Open Access Explained!

Banning literature in prisons perpetuates system that ignores inmate humanity

Censorship | Prison libraries | Human rights

Myesha Braden, Michael Huggins and Courtney Alexander, Opinion contributors Published 9:31 p.m. ET March 9, 2018 | Updated 12:09 p.m. ET March 10, 2018

 

Lawsuit among latest reminders that reading, education can help ensure that prisoners who gain freedom, keep it

(Photo: John David Mercer, AP)

 

 

 

Last month, the publisher of Prison Legal News became one of the latest organizations to take action against the nation's prison systems for censorship.

The Human Rights Defense Center lawsuit targets the Illinois Department of Corrections and alleges that it keeps HRDC literature out of the hands of prisoners, including the monthly Prison Legal News magazine — which covers court rulings and other aspects of the criminal justice system.

 Read more:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/policing/spotlight/2018/03/09/banning-literature-prisons-perpetuates-system-ignores-inmate-humanity/397501002/

What public libraries will lose without net neutrality

Net neutrality | Public Libraries | Access 

A Q&A with NYPL president Tony Marx and associate director of information policy Greg Cram 

 By Kaitlyn Tiffany Dec 14, 2017, 8:00am EST 

 

Zipporah Films

The FCC will vote on a measure today that would repeal net neutrality and pave the way for the end of the free, open internet as we’ve always known it. Librarians aren't happy about it.

Yesterday, The Verge published an op-ed written by the heads of the New York Public Library, the Brooklyn Library, and the Queens Library systems, which called the measure “appalling,” and argued that the end of an open internet would contribute to inequality of education and opportunity, widening “the already yawning digital divide.” Later, in a phone call, the New York Public Library’s CEO and president Anthony Marx and associate director of information policy Greg Cram broke the issue down further, explaining exactly which library resources an open internet protects, who would be hurt the most by net neutrality’s rollback, and why handing the internet to ISPs could threaten the basic foundation of American democracy. 

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

What stake do public libraries have in this issue? 

Greg Cram: So, for fiscal year 2017 [the New York Public Library] provided 3.1 million computer sessions — and that’s sessions across all of the branches — using 4,700 computers. And in addition to that, we provided 3 million wireless sessions. For the first quarter of fiscal year 2018 we had 16.2 million pageviews on our digital collections.

Anthony Marx: That gives us a little bit of the sense of the scale of how much of the library goes across wires, and the simple fact is that the poorest of New York rely on the library as the only place they can go and get free use of computers and free Wi-Fi. It’s one of the reasons why the library is the most visited civic institution in New York. We have also, in recent years, been lending people what we call hot spots, which are Wi-Fi boxes they can take home, typically for a year. That gives them digital access at home — broadband access — which something like 2 million New Yorkers can’t afford and don’t have. We’re still doing thousands of those. We’d like to do more and we’re exploring how to do more, because in this day and age, if you don’t have internet access that works and goes fast enough, you can’t do your homework, you can’t do research, you can’t apply for jobs, you can’t find jobs. 

Read more...

Public Outcry Saves Saskatchewan Library Funds

Library advocacy | Public libraries | Access |Funding | Activism

Drop Everything and Read rally, Fox Valley, Sask.
Photo credit: Susan Rose

 

 

By Bob Warburton on May 15, 2017

In an abrupt about-face, the provincial government of Saskatchewan, Canada, on April 24 restored every penny of the $4.8 million it had cut just a month earlier from public library funding as part of its 2017–18 budget. It was a reversal that elected officials admit was prompted by mounting public opposition to the cuts, spurred in part by a Facebook group that sprang up almost overnight to energize many grassroots protests.

The announcement by Saskatchewan Education Minister Don Morgan wrapped up a tumultuous five weeks in which a determined and unified library community prevailed over what were considered long odds.

