Library Updates

• The Association of American Publishers and the Authors Guild have released a joint report saying that library eBook lending hurts industry sales. There’s a lot to dig into here, but I want to highlight this line: “The study also questions to what extent libraries contribute to ‘discoverability.'” Truly, I don’t understand why these groups think it’s a good idea to make libraries the enemy.
• Flood damage left the Yorktown Library in Indiana without books, computers, or insurance.
• The library system in Deschutes County, Oregon, did away with the Dewey Decimal System and reorganized its collections to be more like a bookstore. The result has been a significant increase in circulation.

Censorship Updates

• Censorship in prison: fulfilling the writ of librarianship.
• Request denied (again): navigating prison censorship from the outside.
• Anti-censorship legislation: prisons need not apply.
• A nonprofit that sends books to Texas prisons is facing a new hurdle: new regulations that ban hardcovers and used books for inmates. Plus, more information on how prisons are censoring what incarcerated people read.
• PEN America has a new report on the expanding censorship in public libraries.
• Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick says that Texas is “coming for the books” in public school libraries.
• The Sarasota County (FL) school board, which had previously been helmed by a Moms for Liberty cofounder, has flipped from red to blue in its recent election.
• Alabama Public Library Service staff have advised the APLS board not to fill a position that was created to help libraries comply with multiple controversial administrative code changes over the last couple of years. They say there’s no need for the position.
• Patty Hector, the executive director of the Saline County library system in Arkansas, has received a $275K settlement after being fired in retaliation for not restricting access to certain children’s books.
• Utah has banned Push by Sapphire, the 37th book banned across the state and the first of the new school year.