A Real Cyber-Revolution

In his Problems of War and Strategy, Mao Tse-Tung said that “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” While that statement might have been true in 1938, in today's rapidly-changing, high-tech world, it would appear that Political power grows out of a tweet.

In the aftermath of Friday's (June 12, 2009) disputed Iranian presidential election, the Iranian government, under the leadership of "President" Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has crackeddown on the media and the internet in an attempt to censor coverage of the ongoing Green Uprising lead by supporters of opposition presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi . However, tech-savvy Americans and American companies, such as the San Francisco based Twitter, are lending their support to the protesters so that their voices will be heard around the world.

In their article, "Social Networks Spread Defiance Online" (June 15, 2009), New York Times correspondents, Brad Stone and Noam Cohen, report that, "Iranians are blogging, posting to Facebook and, most visibly, coordinating their protests on Twitter, the messaging service. Their activity has increased, not decreased, since the presidential election on Friday and ensuing attempts by the government to restrict or censor their online communications."

I think it is great that technology is helping the people of Iran in their struggle for fair elections and I am proud of the Americans who are helping them in this struggle. What do you think?

For additional information see the following articles:

The Telegraph: “Iran protest news travels fast and far on Twitter.”

The Wall Street Journal: Iran Cracks Down on Internet Use, Foreign Media

Viva la revolution!

And Tango Makes Three

In the latest student edition of American Libraries Direct (May 2009, vol. 2, issue 5) the leadoff story was The Top Ten Challenged Books of 2008. They are as follows:

1. "And Tango Makes Three," by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell. Reasons: Anti-Ethnic, Anti-Family, Homosexuality, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group

2. "His Dark Materials Trilogy" (Series), Philip Pullman. Reasons: Political Viewpoint, Religious Viewpoint, Violence

3. "TTYL"; "TTFN"; "L8R, G8R" (Series), Lauren Myracle. Reasons: Offensive Language, Sexually Explicit, Unsuited to Age Group

4. "Scary Stories" (Series), Alvin Schwartz. Reasons: Occult/Satanism, Religious Viewpoint, Violence

5. "Bless Me, Ultima," by Rudolfo Anaya. Reasons: Occult/Satanism, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Sexually Explicit, Violence

6. "The Perks of Being A Wallflower," by Stephen Chbosky. Reasons: Drugs, Homosexuality, Nudity, Offensive Language, Sexually Explicit, Suicide, Unsuited to Age Group

7. "Gossip Girl" (Series), by Cecily von Ziegesar. Reasons: Offensive Language, Sexually Explicit, Unsuited to Age Group

8. "Uncle Bobby's Wedding," by Sarah S. Brannen. Reasons: Homosexuality, Unsuited to Age Group

9. "The Kite Runner," by Khaled Hosseini. Reasons: Offensive Language, Sexually Explicit, Unsuited to Age Group

10. "Flashcards of My Life," by Charise Mericle Harper. Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Unsuited to Age Group

While it perplexes me as to why anyone would want to see ANY book proscribed, I am particularly astounded that "And Tango Makes Three" has been at the top of the list for the last three years running! After all, the book is based on the true story of two male Chinstrap Penguins (Roy and Silo) who couple and, after being given an egg by the zookeepers at the Central Park Zoo, successfully hatch the egg and raise the chick (Tango) together.

Unfortunately, it does not look like the controversy surrounding the book will end anytime soon. In the online article Gay Curriculum Proposal Riles Elementary School Parents, Fox News reporter Katie Landan relates that A group of parents from the Unified School District in Alameda, California are being "forced" to accept a new curriculum that utilizes “And Tango Makes Three” and “includes compulsory lessons about the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community that will be taught to children as young as 5 years old.”

I guess I just don't understand why people cannot accept the tale for what it is, an endearing, lovely story concerning natural animal behavior!

A Revolutionary Library

Let me begin by stating that I am not an anarchist and I do not always subscribe to the old saying, "Rules were made to be broken." However, I do believe that unjust laws and rules have been (and will be) created. When this occurs, I believe it is our moral obligation to do everything in our power to have those laws and rules repealed. Furthermore, I also believe that, on occasion, it is appropriate to violate those unjust laws and rules because they do not further the good of the community and/or enhance the development of moral virtue of all citizens.