They saw thousands of petition signatures, a claim by Morgan that usage had declined significantly and some parts of Saskatchewan might have too many libraries—rebutted point by point by the nonprofit Saskatchewan Library Association (SLA)—sinking poll numbers for the political party in power, a protest aimed directly at elected officials, and a sudden halt to Saskatchewan’s popular interlibrary loan system. Read more...

Preserving U.S. Government Websites and Data as the Obama Term Ends | December 15, 2016

Internet archive | Government Websites | Data preservation

 Posted by Jefferson

Long before the 2016 Presidential election cycle librarians have understood this often-overlooked fact: vast amounts of government data and digital information are at risk of vanishing when a presidential term ends and administrations change.  For example, 83% of .gov pdf’s disappeared between 2008 and 2012. 


That is why the Internet Archive, along with partners from the Library of Congress, University of North Texas, George Washington University, Stanford University, California Digital Library, and other public and private libraries, are hard at work on the End of Term Web Archive, a wide-ranging effort to preserve the entirety of the federal government web presence, especially the .gov and .mil domains, along with federal websites on other domains and official government social media accounts.

While not the only project the Internet Archive is doing to preserve government websites, ftp sites, and databases at this time, the End of Term Web Archive is a far reaching one.

Read more....

Long Overdue: Why public libraries are finally eliminating the late-return fine

Public libraries | Access | Community outreach

by Ruth Graham

A thing of the past? 
Photo illustration by Slate. Images via jmbatt, simo988/iStock.

 

 

In 1906, a reporter for the Detroit Free Press described a scene that had become all too common at the city’s public libraries. A child hands an overdue book to a stern librarian perched behind a desk, and with a “sinister expression,” the librarian demands payment of a late fine. In some cases, the child grumbles and pays the penny or two. But in others—often at the city’s smaller, poorer library branches—the offender cannot pay, and his borrowing privileges are revoked. “Scarcely a day passes but it does not leave its record of tears and sighs and vain regrets in little hearts,” the reporter lamented.

More than a century later, similar dramas are still enacted in libraries across the country every day. In some districts, up to 35 percent of patrons have had their borrowing privileges revoked because of unpaid fines. Only these days, it’s librarians themselves who often lament what the Detroit reporter called “a tragedy enacted in this little court of equity.” Now some libraries are deciding that the money isn’t worth the hassle—not only that, but that fining patrons works against everything that public libraries ought to stand for. Read more...

ALA opposes new administration policies that contradict core values - News and Press Center

Advocacy | Human Rights | Library Ethics

ALA opposes new administration policies that contradict core values - News and Press Center

for Immediate Release


Mon, 01/30/2017


Contact:

Macey Morales

Deputy Director

Public Awareness Office

American Library Association

(312) 280-4393

mmorales@ala.org

CHICAGO
— Today American Library Association President Julie Todaro released
the following statement responding to recent actions by the new
administration and specifically addressing issues regarding access to
information, discrimination and intellectual freedom.


“We are shocked and dismayed by recent executive orders and other
actions by the new administration, which stand in stark contrast to the
core values of the American Library Association (ALA). Our core values
include access to information; confidentiality/privacy; democracy;
equity, diversity and inclusion; intellectual freedom; and social
responsibility.


“The American Library Association strongly opposes any actions that
limit free access to information, undermine privacy or discriminate on
any basis. This includes the temporary suspension of visas and entrance
to the US based on anyone’s nationality or religion as well as the
increased scrutiny of any individual’s communication such as mobile
phone and/or social media activity.


“Our nation’s 120,000 public, academic, school and special libraries
serve all community members, including people of color, immigrants,
people with disabilities and the most vulnerable in our communities,
offering services and educational resources that transform communities,
open minds, and promote inclusion and diversity.


“ALA believes that the struggle against racism, prejudice,
stereotyping and discrimination is central to our mission. We will
continue to speak out and support efforts to abolish intolerance and
cultural invisibility, stand up for all the members of the communities
we serve, and promote understanding and inclusion through our work.


