How book-banning campaigns have changed the lives and education of librarians
The current threats to librarians and the books they circulate are necessitating a shift in the content of graduate library education. Librarians obviously need to know the content of books. But educators like me now know we need to provide graduate students with information about how to physically and legally protect themselves and their organizations.
Statewide Internet Outage at Delaware Libraries Caused by Hackers
Delaware`s three dozen libraries, which provide free internet and computer services to residents, were targeted by hackers on Friday, disrupting access to all computers and the internet.
In today’s digital age, technology plays a vital role in library services. Lea Roselle, the Milford Public Library Director, emphasized the significance of technology.
“The technology is what makes our whole business run—I mean, we are an information technology center.”
US public schools banned 10,000 books in most recent academic yearSurvey by PEN America suggests bans nearly tripled nationwide from previous year’s figure
More than 10,000 books were banned in US public schools from 2023 to 2024, according to a report, marking a stark increase over the year before as Republican-led states pass new censorship laws.
The survey from PEN America suggested that bans of books nearly tripled nationwide, from 3,362 the previous year.
At least 13 titles were banned for the first time, including Alex Haley’s Roots: The Saga of an American Family, which describes the journey of an enslaved person from Africa to the US, and James Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain, the acclaimed semi-autographical work set in Harlem, New York.
Under Tennessee’s stricter school library law, some books quietly disappear
“Banning books is not OK,” Edwards told the board last month as it began reviewing the materials. “Just because you don’t like what the mirror shows you doesn’t mean you put the mirror down.”
This week’s vote comes after the district, south of Nashville, already removed 29 books from its libraries this year under a previous policy, part of a wave of purges on campuses across Tennessee and other states.
Why I’m So Desperate for the Return of Microsoft Word to Our Prison Library
From 1971, when the Supreme Court endorsed prison law libraries, keeping them updated with the latest legal materials and tech has always been a point of contention between prison staff and people incarcerated there. Prisoners have legally faced off with administrators from California to Tennessee over typewriters and computers. In response to one such complaint, one district judge stated, “the typed word leaps more vivid to the watery judicial eye.”
Why a ruling against the Internet Archive threatens the future of America%u2019s librariesThe decision locks libraries into an ecosystem that is not in readers; interests. Congress must act.
This decision harms libraries. It locks them into an e-book ecosystem designed to extract as much money as possible while harvesting (and reselling) reader data en masse. It leaves local communities’ reading habits at the mercy of curatorial decisions made by four dominant publishing companies thousands of miles away. It steers Americans away from one of the few remaining bastions of privacy protection and funnels them into a surveillance ecosystem that, like Big Tech, becomes more dangerous with each passing data breach. And by increasing the price for access to knowledge, it puts up even more barriers between underserved communities and the American dream.
Nebraska Library Commission hears from public over controversial new appointment
At a Nebraska Library Commission meeting on Friday, citizens expressed concerns over Gov. Jim Pillen’s appointment of Terri Cunningham-Swanson to the commission.
Cunningham-Swanson was ousted from the Plattsmouth Board of Education earlier this year, with those in favor of her removal claiming she cost taxpayers thousands in legal fees and made efforts to ban more than 50 books from libraries in Plattsmouth.
During public comment on Friday, many speakers shared the same notions, including Cunningham-Swanson’s son, D’Shawn Le’Vell.
“I personally think the appointment of my mother reeks of corruption on the part of Governor Pillen,” he said. “My mother is massively unqualified to be in this position.”
Internet Archive Court Loss Leaves Higher Ed in Gray AreaThe nonprofit published thousands of ebooks for free, violating copyright law. What that means for research libraries remains to be seen.
The Internet Archive just lost its appeal over ebook lending
The Internet Archive has lost its appeal in a fight to lend out scanned ebooks without the approval of publishers. In a decision on Wednesday, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that permitting the Internet Archive’s digital library would “allow for widescale copying that deprives creators of compensation and diminishes the incentive to produce new works.”
By day, he’s a 41-year-old working in business development for a London law firm. By night, he’s a music industry crusader %u2013 digging up obscure gems and persuading record labels to make them available online.
Over the last six years, he’s been responsible for 725 releases, including tracks by Sting, Cher and Annie Lennox, with a strong bias for late 90s pop acts such as Billie Piper, S Club and A*Teens.
He’ll admit itis a very strange thing to do, but it gives people a lot of happiness so why not?%u201D he tells the BBC.
Record labels forgot these songs existed. One man rescued them
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