Libraries are about democracy, not just books; The Age (Melbourne, Australia), October 9, 2018

Christie Nieman, The Age (Melbourne, Australia); Libraries are about democracy, not just books

[Kip Currier: This article provides a persuasive, nuanced first-hand account by a librarian in Victoria, Australia about the vital role of libraries in communities as incubators for democratic values like access to information, analog and digital literacy, and an informed, educated electorate.

It can be easy to talk about and wax eloquently about the importance of democracy--at least, in places where, thankfully, free speech enables that kind of discourse.

The harder job of walking the talk, in terms of public infrastructure development and sustainability, is what the author of this piece unpacks for us:

Informing, reminding, and inspiring people why democracy requires necessary investment--in the short-term and for the long-term public interest--for civil societies to take root and thrive. Investment in public interest-committed institutions like libraries. For the benefit of everyone.

As quantitative and qualitative data (see here and here) and experiential stories demonstrate time and time again, libraries are local community, regional, national, and transnational anchors and portals to the kinds of activities and values that are necessary for democracies to grow and flourish. For people of all walks of life.]

"Certainly, once upon a time, a public library was a collection of books. But it was never only that. The mission of a public library is, and always was, to allow whole community access to knowledge, information, literature, and cultural participation. Every single day, your public library aims to provide something necessary or enriching – for free – for you and every individual in its locality. It aims to do this even for those who never darken its door, just in case one day they do. A public library is an instrument of democracy. Its mission is access for all, no one left behind...

These days access and full participation is simply not possible without some level of digital literacy. Teaching this skill has become fundamental to the age-old library mission. Daily, I teach older people and new arrivals how to use email and show people from all walks of life how to scan their documents, search for jobs, submit online forms to Centrelink...

Not by mistake is "Libraries Change Lives" the name of the new Public Libraries Victoria Network campaign - a slogan for a collaborative effort to educate people about libraries and ensure they are well funded, now and far into the future.

Libraries need to be protected. By all of us, for each other. And and we need to remember that libraries are not just nice, they are necessary."

Iowa man burns children's books from public library to protest Orange City Pride; Des Moines Register, October 22, 2018

Shelby Fleig, Des Moines Register; Iowa man burns children's books from public library to protest Orange City Pride


[Kip Currier: The American Library Association's (ALA) Banned Books Week was last month. It's an annual event, started in 1982 by the late Judith Krug, a staunch intellectual freedom advocate, to raise awareness of the importance of intellectual freedom and efforts by some to ban books.

The theme for this year's event is "Banning Books Silences Stories". This Des Moines Register article and video about a man who videotaped himself burning several LGBTQ-themed books owned by a public library in Iowa is a tangible example of attempts to silence the stories of others.

Watch this 3 minute 2012 Banned Books Week video by veteran journalist Bill Moyers for a still-relevant response regarding, as Moyers puts it, "self-deputized vigilantes".]

"The Orange City Public Library said it's exploring legal options after a northwest Iowa man rented and then publicly burned several children's books Friday.

The second annual OC Pride kicked off Friday with a story time for kids, a schedule shows. About an hour before the event, Paul Dorr started a live Facebook video, in which he stood near the Prairie Winds Event Center. The 27-minute video ends with Dorr throwing at least four books with LGBTQ themes that he claimed he rented from the public library into a burning trash can."

Matthew Shepard, whose 1998 murder became a symbol for the gay rights movement, will be interred at Washington National Cathedral; The Washington Post, October 11, 2018

Michelle Boorstein, The Washington Post; Matthew Shepard, whose 1998 murder became a symbol for the gay rights movement, will be interred at Washington National Cathedral

[Kip Currier: A powerful story, particularly appropos today on National Coming Out Day (see here and here), affirming every human being's right to dignity, respect, and equality.]

"When Matthew Shepard died on a cold night 20 years ago, after being beaten with a pistol butt and tied to a split-rail wood fence, his parents cremated the 21-year-old and kept his ashes, for fear of drawing attention to a resting place of a person who was a victim of one of the nation’s worst anti-gay hate crimes.

But now with the anniversary of their son’s murder approaching on Friday, the Shepards have decided to inter his remains inside the crypt at Washington National Cathedral, where gay-equality activists say they can be a prominent symbol and even a pilgrimage destination for the movement. Although the cause of LGBT equality has made historic advancements since Shepherd was killed, it remains divisive in many parts of a country reembracing tribalism of all kinds.

The 1998 killing of Shepard, a University of Wyoming student, by two young men in a remote area east of Laramie, Wyo., was so horrific that his name is on the federal law against bias crimes directed at LGBT people."

Jamal Khashoggi chose to tell the truth. It’s part of the reason he’s beloved.; The Washington Post, October 7, 2018

David Ignatius, The Washington Post; Jamal Khashoggi chose to tell the truth. It’s part of the reason he’s beloved.

[Kip Currier: As I've mentioned to a few people lately--including my book editor, as I finish up a chapter on truth for my ethics textbook--this is a particularly challenging time to tackle the topics of truth, facts, news, and information assessment. The example of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi--"disappeared" and presumed killed--painfully demonstrates both the importance of and potentially deadly stakes for those committed to promoting freedom of expression and truth telling, in the furtherance of human rights, equality, and democratic values.]

"George Orwell titled a regular column he wrote for a British newspaper in the mid-1940s “As I Please.” Meaning that he would write exactly what he believed. My Saudi colleague Jamal Khashoggi has always had that same insistent passion for telling the truth about his country, no matter what.

Khashoggi’s fate is unknown as I write, but his colleagues at The Post and friends around the world fear that he was murdered after he visited the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last Tuesday...

Khashogggi [sic] understood that he could keep his mouth shut and stay safe, because he had so many friends in the royal family. But it simply wasn’t in him.

Khashoggi wrote a column for the Post last year in which he described seeing some of his friends arrested and struggling with his conscience. “I said nothing. I didn’t want to lose my job or my freedom. I worried about my family. I have made a different choice now,” he wrote. He had made a decisive break with Mohammed bin Salman , choosing exile and honesty in his writings. His simple four-word explanation: “We Saudis deserve better.”"