“We will continue to speak out and support our members as they work
tirelessly for access to library and information resources on behalf of
all of their community members, while advocating for privacy,
intellectual freedom, critical global research, information literacy,
ongoing access to scientific research, and fair and equitable treatment
for everyone.


“As our strategic plan states, ‘ALA recognizes the critical need for
access to library and information resources, services, and technologies
by all people, especially those who may experience language or
literacy-related barriers; economic distress; cultural or social
isolation; physical or attitudinal barriers; racism; discrimination on
the basis of appearance, ethnicity, immigrant status, housing status,
religious background, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender
expression; or barriers to equal education, employment and housing.’


“We encourage our members to continue to speak out and show their
support for and work on behalf of our core values, in their communities
as well as with their local, state and national elected and appointed
officials. Additionally, ALA has tools and resources online to help you
advocate for our core values:

• Advocacy: http://www.ala.org/offices/ola/
• Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services: http://www.ala.org/offices/diversity/
• Government Relations: http://www.ala.org/offices/ogr/
• Information and Technology Policy: http://www.ala.org/offices/oitp/
• Intellectual Freedom: http://www.ala.org/offices/oif/
• Libraries Respond: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/diversity/libraries-respond

“ALA is committed to using its national platform for speaking up
and speaking out for its members and constituents in these chaotic,
unprecedented and challenging times. We appreciate the library
community’s continued support.”

# # #

Tags

Advocacy, ALA President, Public Awareness

Stand, Fight, Resist

Advocacy & Activism

Jason Griffey | December 16, 2016

The idea that libraries are neutral spaces has been well and disabused over the last few years. From the services we offer to the collections that we curate, the decisions that libraries and librarians make are political ones that reflect values. Sometimes those are the values of the organization, sometimes the values of the individuals, and sometimes they are the values of the communities that the library serves. Those values are illustrated by our technologies, our ontologies, and our descriptors. Those who attempt to hold that “neutrality” of information access is an ideal for which to strive have had a hard time holding to that stance as increasing numbers of librarians question and deconstruct our profession. I would like to suggest something even stronger…that even if it were possible for libraries to be neutral spaces, that to create such a space would be morally questionable, and potentially actively morally wrong. 

I say this as someone who firmly believes in the maxim of combating bad speech with more speech. I am not here advocating controls or restrictions on speech. But it is not the responsibility of every library to collect and distribute literature of hate, or falsehoods, or lies. Some libraries do need to collect everything, the good and the bad, for archival and historical study purposes, but those libraries are fairly obviously identified in practice and the vast majority of libraries should and could take a stand with their actions, programs, policies, and collections to be on the side of justice and scientific fact. 

Neutrality favors the powerful, and further marginalizes the marginalized. In the face of the current political climate, with the use of opinions as bludgeons and disinformation as the weapon of choice for manipulation and intellectual coercion, it is up to those who value fact and believe in the care of those in need to stand up and positively affirm that to do otherwise is evil. 
Read article

How Banning Books Marginalizes Children by Paul Ringel

Banned Books

Oct. 1, 2016 [from The Atlantic]

Since the 1800s, attitudes about which books are “appropriate” for kids to read have too often suppressed stories about different cultures and life experiences. Comstock / Getty

Every year since 1982, an event known as Banned Books Week has brought attention to literary works frequently challenged by parents, schools, and libraries. The books in question sometimes feature scenes of violence or offensive language; sometimes they’re opposed for religious reasons (as in the case of both Harry Potter and the Bible). But one unfortunate outcome is that 52 percent of the books challenged or banned in the last 10 years feature so-called “diverse content”—that is, they explore issues such as race, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, mental illness, and disability. As a result, the organizers of Banned Books Week, which started Sunday, chose the theme “Celebrating Diversity” for 2016.

