#information access

for absolutely no reason at all and no relevance to any discourse happening at this moment in Dec. 2024.

You can get access to Kanopy, a streaming service (that has Great Courses Plus, international films, documentaries, art films, and children's programming), through some of these!

The Enoch Pratt Library has an online library card that will give you access to the Maryland Digital Library. You just need a random address in the US state of Maryland. I can give you some if needed: https://catalog.prattlibrary.org/client/en_US/default/search/registration/$N/SYMWS/true?

The Queer Liberation Library is a completely online library that focuses on queer and social justice related texts. You just need an email: https://www.queerliberationlibrary.org/login

The Books Unbanned has multiple US libraries under its banner that will give cards to any US address you find. It's meant to be for youth and young adults, but if you're not of the age range just lie, its okay.

Seattle: https://www.spl.org/programs-and-services/teens/books-unbanned

Brooklyn (very good, but I'm not sure it's still active): https://www.bklynlibrary.org/books-unbanned

Boston: https://www.bpl.org/books-unbanned/

“Publishers commit significant resources to creating the best and most informative content for consumers, and illegal tools like [12ft] undermine their ability to financially support that work through subscriptions and ad revenue,” News/Media Alliance president and CEO Danielle Coffey said in the press release. “Taking down paywall bypassers is an essential part of ensuring we have a healthy and sustainable information ecosystem.”

Weekly Round-Up is an information initiative with two goals. The first is to help – in whatever small way – to highlight down-ticket items that are easily lost in the deluge of information about the presidential election. The second is to raise awareness about the severity of politically-motivated book bans in the US and the impact on libraries and schools.

Sources: Election news is sourced primarily from Ballotpedia, unless otherwise noted; remember to check Vote.org for more insights into your local ballot.

Library & intellectual freedom articles are sourced from weekly emails I receive from the New York Library Association (NYLA), one of my own professional organizations.

From Ballotpedia

Voters set to decide the highest number of ballot measures since 2018; Candidates for Attorney General of Pennsylvania; Oklahoma Gov. moves minimum wage measure to 2026 ballot

For Ballotpedia's complete list of 2024 ballot measures (as of Sept. 27), click here.

Ballotpedia reports a record number of abortion-related ballot measures. As reported on Sept. 18th, measures in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New York, Nevada, and South Dakota would guarantee a right to abortion in those states. An initiative in Nebraska would prohibit abortions after the first trimester.

8 states will decide on measures that, if passed, would prohibit non-citizen voting. Many states are deciding on measures that would make changes to the electoral process, mainly whether to use, repeal, or ban ranked choice voting as an electoral method.

The other most common ballot measures this year include criminal justice and police funding, minimum wage initiatives, and the legalization of marijuana or other substances.

As for the business in Oklahoma: The measure in question would begin the process of raising OK's minimum wage from the federal standard ($7.50/hour) to $15/hour by 2029.

Personally I find it interesting that the governor (Kevin Sitt (R)) wants to take the measure off the 2024 ballot and move it to a special election during the PRIMARIES in 2026. Almost as if he knows people are less likely to participate or pay attention during midterm elections and primaries...?

Intellectual Freedom News

With Banned Books Week coming to an end, take a look at the American Library Association's preliminary data regarding book bans in 2024. The ALA and the Office of Intellectual Freedom (OIF) track bans and challenges annually and assist libraries that are facing acts of censorship.

As Unite Against Book Bans states on the webpage:

Between January 1 and August 31, 2024, ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom reported 414 attempts to censor library materials and services and documented challenges to 1,128 unique titles. While those numbers are lower than last year's record shattering figures, they are still much higher than the numbers prior to 2020. In particular, ALA noted the effect of "soft censorship" on this year's data, where books are purchased but placed in restricted areas, not used in library displays, or otherwise hidden or kept off limits due to fear of challenges. According to ALA, these include circumstances where books have been preemptively excluded from library collections, taken off the shelves before they are banned, or not purchased for library collections in the first place. Simply put, censorship is already happening before challenges to books and services can take place because of the fear of challenges being brought.

UABB (which is itself an ALA initiative) provides a comprehensive summary of the situation, but you can read the entire report on the ALA website.

Lest you believe that book bans only happen in Texas or Florida... This article details how a group of students in Orchard Park, NY took a stand against the sharp increase in book challenges in their community, ultimately founding an organization called Students Protecting Education.

From the article:

Proponents for bans, or at least restrictions, argue access to “R-rated” books with explicit language and graphic content, should be a parent’s decision and not their child’s.  Lippitt disagrees.  “We're young adults. We're not kids anymore," he said. "We're entering a world where these things are all around us, and [there's] no worse way to send your kid out into the world than know nothing about it.”

Here's an article about civic engagement and the role of local news. As one can note from the date on that article, the tidewater has been rising on this issue for decades. Why does local news matter? PBS did a great video about it.

And NPR did a great podcast episode about it as well.

Who knows where the future leads but national vs local information, people's ability to access information, what news stories break community containment, and how many journalists are on the streets will play a pivotal role in defining the country's future.

Actions an Individual can take: Read, donate to, and support local newspapers and news outlets.

Since 1790, the decennial census has played a crucial role in creating and reshaping the ever-changing views of racial and ethnic identity in the United States.

Over the centuries, the census has evolved from one that specified broad categories — primarily “free white” people and “slaves” — to one that attempts to encapsulate the country’s increasingly complex demographics. The latest adaptation proposed by the Biden administration in January seeks to allow even more race and ethnicity options for people to describe themselves than the 2020 census did.

If approved, the proposed overhaul would most likely be adopted across all surveys in the country about health, education and the economy. Here’s what the next census could look like.

[ This article is a little interactive with floating text boxes etc, so its hard to screenshot effectively. ]

In some ways, the government is attempting to catch up with modern views of racial and ethnic identities.

There are complicated politics at work too, and the proposed changes have provoked criticism among some scholars and activists.

Many Hispanic or Latino U.S. residents mark “some other race,” typically because they don’t see themselves as “Black” or “white.” Supporters of the proposal say the changes reflect that Latinos have long been treated as a distinct racial group in the United States. But Afro-Latino scholars argue that the new method would mask important racial differences among Latinos.

Community leaders have been advocating for a “Middle Eastern or North African” category for years, pointing to the need for better data for this growing population, especially around health care, education and political representation. If the proposal is approved, this would be the first time since the 1970s that a completely new racial or ethnic category is added to the census.

A precise, universally accepted distinction between race and ethnicity does not exist. Instead, there’s a murky history of law, politics and culture around racial identity in America.

“There is no such thing as a perfect question,” said Roberto Ramirez, a population statistics expert at the U.S. Census Bureau. The bureau has conducted numerous tests in recent decades to improve the census so that people can more accurately identify themselves, he said.

If approved, the new race and ethnicity formulation will have wide-ranging impacts. Any organization receiving federal funding — down to local schools — would have to adhere to it. Race data informs how resources are distributed; whether equal employment policies and anti-discrimination laws can be enforced; and how congressional districts are drawn.