The ALA’s Intellectual Freedom Round Table (IFRT) announces the second video in their monthly series to promote intellectual freedom among ALA members.

IFRT chair, Loida Garcia-Febo, interviews Carolyn Caywood on the issue of privacy and libraries.

Access this video clip through the Office of Intellectual Freedom’s blog, http://www.oif.ala.org/oif/?p=1394 or through YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9HLuBksOYE.

Have you been faced with privacy issues in your library? How do you handle them?

Staff at StorySnoops hope to stimulate conversation surrounding the effects of censorship through interviews.

They’ll feature blogging librarians:

Abby the Librarian
Mighty Little Librarian
Ms. Yingling Reads

Plus these young adult authors whose novels have faced challenges:

Meg Cabot
Judy Blume
Ellen Hopkins

They also have Carol Rasco, President and CEO of Reading is Fundamental, in the guest lineup.

Watch for interviews via storysnoops.com/blog during Banned Books Week from Sept. 25th, - Oct. 2nd.

Reminder: this Friday, August 27th is the deadline for two Freedom to Read Foundation grants.

“The Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF), through its Judith F. Krug Memorial Fund, will provide two grants—one for $2,500 and one for $1,000—to two organizations to support “Read-Outs” celebrating Banned Books Week 2010.  Applications for the grants will be accepted through Aug. 27, and the announcements will be made the week of Sept. 6.  Banned Books Week 2010 will be held Sept. 25–Oct. 2.”

related NDLA IF Blog post

From article by Sharon Roznik | August 11, 2010

“Parents of students in Fond du Lac Schools will be notified during the first week of school that they can monitor what their child is reading.

Although means to block library reading materials has been in place since the days of card catalogs, a new state-of-the art software program makes it that much easier, said Fond du Lac School District Curriculum and Instruction Coordinator John Whitsett.

During a work session held Monday, the Fond du Lac Board of Education got an overview of the new Alexandria Library Automation software program. Blocks can be put on authors, book titles and certain subjects, to an extent.

“It can be used as an alert system if parents want to tag authors and book titles they do not want their children to read, but it will not be a content filter,” said School Board President Eric Everson.

…”

The ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom provides access to IF-related speaker sessions from ALA Annual 2010 via their blog http://www.oif.ala.org/oif/.

Embedded videos and links are provided for:

• Blasphemy! When Religious Values Clash with Intellectual Freedom Values
• Burning Man, Libraries and the 21st Century: The Intersection of the Individual and Society
• Ethics in a Digital World: Using Policies to Guide Professional and Personal Presence in Social Networking Spaces
• Intellectual Freedom Issues Briefing

From article by Jennifer Fernandez | August 17, 2010

“…

The Greensboro Public Library board of trustees voted Monday to ask the City Council to consider adding software to filter inappropriate material from Internet searches. The filter would be limited to computers designated for use by children, as well as for users ages 17 and younger, and for adults who want filtered searches.

That is the less restrictive of two options city library Director Sandy Neerman proposed to trustees at their meeting Monday. The other proposal would have filtered all Internet searches by users of any age.

…

Inappropriate computer incidents dropped from 89 in the first six months of 2009 to 18 during that same time period this year, after the new software was added to slow inappropriate downloads.”

From School Library Journal Article by Lauren Barak | August 17, 2010

“A handful of YA authors who were scheduled to attend the Humble ISD Libraries’ Teen Lit Festival in Texas this January won’t be going after all. Organizers uninvited writer Ellen Hopkins–and most of her fellow presenters withdrew to protest the censorship.

…

Hopkins, whose books deal with drug addiction, incest, and teen prostitution, was looking forward to attending the 2011 event after declining an invitation in 2009 because of a scheduling conflict. However, a middle school librarian, concerned about her students hearing Hopkins’ presentation, voiced her worries to parents, who went to Humble Independent School District Superintendent Guy Sconzo. He then told organizers to remove Hopkins from the event, according to an email Hopkins received from Susan Schilling, a festival organizer, who then apologized for having to uninvite Hopkins.”

From Article by Clifton Adcock | August 14, 2010

“The book in question is “Shooting Star” by Fredrick McKissack Jr., and the parent asked for its removal because of swear words throughout the book.

The book is about a high school football player who, after becoming discouraged about his size, starts using steroids to bulk up, which has a negative impact on his life and personality.

Amy Fichtner, the assistant superintendent of instructional services, said the parent was concerned about the language.

…”