Since the inception of the American children’s literature industry in the 1820s, publishers have had to grapple with the question of who their primary audience should be. Do kids’ books cater to parents and adult cultural gatekeepers, or to young readers themselves? But as books that address issues of diversity face a growing number of challenges, the related question of which children both the industry and educators should serve has become more prominent recently. Who benefits when Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of Part-Time Indian, which deals with racism, poverty, and disability, is banned for language and “anti-Christian content”? Who’s hurt when Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings’s picture book I Am Jazz, about a transgender girl, is banned? The history of children’s book publishing in America offers insight into the ways in which traditional attitudes about “appropriate” stories often end up marginalizing the lives and experiences of many young readers, rather than protecting them.  Read more...

Donate Your Books to Prisons: What, Why, and How by Becky Stone

Prison Libraries

www.bestcollegesonline.com

When you research how to donate your books to prisons, the same phrase comes up over and over again: that books are a lifeline for prisoners.

As someone who is fortunate enough that most of my experience with the prison system has happened through Netflix, I took that to mean simply that when you’re in the same small space day after day, it gets boring. But providing prisoners with books offers so much more than relief from monotony.

According to a Baltimore Sun article about Maryland’s prison libraries:

Many who are within a year or two of release use library services to prepare for re-entry — to get their GED, to improve their vocabularies and language skills. The recidivism rate in the United States varies, from 50 percent to as high as 67 percent in some states, and there are two main reasons for that level of failure: the employment challenge facing ex-offenders on the outside and the lack of preparation for re-entry on the inside.

Read more.... 

Syria's secret library by Mike Thomson, BBC News

28 July 2016

MALEK

 

 

When a place has been besieged for years and hunger stalks the streets, you might have thought people would have little interest in books. But enthusiasts have stocked an underground library in Syria with volumes rescued from bombed buildings - and users dodge shells and bullets to reach it.

Down a flight of steep steps, as far as it's possible to go from the flying shrapnel, shelling and snipers' bullets above, is a large dimly lit room. Buried beneath a bomb-damaged building, it's home to a secret library that provides learning, hope and inspiration to many in the besieged Damascus suburb of Darayya.

"We saw that it was vital to create a new library so that we could continue our education. We put it in the basement to help stop it being destroyed by shells and bombs like so many other buildings here," says Anas Ahmad, a former civil engineering student who was one of the founders. Read more...

Rikers Island gets unofficial New York Public Library branch by Alison Fox

July 27, 2016

The library at the Rikers Island correction facility has a wide range of books, including "The Hunger Games" series and "To Kill a Mockingbird." (Credit: Craig Ruttle)

 

The (unofficial) 93rd branch of the New York Public Library is now open for business — and you can’t take the subway to visit it.

That’s because the small-but-well-stocked collection is the first permanent public library on Rikers Island.

And the collection, which is housed in the women’s Rose M. Singer Center and sits below a poster of Beyoncé as Rosie the Riveter, is as varied as the people who will be reading from it: “The Hunger Games” books share space with “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “Les Misérables,” and an extensive James Patterson collection. 

“It’s amazing the city services that are available in the community; many of those we want here on the island,” said Department of Correction Commissioner Joseph Ponte. “This is a good step to introduce inmates to the value of education, the value of reading.”

The library holds 1,200 books — spanning everything from comics to sci-fi, from Spanish language works to nonfiction classics — and it will be open every Tuesday for about six hours each day. Read more...

 

Library on wheels serve Gazans

NADOLU AGENCY

GAZA

Published July 12, 2016

The German-French Cultural Center brought a traveling library vehicle to Gaza from the West Bank on May 16, which aims to instill a love of reading in children by enabling them to read books at colorful chairs and tables. The traveling library which remain in Gaza until August, and made its first stop in the Huzaa town of Khan Yunis province, one of the main targets of Israel's attack on Palestine in July 2014. Children living in Huzaa previously had no access to a library. Thanks to the traveling library, children are able to enter the magical world of books, drawings and enchanting stories, as well as spending time with the staff of the library enjoying entertaining activities.

Mahmud al-Askalani, the coordinator of the traveling library, told Anadolu Agency (AA) how the library works: "The traveling library offers its services in Gaza three months a year. Then we will head to West Bank and open the doors of the magical world of the books to children living there."

