They've been targeting libraries for some time. Don't let them succeed.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/01/new-book-bans-library-schools
#censorship #BookBan #libraries
New blog post: Basic Internet Security for Authors: Better Browsing
Never thought about what you trust your browser with every day? Maybe it's time for some tweaks to make your internet browsing more secure. #Security #InternetSecurity #Browser #Author #Autorenleben #writerslife #Writing #BookBan
https://www.viennawriter.net/blog/basic-internet-security-for-authors-better-browsing/
Ebooks, Kindle and the Erosion of Ownership
- Plant Based Bride
https://invidious.reallyaweso.me/watch?v=oqt7Ev37IbA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqt7Ev37IbA
New post: Basic Internet Security for Authors – Strong Passwords
What are good passwords (spoiler: long ones) and how can i use them so that they don't annoy me?
https://www.viennawriter.net/blog/basic-internet-security-for-authors-strong-passwords/
New blog post: Basic Internet Security for Authors – Cloud and Backups.
Dear fellow writers around the world, this is – unfortunately – not a drill. Book bans are in place in the US. Get your manuscripts and other data out of cloud drives and make decent backups. There's a how-to in the article.
https://www.viennawriter.net/blog/basic-internet-security-for-authors-cloud-and-backups/
Book banned in the US for discussing... having freckles and being ginger. Free Speech everyone.
If you have #manuscripts in Google Docs, please consider downloading them all to your harddrives. Make lokal backups and also copy them to an external harddrive and flash drives. Write locally with #Scrivener or any other word processor that fits your workflow. „The Cloud“, especially the US cloud, is not a safe place.#bookban #books #censorship #author #writing #writingcommunity #bookstodon
What will come after book bans? Well, you won't need your professional phantasy for several scenarios.
Fellow authors around the world, maybe you should think about switching from Google Drives, MS One Drives, iCloud etc. and, especially, keep your manuscripts and other important documents safe on an external harddrive or/and a flash drive. Don't get me wrong. I also hope, we all won't need the backups. I really do. #author #books #WritingCommunity #SelfPublishing #Writing #censorship #bookban
"Her experience has also been “painful” because book banning has had a more “subtle” impact that left her questioning her own abilities. Many of her books aren’t being formally banned, but the atmosphere that banning has created has led to her and her books simply not being chosen by teachers and educators."
Banned books are worth reading!
"Censored in schools run by the Department of Defense, which affects up to 67,000 children in 160 schools in seven US states and 11 countries."
https://www.amazon.com/No-Truth-Without-Ruth-Ginsburg/dp/0062560115
'"Banning a book is the resort of a government that has lost confidence in the power of its own message,” Novack said. “Not only are book bans wrong, they are counterproductive."'
...
'The lawsuit said HB 710 “puts educators and librarians in the untenable position of having to guess whether any member of the public might file an objection to a book whose message they disagree with,” especially because the distinction of a “harmful” book is subjective.
'Sherry Scheline, director of the Donnelly Public Library, said during the news conference that the law “caused a crisis in our community...
'The Donnelly Library is housed in a 1,000-square-foot log cabin that Scheline said is about one-tenth the size of the average Idaho library. Because of the policy shift, the library has moved its after-school kids’ program to outdoor tepees to comply with the law. Scheline said budget and staffing issues compound the library’s inability to allow unsupervised children.'
I have subscribed to the weekend print edition of this paper. It's $12 a month. I also subscribe to the Salt Lake Tribune e-edition.
I encourage you to find local reporting (whether local to you, or to a place of interest or effectiveness), and subscribe. It's one of the most powerful things you can do right now, is keep these independent, small town papers afloat.
Two #Idaho teenagers, a handful of #authors, a tiny public #library, and the nation’s largest #publishers are suing the state of #Idaho, pushing back against HB170 – the state’s #BookBan that went into effect last summer - a law that restricts books from both public and school #libraries...
“The most important thing is to speak out,” says Jerrick, one of the student plaintiffs in the case.
https://www.msnbc.com/ali-velshi/watch/two-teenagers-a-tiny-library-and-the-nations-largest-publishers-take-on-idaho-s-book-ban-law-231481413952
« House Bill 27, the Librarian Protection Act, proposes requiring public libraries to follow their current written processes for challenging books for removal from the shelves, or adopt such policies if they don’t have them. A library that fails to follow a written policy could lose state funding. »
https://sourcenm.com/2025/01/29/lawmakers-passed-on-proposal-to-protect-public-funds-for-libraries/
Today in Labor History January 30, 1933: German President Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler Chancellor. Almost immediately, Hitler began his attacks on labor, with his Sturmabteilung (paramilitary) raiding and burning union offices and assassinating labor leaders, while the police looked on. In May, 1933, he created the German Labor Front, a fascist labor organization to replace the gutted unions. They sent many of the labor leaders to concentration camps and abolished collective bargaining and union elections. Also in May, 1933, the Nazis also attacked and destroyed the Institute for Sexual Sciences, home to the world’s first trans medical clinic, which performed the world’s first sexual reassignment surgeries, for Karl Meir Baer, in 1906, and Lili Elbe, in 1930-1931.
Whether or not you think the comparison with Nazi Germany is a valid one, they did come after trans people almost from day 1, just like Trump. And Project 2025 very directly targets unions and labor activism. So, if your workplace isn’t already organized, it’s past time to get started.
#NewMexico Becomes Fourth State to Introduce Anti-#BookBan #Bill for 2025
Here’s What They Are (& What You Can Do To Help Pass Them)
#Women #Transgender #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #NewMexico #Conservatives #Extremism #Fascism #Censorship
https://bookriot.com/anti-book-ban-legislative-proposals-january-2025/
"Good book" banned along with the "bad" books:
https://www.themirror.com/news/us-news/bible-removed-texas-school-district-876267
Meanwhile, in Oklahoma...
Oklahoma Revokes License of #Teacher Who Gave Class #QRCode to #BrooklynLibrary in #BookBan Protest
A former public high school teacher in Oklahoma had her teaching license revoked by the State Board of Education Thursday for providing students a link to a list of banned books posted online two years prior
By Associated Press, Aug. 23, 2024
"Oklahoma's education board has revoked the license of a former teacher who drew national attention during surging book-ban efforts across the U.S. in 2022 when she covered part of her classroom bookshelf in red tape with the words 'Books the state didn't want you to read.'
"The decision Thursday went against a judge who had advised the Oklahoma Board of Education not to revoke the license of #SummerBoismier, who had also put in her high school classroom a QR code of the Brooklyn Public Library’s catalogue of banned books.
"An attorney for Boismier, who now works at the Brooklyn Public Library in New York City, told reporters after the board meeting that they would seek to overturn the decision.
“I will not apologize for sharing publicly available information about library access with my students,” the former teacher posted on X. “My livelihood will never be as important as someone’s life or right to read what they want.'
[...]
"Teachers in public schools across the country continue to face scrutiny at the local and state level as lawmakers in Republican-led statehouses push forward with book bans and restrict curriculum on issues related to race, gender, and sexuality such as in #Iowa and #Utah. "
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/ArZoU#selection-1095.0-1167.13
