Diane Lynch, Intellectual Freedom Committee Chair, recommends the following article at Politico.com from Dec. 16th as a good overview of what's going on with the reauthorization of the Patriot Act. Here's a brief excerpt from the start of the article...

"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has rejected a Senate plan to include amendments to the Patriot Act in a larger Pentagon funding bill covering the soaring cost of the war in Afghanistan, arguing that to do so would lead to a “revolt on the left,” according to Democratic insiders.

Pelosi’s decision, announced at a closed-door leadership meeting Monday, has forced Democrats to go with a backup plan of extending the Patriot Act until early next year, essentially punting the controversial issue into 2010, when a broader agreement with the Senate can be struck. The vote is now scheduled to take place early next year."

Posted by Steve B. at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From ALA's Washington Office...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee’s passage of the USA PATRIOT Amendments Act of 2009 (H.R. 3845) yesterday put Congress back on track to achieve comprehensive reform of our nation’s surveillance laws, say the American Library Association (ALA) and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL).

“Chairman Conyers and other leaders in the House Judiciary Committee conducted a thorough, open debate of H.R. 3845,” ALA President Camila Alire said. “The weak bill the Senate released after closed-door negotiations would not provide library patrons with privacy online, but H.R. 3845 includes many provisions that will re-establish the balance between the needs of law enforcement and the rights of the American public.”

Read more here...

Posted by Steve B. at 11:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Judith F. Krug, who led the campaign by libraries against efforts to ban books, including helping found Banned Books Week, then fought laws and regulations to limit children’s access to the Internet, died Saturday in Evanston, Ill. She was 69."

Read more of the article here, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/15/us/15krug.html.

Posted by Steve B. at 12:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

In the current issue of the Freedom to Read Foundation's newsletter ALA's ten most frequently challenged books from 2007 are listed as follows:

And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell

The Chocolate War by Rober Cormier

Olive's Ocean by Kevin Henkes

The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

TTYL by Lauren Myracle

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

It's Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

 Quite a few familiar titles, with a few additions. If you want to report a challenge to the Office for Intellectual Freedom at ALA call 8005452433, x4223.

Posted by Mary A. at 01:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)