Read more... 

The Freedom to Read: The history of ALA's vital statement on intellectual freedom

By Wayne A. Wiegand | March 15, 2016

US President Dwight D. Eisenhower (left) and Dartmouth President John Sloan Dickey at the Dartmouth College commencement, June 14, 1953. Courtesy of Dartmouth College Library

 

 

 

“Don’t join the book burners,” President Dwight D. Eisenhower implored Dartmouth College graduates on June 14, 1953. “Don’t be afraid to go to your library and read every book as long as any document does not offend your own ideas of decency.”

Eisenhower’s words shocked many because they constituted his first public challenge to McCarthyism—an ethos enveloping the country at the time and fed by Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.), who inferred communist conspiracies everywhere in American culture, including books on the shelves of 194 information libraries that the US State Department operated in 61 foreign countries.

Like-minded individuals also saw communist threats in the images on the covers of magazines, paperbacks, and comics that were stacked face-out on newsstand racks across the country. The US House of Representatives even set up a Select Committee on Current Pornographic Materials to investigate the publishers. Outside Washington, the National Organization for Decent Literature (NODL) sponsored by the Roman Catholic Church issued monthly lists of condemned titles that local parishioners used to police newsstands (and, on occasion, local public library shelves). Owners who passed muster received NODL seals of approval to display in their windows; sales at newsstands that did not display a seal invariably suffered. Read more...

5 Famous British TV Writers On How Libraries Influenced Their Lives

Following the closure of 10 libraries in Lambeth in London, Russell T Davies, Mark Gatiss, Peter Bowker, Sarah Phelps, and Jack Thorne spoke to BuzzFeed News about why they need to protected across the rest of the UK.

posted on Apr. 30, 2016, at 3:27 a.m.

Gareth McLean

BuzzFeed Contributor

Moving “south of the river” after spending 15 years as a Hackney resident was tumult enough, so you can imagine my irritation when, upon my arrival in Lambeth, south London, I discovered that the council in its wisdom was closing 10 libraries – including my local one, the Carnegie Library.

The Carnegie Library was closed at the end of April, with the council promising that it will reopen in 2017 as “a healthy living centre with a self-service neighbourhood library”. For 10 days the library was occupied by protestors upset at the move. They left the building peacefully, and the gates of the Carnegie Library are now locked shut. Behind those gates, books lie unread and stories go untold.

The closure is a tragedy and it’s one that got me thinking what the world – individuals and communities – would be without libraries and what libraries mean to people. So I asked five of the best TV writers in Britain to lend their voices to the anti-closure campaign (#DefendTheTen) and write about what libraries meant and mean to them.

Mark Gatiss (Sherlock, Doctor Who, An Adventure in Space and Time, The League of Gentlemen)

Anthony Harvey / Getty Images and Scott Bryan / BuzzFeed

Read more...

8 Librarians Who Lend Out More Than Books by Michele Debszak

Libraries would be nothing without the librarians who run them. Most of us know them as the people who check out our books or help us navigate the Dewey Decimal System, but not all librarians are limited to working with the printed word. Whether they’re lending out ties or larger-than-life puppets, these are the heroic men and women behind some of the world’s most unique library collections.

1. LAUREN COMITO // THE TIE-BRARY

Libraries offer tremendous resources to people searching for employment, but that could all be for nothing without a proper interview outfit to wear. In Queens, New York, library members can check out a tie with interview tips and tie-tying instructions printed inside the box it comes in. Queens librarian Lauren Comito launched the “tie-brary” as one of her many initiatives dedicated to providing services to the borough’s homeless population. After foundingWhereinQueens.org, a website that directs users to career services and other resources in the area, she realized that some of her patrons didn’t own a tie or even know they should be wearing one to interviews. She met this need by building the racks to hold a library of ties herself. read more...

