Olivia Empson, The Guardian; Get on the bus: banned books tour hits the road, from New York to Texas
"The New Republic partnered with organizations like House of SpeakEasy and the American Federation of Teachers for the bookmobile tour and hopes to use it as a way to fight back against censorship. Organizers plan to hand out 20,000 books as they pass through the likes of Florida, Virginia, Missouri and Kentucky – a route chosen to align with the recent PEN data."
Megan Bennett, American Libraries; LeVar Burton
, IEEE Spectrum; Recognize Those Who Inspire Others to Uphold Ethical Principles
"Do you know someone who has risen above others in demonstrating high standards of ethics and integrity? Or do you belong to an organization that has inspired others to share a vision of extraordinary ethical principles and practices? If so, IEEE wants to honor and celebrate their contributions.
The IEEE Ethics and Member Conduct Committee is now accepting nominations for this year’s IEEE Award for Distinguished Ethical Practices. The annual award recognizes an IEEE member, or an organization employing IEEE members, for exemplary ethical behavior or persuasive advocacy of ethical practices.
Nominators will be asked to explain:
The deadline for nominations is 31 May. The recipient will be announced in November.
For more information, including eligibility requirements, and to access the nomination form, visit the EMCC-Award web page or write to ethics@ieee.org."
Margaret Sullivan , The Washington Post; Book bans are threatening American democracy. Here’s how to fight back.
"“People need to mobilize, because the efforts to ban books are very active and very organized,” Nossel said.
It’s also important to keep in mind — and raise your voice to say — that book bans run counter to a core tenet of what America is supposed to stand for.
So if you’re worried about threats to democracy involving voting rights, gerrymandering and the peaceful transfer of power after elections, you should save a little mental space for this, too.
Opposing censorship in the form of book banning is a part of the same crucial fight."
"Now Mr. McCullough and Ken Burns, the filmmaker and author, have assembled a group of distinguished American historians to speak about the candidacy of Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, in videos being posted to a Facebook page, Historians on Donald Trump. It is a diverse, honored group — including, among others, Robert A. Caro, Ron Chernow, David Levering Lewis, William E. Leuchtenberg, Vicki Lynn Ruiz — that speaks with alarm about Mr. Trump’s candidacy and his place in the march of American history. Mr. McCullough, raised in a Republican home and now aligned with no party, said the prospect of a Trump presidency so distressed him that he felt he could not remain publicly detached... Mr. McCullough said he contacted Mr. Burns after seeing him tell this year’s graduating class at Stanford University that despite 40 years of avoiding advocacy in his work, he no longer had “the luxury of neutrality or ‘balance’ or even of bemused disdain.” After a few conversations, Mr. McCullough said, the two men came up with a plan: “Why don’t we see if we can round up some other people who care about the American story, and who have given so much of their life’s work to it, see if they are willing to step out and make themselves heard.”"
"In this election year, public libraries are being attacked. Robocalls to voters in Illinois’s Plainfield Public Library District were financed by Americans for Prosperity, the national conservative political action group founded by David Koch and contributed to by him and his brother Charles, co-owners of Koch Industries. The calls exaggerated the cost to the average homeowner of the $39 million bonds on the ballot for a new library building. The library valiantly responded, “Here at the Library, helping people access accurate information is a critical part of what we do. For that reason, the planning process for the referenda included 22 public meetings over eight months, a telephone survey, and online feedback surveys. Every step of the process was documented on the Building & Expansion Planning web page, with supporting documentation available.” The library blog posts addressed all the questions about the bonds as well as the sources of misinformation, yet the robocalls continued, and the bond measure was defeated. To those who have decided not to get too close to election issues and controversies, I understand, and in your situation I might make the same choice. I only wish the conditions and forces that prevent a library from informing the electorate didn’t exist. In America today, however, anyone who offers data that runs contrary to the views of voters energized by the current rhetoric of this campaign has to face the probability that the information will be challenged. Considering the damage to the library that it can cause, it will take a brave librarian to proceed. To those who do choose to go forth, take strength from knowing that nearly two centuries of our professional history support your actions. You are carrying out the mission libraries were founded to accomplish."
