When libraries and librarians pretend to be neutral, they often cause harm

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When libraries and librarians pretend to be neutral, they often cause harmintellectual freedom, librarianship, libraries

by Meredith Farkas on 11/4/2019 with 9 comments

Two recent events made me think (again) about the toxic nature of “library neutrality” and the fact that, more often than not, neutrality is whiteness/patriarchy/cis-heteronormativity/ableism/etc. parading around as neutrality and causing harm to folks from historically marginalized groups. The insidious thing about whiteness and these other dominant paradigms is that they are largely invisible to …

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Whose rights matter more?

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Whose rights matter more?ALA, free the information!, intellectual freedom, librarianship, libraries

by Meredith Farkas on 9/1/2017 with 13 comments

My dad recently shared with me a book, written by a distant cousin who is a professor in Israel, about her grandmother’s immigrant experience and her relatives. Her grandmother just happened to be my grandmother’s first cousin, so my grandmother, great-grand-parents, and great-great-grandmother figure in the book. Given that I knew next to nothing about …

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Holding to our values during difficult times

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Holding to our values during difficult timesALA, free the information!, intellectual freedom, librarianship, libraries, open access, our digital future

by Meredith Farkas on 1/3/2017 with Comments Off on Holding to our values during difficult times

I write a lot in my American Libraries column about library values, particularly those around access and privacy. My latest column (Jan/Feb 17), which should be out soon online just also came out this morning, is a love letter to critical librarianship in which I share my conviction (shared by many) that libraries are not …

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The Next Librarian of Congress?

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The Next Librarian of Congress?ALA, free the information!, intellectual freedom, librarianship, libraries, management, open access

by Meredith Farkas on 10/6/2015 with Comments Off on The Next Librarian of Congress?

Late last week, I received an email from the culture editor at the New Republic about writing an article on the next Librarian of Congress. It was the first offer I’ve ever had to write for a non-library-centric publication and the New Republic has a political bent I really respect, so it was an offer …

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Why my (and probably your) congressman voted for DOPAintellectual freedom, Vermont

by Meredith Farkas on 8/30/2006 with Comments Off on Why my (and probably your) congressman voted for DOPA

This is why. You’ve got to check out the actual ad; it had me half laughing half furious. I don’t write much about politics on this blog, but I have to admit that this has gotten me kind of riled up. Vermont just isn’t the sort of place where people have really vile, manipulative, negative …

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The Max Power wayintellectual freedom, open access, our digital future

by Meredith Farkas on 1/18/2005 with Comments Off on The Max Power way

According to Techdirt, a California state senator has introduced a bill that threatens developers of file sharing applications with jail time. John Borland at CNET, writes, “if passed and signed into law, it could expose file-swapping software developers to fines of up to $2,500 per charge, or a year in jail, if they don’t take …

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Exhuming McCarthyintellectual freedom, open source, our digital future

by Meredith Farkas on 1/6/2005 with Comments Off on Exhuming McCarthy

Bill Gates recently sat down with CNET for an interview (which begins with the frightening teaser “Bill Gates is coming to your living room, whether you like it or not”). In it, Gates talks about the current state of intellectual property law and the recent challenges to it from certain “communist elements” in the digital …

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Open Accessintellectual freedom, open source, our digital future

by Meredith Farkas on 12/30/2004 with Comments Off on Open Access

I guess this is the day to post intros! Peter Suber, at Open Access News, has published a very concise introduction to the concept of open access. A Very Brief Introduction to Open Access is a shorter version of his Open Acecss Overview. Both are great documents, though the former is certainly easier to digest …

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A Net Nanny with an MLSintellectual freedom, libraries

by Meredith Farkas on 12/24/2004 with Comments Off on A Net Nanny with an MLS

Wow! In an age of shrinking budgets and shrinking staffs, the Phoenix Public Libraries has secured $175,000 to hire one full time professional librarian and three paraprofessionals to police their no-porn policies. The professional, this “Internet Resource Specialist”, would monitor people’s use of the Internet and deal with people’s requests to turn off the filters …

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Satellite radio safe… for nowintellectual freedom

by Meredith Farkas on 12/20/2004 with Comments Off on Satellite radio safe… for now

According to the Curmudgeony Librarian, the FCC has declined a request by a Saul Levine — a California radio station owner — to apply the same standards to satellite radio as they do to AM/FM radio. Essentially, he wanted satellite radio to be censored just like AM/FM radio: Levine argued among other things that this …

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Where Google leads…intellectual freedom, open source, our digital future

by Meredith Farkas on 12/18/2004 with Comments Off on Where Google leads…

Here is an interesting article I found via Resource Shelf. The Open Archive Initiative (OAI) and Google Scholar by Nick Luft looks at one positive effect Google (and specifically Google Scholar) may have on digital publishing. One of the greatest barriers to retrieving and exchanging scholarly information online is the fact that database vendors (and …

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Kahle vs. Ashcroftintellectual freedom

by Meredith Farkas on 12/4/2004 with 1 comment

I don’t have anything to say about the case that hasn’t been said before, but I am really saddened by the fact that this case, challenging the Sony Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, has been dismissed. To me, this is a clear sign (among many) that our government has moved completely away from any consideration …

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If it didn’t work for the RIAA…intellectual freedom, our digital future

by Meredith Farkas on 11/17/2004 with Comments Off on If it didn’t work for the RIAA…

The MPAA has filed their first bunch of lawsuits against people who offer movies for download. Apparently they were inspired by the rousing success of the RIAA’s campaign to sue music sharers into oblivion (hmmm… how’s that going?). Slightly more scary is the Intellectual Property Protection Act which contains a slew of measures including criminal …

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Glad they didn’t have these when I was in school!intellectual freedom, our digital future

by Meredith Farkas on 11/17/2004 with Comments Off on Glad they didn’t have these when I was in school!

Cutting class — almost a right of passage in high school — is no longer an option for Houston area students. According to the NY Times, children in Houston area schools are being equipped with RFID tags that monitor their movements. While this particular project was designed for benign purposes (to prevent kidnappings), it isn’t …

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