INSIDE - North Dakota Library Association

the world around them. Graphic novels and
gaming magazines were challenged in four or five
instances for images considered too violent or
sexually-explicit. Furthermore, an Ohio principal
made the sole decision to remove a magazine
from the school’s library. The librarian objected
and the ACLU of Ohio later intervened deeming
the magazine’s removal a violation of the First
Amendment and of the “students’ freedom to be
educated.” In the end, the school board supported
the principal’s decision.
Within the Classroom
Beyond school libraries, many middle school
and high school English curricula suffered
attention when assigned readings were viewed as
objectionable, such as: The Diary of Anne Frank,
Zilpha Keatley Snyder’s Newbery Award-winning
The Egypt Game, and Jeannette Walls’ memoir
The Glass Castle. In these cases, readings were
either discontinued or teachers began offering
alternative titles from which students could
choose.
Virtual Privacy
Google Books, social networking tools, e-readers,
and other tech tools and web-based services
were the subject of news items represented in the
blog, primarily because they introduce privacyprotection
issues. While libraries protect borrower
privacy, it is currently unclear what information
Google Books or Netflix accumulates based
on its users’ searching, viewing, and reading
habits. Similarly, e-readers, like the Kindle,
Nook, and Sony Reader track book searches and
purchases, then provide the information to certain
constituents without user consent. Moreover,
Internet privacy advocates worry that social
networking sites, for example, Facebook, default
to too lenient privacy settings and share too much
information via their numerous applications.
Advocates’ concerns are relevant. An article in the
New York Times describes how researchers were
able to compile bits of information from social
networking tools to predict the ages, birthdays,
birth places, and Social Security numbers of its
users. The ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom
(OIF) offers many resources for learning more
The Good Stuff - Page 7 - June 2010
about privacy issues surrounding the many social
media networks.
Of course, we need to take this information
with a grain of salt as the NDLA Intellectual
Freedom Blog contains only a selection of all
stories published. We must also remember that
many instances of challenges do not make it
into the news. As the ALA states, “70 to 80
percent [of challenges] are never reported.” The
ALA OIF provides a nice map that shows a more
complete representation of where challenges
occurred between 2007 and 2009. South
Dakota, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Nebraska,
New Hampshire, Vermont, and the District
of Columbia are the only states/areas with no
reported cases during this time span.
In relation to intellectual freedom, the Internet
Freedom Preservation Act of 2009 (IFPA) was
introduced to Congress in late 2009. The
legislation, which is still being deliberated, would
“amend the Communications Act of 1934 to
establish a national broadband policy, safeguard
consumer rights, spur investment and innovation,
and for related purposes.” The concept behind
this Act is to insure Net neutrality, requiring that
Internet service providers (ISPs) provide equal
access to the sharing of information via the
Internet without interference based on content,
source, or other forms of discrimination.
At a time when countries such as China, Iran,
Cuba, and Australia are either censoring the
Internet for political and moral purposes, or are
making attempts to do so, the IFPA deserves
prominent national attention.
On behalf of the NDLA Intellectual Freedom
Committee, I invite you to subscribe to our blog’s
RSS feeds so that you can keep up with what
is new in the world of intellectual freedom to
ensure your library is prepared to handle cases
of censorship. Please also feel free to utilize the
comments feature of the blog to share opinions
and stories related to privacy, censorship, and free
speech.