After his profanity-laced tweetstorm went viral last week, Portland student librarian Alex Halpern found himself speaking up for his ̶[e̶m̶b̶a̶t̶t̶l̶e̶d̶ thriving and evolving] profession. READ MORE: Portland’s Angriest Librarian Isn’t Mad Anymore | CityLab
+ This angry librarian’s passionate defense of libraries won the Internet | Washington Post
Libraries…are acting as flash points of resistance, putting together special book displays, hosting timely exhibits, collaborating on art projects, and more. And then there are the libguides. READ MORE: Librarians Provide the Tools for Readers to Rise Up | BOOKRIOT
Libguides, aka research guides aka subject guides aka study guides aka topic guides aka pathfinders aka resource lists aka information portals, have a special place in my heart. Whenever I find a great one I always have one of those Hallelujah ah-ha moments. Then I bookmark!
Librarians have probably created libguides for every topic you can think of. The libguides mentioned in the above article are relevant to the current news cycle of nationalism vs populism and the shifting economic climate of globalization to protectionism. Librarians advocate for and uphold intellectual freedom, diversity and privacy. Libguides represent these values as they provide unbiased, valid sources of information on a specific topic and are a helpful tool in verifying information and combating fake news.
Illustrator Mary Engelbreit has made many fans for her work in stationery, home goods, and children’s books for over 30 years. [S]ome of those fans are not so happy with anti-racist artwork she’s posted on her Facebook as a tribute to Michael Brown, who was killed nearly a year ago. READ MORE: A Children’s Illustrator Is Losing Fans Because Of Her Anti-Racist Art | BuzzFeed
Long form, thought-provoking read about change in library services, open governance and the influence of activism.
What went wrong at one of the world’s eminent research institutions READ: The New York Public Library Wars | The Chronicle Review | The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Watch the video!!
//players.brightcove.net/1130468786001/82aa0c71-8d04-464e-a66f-d6f007663844_default/index.html?videoId=4224007635001
When a young woman in New Delhi, India, was brutally gang-raped on a bus in December 2012, making international headlines, Ram Devineni wasn’t going to stay silent. The filmmaker and artist marched in the streets alongside other protesters, calling for swift justice and systemic change to the all-too-common violence against women that plagues the country.
When he asked a Delhi police officer what he thought about the young woman’s assault, the officer told him, “No good girl walks home alone at night,” implying that she either provoked the rape or, worse, deserved it. His words reflected the misguided, patriarchal view that permeates much of Indian society, silencing women even further with social stigma.
“I realized at that moment that this was not a legal issue, but a cultural problem,” Devineni tells Mashable. “As a filmmaker and as an artist, I wanted to really address this in a cultural context.”
That’s why, two years later, he created and directed the transmedia comic book Priya’s Shakti — a story about the titular Priya, a gang-rape survivor-turned-superhero who partners with a Hindu goddess to fight sexual violence and challenge the patriarchy.
Co-written by Vikas K. Menon with artwork by Dan Goldman, the comic book is the first of its kind to use augmented reality and image recognition, using various media to tell the story of fighting back against sexual assault.
If anyone knows what it means to be publicly humiliated, it’s Monica Lewinsky. In one of very few major media appearances in more than a decade, Monica Lewinsky took the TED stage on Thursday to champion online compassion. In the years since arguably the biggest sex scandal of our time, Lewinsky has turned her attention to activism, namely the fight against cyberbullying and public shame.
READ MORE: Monica Lewinsky: ‘Shame is an industry and the currency is clicks’ | Mashable
Also see: Imagine walking a mile in someone else’s headline: Monica Lewinsky speaks at TED2015 | TEDBlog
Officials say they have banned teenage education activist Malala Yousafzai’s book from private schools across Pakistan, calling her a tool of the West.
Malala attracted global attention last year when the Taliban shot her in the head northwest Pakistan for criticizing the group. She released a memoir in October, “I Am Malala,” that was co-written with British journalist Christina Lamb.
Adeeb Javedani, president of the All Pakistan Private Schools Management Association, said Sunday his group banned Malala’s book from the libraries of its 40,000 affiliated schools. He said Malala was representing the West, not Pakistan.
Malala has become an international hero for opposing the Taliban and standing up for girls’ education. But conspiracy theories have flourished in Pakistan that her shooting was staged to create a hero for the West.
via Pakistani schools ban teenage activist Malala’s book from libraries | The Globe and Mail.
Net neutrality is a dead man walking. The execution date isn’t set, but it could be days, or months (at best). And since net neutrality is the principle forbidding huge telecommunications companies from treating users, websites, or apps differently — say, by letting some work better than others over their pipes — the dead man walking isn’t some abstract or far-removed principle just for wonks: It affects the internet as we all know it.
Once upon a time, companies like AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, and others declared a war on the internet’s foundational principle: that its networks should be “neutral” and users don’t need anyone’s permission to invent, create, communicate, broadcast, or share online. The neutral and level playing field provided by permissionless innovation has empowered all of us with the freedom to express ourselves and innovate online without having to seek the permission of a remote telecom executive.
But today, that freedom won’t survive much longer if a federal court — the second most powerful court in the nation behind the Supreme Court, the DC Circuit — is set to strike down the nation’s net neutrality law, a rule adopted by the Federal Communications Commission in 2010. Some will claim the new solution “splits the baby” in a way that somehow doesn’t kill net neutrality and so we should be grateful. But make no mistake: Despite eight years of public and political activism by multitudes fighting for freedom on the internet, a court decision may soon take it away.
Read the full story: We’re About to Lose Net Neutrality — And the Internet as We Know It | Wired Opinion | Wired.com.
After a week of public outcry over a series of threats against high-profile media figures, Twitter on Saturday announced an update to its site rules, aiming to more directly combat abuse and harassment that occurs across the network.
See the full article: Twitter Updates Rules to Crack Down on Abuse – Mike Isaac | Social | AllThingsD.
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