Bringing it all together

Democrats in the Oregon House of Representatives have introduced a bill that would decriminalize homeless encampments in public places and allow homeless people to sue for $1,000 if harassed or told to leave.

By Marcelo Rodríguez (Follow us on LinkedIn) On April 11th, 2023, an anti-abortion group decided to display swastikas, pictures of the Holocaust as well as the Rwandan and Cambodian genocides …

California's governor pays tribute to librarians and the impact they have on students and communities.

From ABC News (via YouTube): ABC News’ Jaclyn Lee reports on libraries being on the frontlines of the increasing homelessness crisis across the U.S. and how librarians are learning techniques to help.

An interview with Laura Moulton, founder of Street Books, a mobile library which serves Portland's houseless community. SSP annual meeting attendees are invited to bring paperback books to donate to Street Books.

Missouri is one of a growing number of places where government funding is being deployed as the newest weapon in the fight over books. Beginning May 30, a new state rule could deny state funding to libraries over books deemed inappropriate for young readers — although it's not clear how it will be enforced.

This week, protests were held across the United States against right-wing efforts to ban books and antiracism education in schools. Fourteen protesters with Florida’s Dream Defenders were arrested Wednesday for staging a peaceful sit-in inside the office of Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis at the end of the state’s legislative session, in which he backed efforts to ban abortion after six weeks, deny gender-affirming care for youth, roll back rent control, censor discussions of LGBTQ issues and Black history in schools, and crack down on immigrants and unions in his political crusade against “wokeness.” We speak with one of the arrested protesters, Nailah Summers-Polite, co-director of Dream Defenders, and Kimberlé Crenshaw, the legal scholar well known for her work in the field of critical race theory, about the Freedom to Learn protests and the push to preserve the integrity of the AP African American studies course attacked by DeSantis and other far-right activists.

An English writing tool providing gender-inclusive alternatives for gendered nouns and verbs.

A daily independent global news hour with Amy Goodman & Juan González. “Sing Your Song”: Remembering Harry Belafonte, Who Used His Stardom to Help MLK & Civil Rights Movement; Harry Belafonte in His Own Words on Opposing Iraq War & Calling George W. Bush a “Terrorist”; “Get Down to Business”: Harry Belafonte in 2016 on Trump, Socialism & Fighting for Justice

In a stunning show of support for libraries, late yesterday afternoon the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to support a resolution backing the Internet Archive and the digital rights of all libraries. Supervisor Connie Chan, whose district includes the Internet Archive, authored the legislation and brought the resolution before the Board. “At a […]

Here’s the Full Text of a Statement From Representative Pramila Jayapal:  In honor of National Library Week, U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) is introducing a resolution to honor library workers nationwide today. “Libraries and library workers don’t just facilitate the public’s access to information, many stepped up during the pandemic to provide personal protective equipment […]

From colouring books to abolition newspapers and Reader’s Digest magazines, thousands of titles are banned in prisons and jails across the country, often with opaque reasons and with little oversight, Alex Woodward reports

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The American Library Association praised the Prison Libraries Act, introduced today by Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II (D-MO-5th), along with co-leads Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX-18th) and Rep. Shontel Brown (D-OH-11th), and 25 cosponsors.

The number of reported challenges and attempted bans to books doubled in 2022 according to data released by the American Library Association's Office of Intellectual Freedom Monday.

Library boards, school boards and legislatures are becoming battlegrounds in a push to censor books. Communities are fighting back.

Learn more about this WorldCat Discovery feature, the research and community input informing this work, and building toward a community of practice.

CHICAGO — Today, the American Library Association (ALA) kicked off National Library Week with the release of its highly anticipated list of the Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2022 and the State of America’s Libraries Report, which tells the story of how libraries are innovating and adapting to improve the well-being of their communities in the midst of censorship challenges. This year, however, there were multiple books that received the same number of challenges – resulting in the expansion of the list to 13 titles.

The 2021 American Community Survey estimated 141,808 full-time librarians and media collections specialists. There are a total of 123,627 libraries in the U.S.

How racially diverse is the librarian profession, and how can we begin to assess that diversity? Those are the two key questions at the heart of two

The Librarians with Spines Channel focuses on providing viewers with rich content that is critical, topical, creative and fun. Information Science, Literature, Art and more are topics covered.

Discover the latest information agitators in our blog, recorded zoom meetings, and antiracist books at Librarians With Spines.

National Library Week is April 23-29, 2023. This national annual observance celebrates the contributions of libraries and their staff to their communities and greater society. This year's theme is "There's More to the Story" - a reminder that while libraries are full of stories on their shelves, they are more than their collections of books.

By Mikayla Redden (Follow us on LinkedIn) If you read my last post, you might remember the trampoline full of tennis balls metaphor I provided as an example of how living with a neurodivergent…

Legal experts, librarians and some parents say House Bill 900’s language is so vague and broad that it could ensnare books that are not inappropriate.

A survey by Cilip shows members of the public using increasingly threatening behaviour about the removal of books on empire, race and LGBTQ+ themes

Landlords moved to evict Valley renters more than 67,000 times in 2022.

Unite Against Book Bans virtual event to honor a lifetime of free expression through story CHICAGO — The American Library Association (ALA) today announced a national day of action to protect libraries and the freedom to read, designating April 24, the Monday of National Library Week, as Right to Read Day. Right to Read Day also marks the first anniversary of the ALA-founded Unite Against Book Bans campaign, a public-facing advocacy initiative to empower readers everywhere to stand together in the fight against censorship.

The proposal is not yet final; it must clear the state Senate. But for those who manage or use the state’s 160 library districts, especially in rural areas where services are not as robust, the threat feels real, librarians and patrons told the PBS NewsHour.

PEN America, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization dedicated to free expression through literature, has created a dataset tracking books banned or restricted in school classrooms and libraries in the United States from July 2021 to March 2022. The dataset contains the book’s name and author, the schoo