Now, in order to keep this from turning into a political philosophy lecture or debate, I will get to the main point of this blog posting. Last week I was telling a friend of mine about my Seminar in Intellectual Freedom class and he sent me a link to a post on Yahoo! Answers. To summarize, the post was supposedly written by a Catholic high school student who is running an underground library out of their locker; the covert collection contains books that have been banned by the schools administrators. Some of the titles the student makes available to the "library's" arcane patrons are: Animal Farm, Grimm's Fairy Tales (Unabridged), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Paradise Lost, The Divine Comedy, and The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. At any rate, I thought it was a novel, interesting, and virtuous idea and I fully support the student's endeavor. What do you think?

Viva la revolution!

Content Filters

First of all, let me make this perfectly clear: "I do not believe that content filters will protect our nations youth from the "evils" of this world and I do not advocate them in schools or public libraries because I believe they prevent minors from obtaining appropriate, useful, and much needed information."

Now that I have that out of the way, I do have a major issue with the research conducted by the Electronic Privacy Information Center as reported in the article Faulty Filters Block Access to Kid-Friendly Information on the Internet.

In the article it states: "If you go to the AltaVista search engine and search for "Arbor Heights Elementary," you will get back 824 hits. But if you use the Net Shepherd family-friendly search engine, only three documents are returned. In other words, Net Shepherd blocks access to more than 99 percent of the material that would otherwise be available on AltaVista containing the search phrase "Arbor Heights Elementary.

The author(s) goes on to state that "similar results" were obtained with other searches and other content-blocking search engines. However, what the researches fail to mention is if one of the three documents returned from the Net Shepherd Family-friendly search engine was the Arbor Heights Elementary School's homepage. For me, this information is key. If one of the documents was the homepage, then this still opens the door to a wealth of information concerning Arbor Heights Elementary School. On the other hand, if the three hits are totally unrelated to Arbor heights Elementary School, then this is also a huge problem! For example, when the author(s) discuss the Survey of Miscellaneous Concepts and Entities, they state: "[O]ne of the eight documents that was produced by [Family Search] turned out to be a parody of a Dr. Seuss story using details from the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson."

Please don't get me wrong; I am not trying to play word games here. I believe this information is necessary to make a solid case for the research conducted by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, and I feel like this information could have easily been presented in the article.

Electronic Privacy Information Center. (1997). Faulty Filters: How Content Filters Block Access to Kid Friendly Information on the Internet.
http://epic.org/reports/filter_report.html

Intellectual Freedom Competencies for Students

In response to Dr. Moeller's podcast lecture for the week of May 13th, I decided to focus on her questions pertaining to the Intellectual Freedom Competencies for Students portion of the American Library Association (ALA) document, "Intellectual Freedom Core Competencies" for my first blog entry.

1. Are these reasonable assumptions to make?

Maybe a better word to use here would be "expectations." In other words: Are they reasonable expectations to make? To answer this question directly, Yes, I believe they are reasonable expectations to make. I will elaborate on this a bit further in question #4.

2. Where do you think technology fits?

I believe it is key for the student/librarian to understand that the Bill of Rights (especially the First and Fourth Amendments) are applicable as far as the rapidly changing world of technology is concerned too. For example, film, audio, video, computers, and the Amazon Kindle.

3. Do you agree with these competencies?

For the most part, I do agree with these competencies. In short, I think they are a good start. However, I believe they should be a part of a "living" document that will expand and grow in the future (as the need arises).

4. Are these competencies realistic to expect of library school students?

The short answer is, "Yes." Many of these competencies should have been developed along the "educational path" of most Americans. For example, one should have learned about the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in their jr. high/middle school government class. In addition, many of these other topics are discussed in other classes along the way, including U.S. history, political science, journalism, etc.

5. Does it reflect one political persuasion? If so, which one?

Since the ALA is a liberal organization, I would have to state that it does reflect a more democratic persuasion. However, I do not believe there is any direct political connection.

6. What would you add or eliminate to these competencies?

At this juncture, I would not eliminate anything. However, I do not particularly care for the wording of the third point:

III. The student knows about the history of intellectual freedom within the American Library Association. He or she understands key ALA policy documents related to intellectual freedom, and is aware of the responsibilities of professional librarians with regard to intellectual freedom.

Of course I support the ALA and its mission; however, the issue of intellectual freedom goes beyond the ALA. I would feel more comfortable with this wording:

The student knows about the history of intellectual freedom; he or she understands key policy documents related to intellectual freedom, and is aware of the responsibilities of professional librarians with regard to intellectual freedom.

A New Beginning

This is a public service announcement:

Until further notice, I will be using this space for my Seminar in Intellectual Freedom Class (S640).