IMAGE CREDIT: 

ISTOCK

A Day in the Life of a Bookmobile Librarian

Northeastern Nevada Regional Bookmobile Librarian, Elko County Library, Baker, Nevada, 2000, photo Robert Dawson

Kelvin K. Selders is the librarian for the Northeastern Nevada Regional Bookmobile. His story appears in the book The Public Library: A Photographic Essay, which features essays by Amy Tan, Barbara Kingsolver, Anne Lamott, Ann Patchett, and others, alongside author Robert Dawson’s photographs of libraries — from the extravagant to the minute. In the following piece, Kelvin Selders gives us a look into his typical work day. Read more...

Introducing Open eBooks

American Libraries Magazine

8 mins · 

"Today, the White House announced that the Open eBooks app to put ebooks in the hands of lower-income children and young adults aged 4-18, is up and running. The Open eBooks service to provide age appropriate reading materials, was developed in partnership with the Digital Public Library of America, the New York Public Library, FirstBook, and Baker & Taylor. With the app, the Open eBooks service can begin."

http://www.districtdispatch.org/…/long-awaited-open-ebook-…/

First Lady Michelle Obama released a video (1:02) explaining the initiative.

The loss of libraries is another surefire way to entrench inequality Mary O'Hara Mary O'Hara

 ‘Having a library within walking distance of home was a way for a young girl from a poor background to access the same breadth of reading material as anyone else.’ Photograph: Getty Images

As someone who grew up in a home without books, no spare cash to buy them and no tradition of reading bedtime stories, my local library offered something unique and indispensable. It’s hard to think of anything that brought me more joy as a primary school-aged child than walking back from the Falls Road library in west Belfast with a bundle of books.

Save Our Libraries: Readers' reports

 

Read more

Having a library within walking distance of home was a way for a young girl from a poor background to access the same breadth of reading material as anyone else – at no expense. It stripped away at least some of the disadvantage that came with being from a low-income family. So every time I hear of another library closure – and there were more than 100 last year alone in Scotland, Wales and England, according to official figures – it hits a nerve. The loss of libraries is simply another surefire way to entrench inequality.

From providing books for people of all ages and backgrounds, to kids clubs and hubs for older people, to computer terminals that those with no access to the internet can use to find job vacancies, libraries are about as democratic and diverse as is possible to imagine. When properly funded and resourced they are educational and social anchors in communities everywhere. Yet, despite knowing all this, in the past five years the relentless funding constraints placed on local authorities have seen library budgets slashed by an astounding amount.  Read more...

10 Ways Mobile Devices Have Changed Education By Karen A. Frenkel

Carry Along Your School

Because of mobile devices, students no longer need to be in school to learn and ask questions. They can work from anywhere at any time with their smartphone or tablet and connect with teachers and fellow students, check assignments and work on shared content.

- See more at: http://www.cioinsight.com/it-strategy/mobile-wireless/slideshows/10-ways-mobile-devices-have-changed-education.html#sthash.Poj1Dkg7.dpuf

Computers have been used in schools and colleges for decades, with most connected to the Internet, yet they’ve fallen short in making a profound impact on education and learning pedagogies, according to Krish Kupathil, CEO of Mobiliya Technologies, which makes a digital classroom platform. Enter mobile devices. "Clunky desktops gave way to cool laptops, tablets and the ubiquitous smartphone, the real turning point in the modern education system," he said. "Gen Z loves carrying them, browsing endlessly and tapping them to complete their assignments." Mobile learning is the new face of education, he says. The Speak Up 2012 National Research Project found that 80% of students in grades 9-12 use smartphones and are connected to their schools 24/7. And by 2020, the mobile learning market is expected to reach $32 billion, according to Apollo Matrix, a prediction that "clearly shows that mobile learning is here to stay and dominate the education sphere." Kupathil describes 10 ways mobile devices are changing education.

 

 

 

 

 

Karen A. Frenkel writes about technology and innovation and lives in New York City.

- See more at: http://www.cioinsight.com/it-strategy/mobile-wireless/slideshows/10-ways-mobile-devices-have-changed-education.html#sthash.Poj1Dkg7.dpuf