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Category Archives: Intellectual Freedom

Bravo Gloria and LibraryLand!

News sources report that Gloria Won, a health librarian at UC San Francisco, played a key role in alerting LibraryLand that POPLINE, a federally-funded health database, was blocking the word “abortion.” Won, noticing that her search results weren’t retrieving anything for “abortion” (an odd result in a database for “reproductive health”) had written POPLINE.
The word [...]

What the hay, Chowhound?

At first, when I couldn’t find a post I had made on Chowhound yesterday morning before I left for work, I chalked it up to my own sloppy surfing. I have been acutely focused on Friday’s talk, as many people from MPOW are coming, which I am finding very stressful to the point of frazzlement [...]

Update on Threat to Postal Rates

Over the weekend I wrote about the threat to small and independent publishers from proposed postal rate hikes, which if not challenged will go into effect July 15, forcing subscription hikes and possibly causing some publications to fold.
Yesterday, the Los Angeles Times published an editorial co-authored by Teresa Stack, president of The Nation, and Jack [...]

Michael Stephens on DOPA and Flickr

My take on things? The same freak-out fanatics who got everyone in a tizzy about the Internet at large are now targeting Flickr and similar social software environments. Read Michael Stephens’ sensible but passionate discussion of this issue.
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The Freedom Four, Ungagged

This is hardly news at this point, but it seems unseemly not to note the silence broken by the four librarians from Library Connection, a consortium in Connecticut, who had been choked by Patriot Act gag orders. More at the ACLU’s website, where you can download this poster as well. (Thanks, Jessamyn!)
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Mum’s the Word at the Montana State Library

“The Montana State Library has canceled a showing of a movie critical of the U.S. Patriot Act after people complained about the American Civil Liberties Union being involved. … The State Library said it originally thought the film, ‘The ACLU Freedom Files,’ would be a good pick for its monthly seminar series because parts of [...]

VA Nurse Accused of Sedition for Criticizing Gummint

As reported in Editor and Publisher, a nurse at a VA hospital in New Mexico has been accused of sedition for criticizing the government’s handling of the Iraq War and Hurricane Katrina.
My goodness, the gummint must be panicked if it needs to start slopping around terms such as sedition–”an insurrection against constituted authority : [...]

The Patriot Act: Call Your Rep Today!

Please keep up the pressure on your Members of Congress by spreading the word about National PATRIOT Act Call-In Day - January 25, 2006.
What to do
On Wednesday, January 25th, please call both your Senators and your Representative and ask them to support the Senate language reauthorizing the PATRIOT Act. The Senate bill better protects Americans’ [...]

Would Jesus be Deported?

His name sounds Middle Eastern, he speaks truth to power, some of his associates are scorned or suspect. My jaw dropped when I read Hoder’s post, but should I really be surprised to see the U.S. Border Patrol refusing reentrance to a Canadian who had been in New York City for one month and had [...]

Pass Me the Chicken Chests, Please: Keillor Cancelled in Kentucky

In yet more proof that we are descending into a living version of The Handmaid’s Tale, a radio station at the University of Kentucky cancelled Writer’s Almanac, that nice daily tidbit, for using such gross obscenities as the word “breast.” Hello, UK SLIS: are you posting?
I know it’s fashionable in some circles to snub [...]