Utah Library Association Intellectual Freedom Committee

License Plates: Government or Private Speech?

2009-04-27T14:42:00.002-06:00

"The next great First Amendment battleground, it turns out, is on the back of your car..." according to an article in today's New York Times.

In Memoriam: Free Speech Champion Judith Krug

2009-04-15T09:11:00.002-06:00

A real hero for our times, Judith Krug died on Saturday.

CopyLeft

2009-02-27T13:21:00.005-07:00

Mystified by copyright? Who isn't!? The web has changed intellectual property in unforeseen ways. I just saw a link today to an article in the New York Times Magazine from 5 years ago (!) -- it's lengthy, but well-researched and very interesting. The illustration is from the New York Times Magazine article and is by Christoph Niemann.

The Ten Commandments in Pleasant Grove

2009-02-25T17:29:00.003-07:00

You may have been keeping track of this story since the controversy arose several years ago. On the surface the question seems to be about religion and government, but according to today's New York Times the Supreme Court ruled that it is really a matter of free speech.

Information STILL wants to be free....

2009-02-19T09:45:00.003-07:00

Boston University has taken a giant step in information access. Check out this article courtesy of Library Link of the Day.

Copyright and User Generated Content

2009-02-02T10:30:00.006-07:00

A Pennsylvania mother set a legal precedent when a huge recording company came after her for a You Tube video, discussed in a lengthy but interesting article from the ABA Journal, courtesy of Library Link of the Day.

Shouting Fire

2009-01-11T14:01:00.004-07:00

Going to Sundance? Don't miss "Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech." Here is part of the description from the festival website:

"Liz Garbus’s Shouting Fire, a riveting exploration of the current state of free speech in America, is crucially relevant.Interweaving historical cases—The New York Times’s fight to publish the Pentagon Papers and the Nazis' insistence on marching in Skokie, among them—with contemporary free-speech infringements, the film documents the way both the Right and the Left have lashed out in fear. In the stories of a left-wing professor fired for provocative remarks about 9/11, an Arab American principal made to resign after discussing the word ""intifada,"" and Christian schoolkids suspended for wearing Bible-quoting T-shirts, there’s an ironic pattern. When threatened by an outside enemy, perceived or real, we often demonize each other, undermining the very freedom we seek to protect. We think of First Amendment rights as inviolable; in fact, they're profoundly vulnerable. Mixing vibrant pacing with an elegant journalistic style, Garbus orchestrates this urgent matter like a rallying cry for action. As her father, legendary attorney Martin Garbus, wisely warns, if we don’t fight for our freedoms every day, we will lose them."

ABFFE President Finan Elected Media Coalition Chair

2008-12-14T10:03:00.004-07:00

Some of you may have heard Chris Finan speak at the ULA/MPLA Conference this spring. This news is from Shelf Awareness
an online newsletter.

Congratulations to Chris Finan, president of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression and outgoing chair of the National Coalition Against Censorship, who has been elected 2009 chair of the Media Coalition, which is dedicated to "defending the First Amendment rights of publishers, booksellers and librarians, recording, motion picture and video games producers, and recording, video and video game retailers in the United States." Earlier in his career, Finan worked at the Media Coalition as a staff member. He's also the author of From the Palmer Raids to the Patriot Act: A History of the Fight for Free Speech in America and Alfred E. Smith: The Happy Warrior.

Banned Books Week 2.0

2008-10-04T08:51:00.002-06:00

A very interesting article from Library Link of the Day

Information wants to be free...

2008-08-15T10:32:00.002-06:00

A courtroom victory for open source software.

One Way to Deal with a Challenge

2008-08-11T14:15:00.005-06:00

Love those guys at Unshelved---reminding us to keep our senses of humor in library land.

Banned Books Week Ideas

2008-08-07T09:52:00.010-06:00

Banned Books Week, 27 September - 4 October this year, is sponsored by the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE), the American Library Association (ALA), the Association of American Publishers (AAP), the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA), and the National Association of College Stores, in addition to being endorsed by the Center for the Book of the Library of Congress. This year, these organizations have collaborated on a website and invite you to submit your events. (Thanks to Linda Tillson, Park City Library Director, for information on this website)

ALA has a nice kit available for $50 ($45 for members).
You can buy "Freadom" buttons in packages of 100 for $35 for your patrons at the ABBFE store.
The Long Island Coalition Against Censorship has an interesting exhibit of posters on the history of banned books and censorship for $40.

Please email me or post a comment to share your ideas and suggestions.

A Little History

2008-07-29T07:47:00.004-06:00

"As good almost kill a man as kill a good book: who kills a man kills a reasonable creature...but he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself...."

I slogged through Paradise Lost in high school, not fully appreciating that John Milton was a highly complex man living in tumultuous times. There was an excellent article in the New Yorker recently about his life and work, this being the 400th anniversary of his birth. As you know, free speech has a long history in western democratic culture, and the Founding Fathers, as proper gentlemen of the day, were solidly grounded in classical studies. Milton's Areopagitica is a cornerstone document in the development of the first amendment. Interestingly, although he titled it a speech, it was actually a widely distributed pamphlet, and never delivered orally before Parliament. Not light reading, by any means, but worth the time, the document was in part inspired by Milton's visit to the aging Galileo as well as by the ongoing upheavals in England between Catholicism and Protestantism.

Good Article on Patron Behavior Policies

2008-07-21T21:58:00.005-06:00

This article comes from the North Suburban Library System, north of Chicago, and has some good guidance for writing policies regarding patron behavior issues.

Diminutive Librarian Stands Tall

2008-07-21T16:17:00.005-06:00

Thanks to Susan Hamada for this story from Library Link of the Day

Douglas County, Colorado librarian responds to a challenge

2008-07-20T13:06:00.002-06:00

Thanks to Jim Cooper and Suzanne Tronier for this article.

WELCOME

2008-07-20T10:50:00.005-06:00

There is a bewildering amount of information concerning First Amendment issues and libraries, much of it in the murky realms of the law. The purpose of this site is to digest some of that information in a brief, accessible format. Some topics will be:

Patron Behavior
Copyright
Speech in the workplace
Privacy issues
Challenges to library materials

Please email Merry White, IF Committee Chair, if you have a question or comment about this site, information on intellectual freedom of interest to Utah library employees, or if you would like to participate on the committee.