Tag Archives: intellectual freedom

Alabama Legislator Bill Holtzclaw Calls On Schools To Ban Toni Morrison Book | Huffington Post

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An Alabama legislator who does not support efforts to repeal the sweeping U.S. education initiative known as the Common Core Standards says he believes the reading list issued in conjunction with the standards needs to be revised.

State Senator Bill Holtzclaw (R-Madison) told Alabama Media Group this week that he believes The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, should be banned from high school libraries, despite the fact that this book is on the Common Core Standard’s recommended reading list for 11th-graders. 

See the full story: Alabama Legislator Bill Holtzclaw Calls On Schools To Ban Toni Morrison Book | Huffington Post.

Woman wants changes at library after grandson checks out erotic novel | Fox 59 News

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Story about a woman challenging adult materials in a library’s collection. This incident would make a great case study for a course assignment in LIS school.

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.– The library is a great place for children to explore new books and learn to love reading. However, what if your child came home from the library with an erotic romance novel?

Snips

Deeren said she followed library protocol in an attempt to get books like this removed. “This is what I did. I went through three different people, filled out paper and then they sent this back,” Deeren said, referring to a letter that was sent back to her.

The letter indicated that Night Games has been nominated for several awards and that it’s the guardian’s responsibility to monitor a child’s book selection, which is indicated in the library application for people 18 and younger.

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“There is a place for these books and that’s an adult book store. If they want to keep it at a library, I want them to keep it behind a door,” Deeren said.

She is not giving up.

“I want to get this (Night Games) out of there. I want to just keep talking to people about getting these kinds of books out or putting them behind closed doors. One or the other,” Deeren said.

There is much more content to this story. See the full article:  Woman wants changes at library after grandson checks out erotic novel | Fox 59 News – fox59.com.

Recent Internet Censorship Stories You May Have Missed

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Copyright Takedowns on Twitter Are Up 76 Percent | Gizmodo
Twitter just released its latest transparency report detailing government requests for information requests, content removal requests and copyright takedowns. Not just one or two but all three categories are up in the first half of this year.

The UK wants to filter porn. Here’s how it might hurt the Internet. | Washington Post
Prime Minister David Cameron announced a plan to filter online pornography by default for households in the United Kingdom, saying the initiative is about protecting children and “their innocence.”

U.K. to compel customers to opt-in for internet porn | CBC
British internet providers will begin blocking access to online pornography unless customers specifically opt-in to surf sexually explicit material.

Tim Berners-Lee warns against governments controlling the Web | CNET
“When you make something universal…it can be used for good things or nasty things…we just have to make sure it’s not undercut by any large companies or governments trying to use it and get total control.”

What Internet Freedom Means to Me (and You) | Information Space
For the fourth of July, I thought it would be fitting (and fun) to get people’s ideas on Internet freedom.

Internet porn ‘opt in’ is censorship, say Canadians | Your Community | CBC
All internet pornography should be preemptively blocked in Canada, says Conservative MP Joy Smith of Winnipeg, which would force those who want to access adult content to “opt in” with their internet service provider….Many of those within our comments and on social media say that making citizens opt in to access adult content through their ISP would be a form of censorship.

A Map of the Countries That Censor the Internet | Gizmodo
The classification of censorship depends on political censorship like human rights and government opposition, social censorship, conflict/security censorship and various Internet tool censorship.

The Most Convoluted DMCA Takedown Request of All Time | Gizmodo
Anti-Gay group Straight Pride UK is abusing the DMCA takedown process to censor work by a journalist. No surprise there—the DMCA is twisted for all kinds of dumb purposes. The inexplicable part? The hate group filed a takedown on… its own press release. How dare you say that we said the words that we wrote in a press release.

Explore Mashable’s Crowdsourced Digital Bill of Rights

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After six weeks of public discussions, document updates and changes, as well as incorporating input from digital rights experts, Mashable is pleased to unveil its first-ever Digital Bill of Rights, made for the Internet, by the Internet.

via Explore Mashable’s Crowdsourced Digital Bill of Rights.

Digital Bill of Rights

The State of Digital Rights: A Discussion | Mashable

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For the past few weeks, Mashable has been crowdsourcing a Digital Bill of Rights to highlight the digital freedoms and protections our readers feel each user should be guaranteed as a citizen of the Internet.

After hundreds of comments and contributions on the Google Doc and through social media, a Digital Bill of Rights by the Internet, for the Internet, has been created. The document, though, is a work in progress as more users from across the world continue to include their thoughts and additions to it.

via The State of Digital Rights: A Discussion | Mashable.

Edit Wars Reveal The 10 Most Controversial Topics on Wikipedia | MIT Technology Review

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An analysis of the most highly contested articles on Wikipedia reveals the controversies that appear invariant across languages and cultures.

See the full article: Edit Wars Reveal The 10 Most Controversial Topics on Wikipedia | MIT Technology Review. The 10 most controversial topics are:

  1. George W Bush
  2. Anarchism
  3. Muhammad
  4. List of World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. employees
  5. Global Warming
  6. Circumcision
  7. United States
  8. Jesus
  9. Race and intelligence
  10. Christianity

Burma’s Lucky Bibliophile | The Irrawaddy Magazine

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When the Ministry of Information’s director general visited Ye Htet Oo’s library in 2010, it could have been disastrous. Ye Htet Oo, then a recent college graduate, was running his new library in downtown Rangoon on the sly, without approval from the former military regime, and was told he could face three months in jail for every book he lent without permission from the censorship board. Unable to get a library license from the government, which saw libraries as a way to spread subversive ideas, he fronted his operation as a bookshop but kept a collection of unapproved library books hidden in a back room. Then one day, unknown to the young bibliophile, the ministry’s director general—who has since become the deputy minister of information and President Thein Sein’s spokesman—entered the “bookshop” and walked straight into the secret room.

For the full article and Q&A with Ye Htet Oo see:  Burma’s Lucky Bibliophile | The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Burma's Lucky Bibliophile

Coursera under fire in MOOCs licensing row | The Conversation

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A prominent member of the open education movement, former Open University Vice-Chancellor Sir John Daniel, has criticised online education provider Coursera for not making its materials available under creative commons licensing.

Coursera is one of the largest providers of MOOCs – Massive Open Online Courses – which allow students to take university courses for free online from anywhere in the world.

Quotable

“While MOOCs have open enrolment, many of the MOOCs offered through commercial partners do not have open licences,” he said.

“It would be a pity if MOOCs were to act as a brake on the open education movement.”

via Coursera under fire in MOOCs licensing row | The Conversation.

See also: Coursera partners with 10 universities for online classes | CNET

Prison Library at Guantánamo – NYTimes.com

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…its patrons may not browse the stacks. Instead, the chief librarian, a civilian who asks to be identified as “Milton” for security reasons, or an aide fills plastic bins with about 50 books and takes them to each cellblock once a week. 

Prison Library at Guantánamo – NYTimes.com

Also this tumblr blog shows reporter’s pics of books at Guantánamo.

Gun Violence, Videogames, and Libraries | American Libraries Magazine

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Quotables:

“ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom recommends that libraries cultivate videogame creation, play, and contests. Many reluctant learners are at-risk youth, and gaming helps bring them into the library.”

“Libraries are among the most trusted of institutions. It is time to use that trust to create activities and programs that help solve the problem of gun violence.”

via Gun Violence, Videogames, and Libraries | American Libraries Magazine.