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libraries



  • Putin Also Making War on Ukrainian Memory

    by Richard Ovenden

    Victory in war involves imposing one's own version of history on the next generation. Russian forces appear to be targeting Ukrainian archives where records of KGB surveillance and Soviet-era repression of Ukrainian civilians are held, part of an effort to delegitimize claims of independence. 



  • A Ruling that Threatens the Future of Libraries

    by Adam Serwer

    The Internet Archive is at the center of a case that would effectively require libraries to pay fees to lend electronic scans of books they properly own. 



  • Meet Some Librarians Fighting Back

    Librarian Mary Grahame Hunter says libraries are places where children's rights and intellectual autonomy are respected. Some in her Michigan community are working to change that. 



  • What Happens When NYC Defunds the Libraries?

    by Allison Chomet

    The proposed cuts to library staffing, on the heels of cuts to public schools, city colleges, and social service agencies reflect the way that culture war panics about book content and drag story hours connect to the politics of austerity and privatization, even in liberal big cities. 



  • Libraries Do Face Attacks, but Not Like the "Freedom Libraries" of 1964

    As yet, public attacks on libraries over programming and books dealing with racism and LGBTQ issues have not escalated to the routine firebombing of the libraries founded by activist groups during the "Freedom Summer" to help Black Mississippians access books and political information. 



  • American Library Association: Book Bans Accelerating

    “It represents an escalation, and we’re truly fearful that at some point we will see a librarian arrested for providing constitutionally protected books on disfavored topics,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, the director of the office of intellectual freedom at the library association.



  • Union Organizing in the Long Shadow of the Gilded Age

    by Daisy Pitkin

    On listening to Andrew Carnegie's "The Gospel of Wealth" in Pittsburgh's Carnegie Library as librarians perform the kind of social services Carnegie deplored (and try to organize a union, which he deplored more). 



  • The Next Front of the Culture War? Your Public Library

    "Conservative activists in several states, including Texas, Montana and Louisiana have joined forces with like-minded officials to dissolve libraries’ governing bodies, rewrite or delete censorship protections, and remove books outside of official challenge procedures."