Heart

Part 2/3 from Digital Citizenship through Media Literacy; an inauguration day workshop taught at Missoula Public Library through Good Jobs Missoula and the Missoula Area Labor Council.

Intellectual freedom is the heart that beats life-force and purpose into your perceptions and actions. Intellectual freedom informs and grounds your values in the knowledge that we all have equal rights to consume, create, and share information freely and privately in accordance with the Constitution. “Anything you want us to be quiet about, let’s talk about that” (James LaRue, Director of Intellectual Freedom Office, American Library Association).

Questions

• Is fake news protected by freedom of speech?
• How is intellectual freedom protected by the US Constitution?
• Is hate speech protected?
• How is does access to the internet and technology impact our intellectual freedom?
• How is intellectual freedom different in our schools?

Reading & Resources

• “First Amendment” Encyclopedia of Constitutional Amendments, Proposed Amendments, and Amending Issues, 1789-2010** (PDF)
• Liverman et al v. City of Petersburg et al
• Intellectual Freedom Blog American Library Association
  • Banned & challenged books
  • Hate crimes in libraries
• “Do we still need Banned Books Week when we have the internet?” 
• “Perspectives on Islam in Montana: how a small community weathered controversy” American Libraries Magazine
• Hate speech versus “fighting words” and “imminent danger test”
  • ACLU Frequently Asked Questions: Hate Speech on Campus
  • “Free speech vs. hate speech” >> different in K-12 education
  • Snyder v. Phelps (2011)
• A Private [School] Matter: The State of Materials Challenges in Private College Preparatory School Libraries in the Southeast United States** (PDF)
• “No Accounting for School Vouchers” from Privatizing the Public Good: Emerging Trends in K-16 Education** (PDF)
• Net Neutrality
  • “Will Donald Trump Dismantle the Internet as We Know it?” The Atlantic (PDF)
  • International Federation of Library Associations’ statement on net neutrality and zero-rating (has better definition of “zero-rating”)
  • Recent accusations that T-Mobile is violating net neutrality with data plans
  • “What Everyone Gets Wrong About Net Neutrality” Wired
• Take a college class for free! Politics of Information syllabus