Kimball Library, has added an eloquent post along with sound guidelines for libraries on how to handle such an incident.

The American Library Association has provided quite a bit of information about handling inquiries from law enforcement and includes a comprehensive collection of suggested policies for dealing with privacy issues in the library.

Ryan Singel has post on the Wired Blog about the third strike against COPA (Child Online Protection Act) as the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld on Tuesday a 2007 lower-court decision that the act was unconstitutional. Interesting reading in the comments section follows

Uncle Bobby’s Wedding Challenged

This was posted by Nicolle Stephen from the Library Research Service on the Colorado Libraries Blog.
Comments?