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Did you know an Iowa librarian wrote the original Librarys Bill of Rights as a rebuke to book banning during the rise of fascism, and it became the basis of library policy across the country?

The late 1930s were a dark time for free speech and expression. The specter of fascism and war in Europe was prominent in the minds of Americans, and in both the US and abroad books were being bannedsometimes burnedfor subversive topics.

Watching this, and recalling similar panic and censorship efforts before and during the First World War decades earlier, Forrest Spaulding, the library director of the Des Moines Public Library, responded with a short, four-point list of what he called The Librarys Bill of Rights in 1938.

Spaulding wanted to protect the librarys integrity as a space to find resources and promote the freedom of information. He wanted to keep it free from political interference, growing intolerance and the censorship he noticed creeping in, so the library could continue serving the people of Des Moines.

He was specifically focused on how censorship and intolerance affected the rights of minorities and individuals.

The document was presented to the library board and passed as library policy in November that year, apparently without issue.

But censorship wasnt a problem only affecting Des Moines.

In America, Hitlers Mein Kampf, Ernest Hemmingways For Whom the Bell Tolls, John Steinbecks Grapes of Wrath, and Karl Marxs Das Kapital were among the books banned. Othersboth fiction and nonfictionwere banned for depictions of racism in the American South and/or for sexual content.

A whole series of American social studies and history textbooks written by Harold Rugg, which put more emphasis on class inequality in American history, was frequently challenged and banned across the country.

In June 1939a few months before World War II would officially startat a meeting for the American Library Association (ALA), Spauldings friend and a member of the association moved for a more universal version of the Des Moines document to be used for all American libraries. It was adopted easily.

Prior to Spaulding, censorship wasnt a big concern for many librarians, but the changing culture made the ALA more responsive to an explicit stance against censorship and having information freely available to anyone.

When pushed about his opposition to all censorship, Spaulding replied, If more people had read Mein Kampf, some of Hitlers despotism might have been prevented.

That was the principle which fueled Spauldings advocacy.

Close to 84 years later, the universal Library Bill of Rights now has seven points, but it still revolves around the idea that public libraries are for everyone and no idea should be restricted or censored. In fact, the most current bill of rights declares public libraries have a responsibility to actively fight against censorship, not only resist it.

Spaulding was also appointed as the chair of a special ALA committee on censorship, the Intellectual Freedom Committee.

In addition to his work to fight against censorship, Spaulding used the library during the Great Depression to create spaces and programs for men to continue learning. The reading rooms he created contained books to read for recreation, but also technical and vocational books.

Spaulding spent the rest of his life fighting censorship, and advocating that free information was key to a healthy society.

Spaulding died in 1965, and the Des Moines Register wrote:

Ordinarily a community is not greatly stirred by the death of a man who has been away for 13 years, but it is different with Forrest Spaulding. He made himself so much a part of the life of Des Moines that the thought of him is still warm and pleasant.

He went far beyond the role of librarian to help out in every cultural and intellectual phase of city activityHe was a friendly, social man, with a mischievous love of a pun or humorous phrase. Among those who knew and loved these traits of his, it is as though he never left Des Moines at all.

Almost 84 years after the first draft and over 100 years since Spaulding first came to work in Des Moines, hes honored with a painting, a plaque, and an illustrated version of the first ALA version of the Library Bill of Rights in a meeting room at the Central branch of the Des Moines Public Library.

Nikoel Hytrek4/28/23

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Have a story idea or something I should know? Email me at nikoel@iowastartingline.com. You can also DM me on Twitter at@n_hytrek.

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Iowa Librarian Pens 'Library's Bill of Rights' in 1938 (And It's ... - Iowa Starting Line

Seeking an explanation from a member of parliament for critiquing the government is nothing but an effort to silence free speech in the country, says CPI(M) MP John Brittas, who was summoned by the Rajya Sabha chairman over an opinion piece written by him for a national daily.

Brittas was served a summons over the piece he wrote for The Indian Express after a BJP leader complained to Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar, calling it seditious conduct. The piece was critical of Home Minister Amit Shah.

Brittas met Dhankhar, who is also the chairman of the Rajya Sabha, in person and explained his position. Now, he has been asked to give the explanation in writing.

Also read: Case filed against Kerala Story; says it promotes Muslim hatred, defames state

The article was published in February, and I came to know that a BJP leader had filed a complaint with the Rajya Sabha chairmans office, pleading that a sedition case be slapped on me. I received a notice from the Rajya Sabha secretariat last week, instructing me to meet Dhankhar. I was really perplexed at getting such a notice, as I have not heard of such a practice. Although I verbally explained the circumstances that led me to write the article, I was again asked to submit a written statement. Then, I demanded a copy of the complaint, as I have to prepare a detailed reply for it. We do not know about the ramifications, as this is the first time such an incident has taken place in our country, Brittas told The Federal.

This is censorship

I was using my democratic right and my standing as a member of the parliament to write that article in response to the Union home ministers attempt to sow discord among communities in a state like Kerala, which is renowned for its social cohesion and communal harmony. It was composed responsibly and with good intentions. I was reminding Amit Shah of his constitutional responsibilities. The responsibility of the Opposition is to be critical of those in power. A free and independent media must also do it.

Also read: Sansad Ratna Awards 2023: Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, John Brittas among nominees

This is censorship. They are using every office available to them to crush any opposition and are targeting the entire media of the country, too, by taking me on. Now, the media will think twice before publishing anything critical of the Union government. In that sense, this is not against John Brittas the person or the MP, but against free press itself.

I was reminding the Union home minister that his remark was against Section 153 A of the IPC. I continue to hold that viewpoint. The IPC must be a concern for those in positions of power. When commenting on communities, people, or regions, leaders and ministers must exercise responsibility. Why did the Union home minister deem Karnataka safe and Kerala unsafe? Brittas argued.

What Amit Shah said

Speaking at a BJP meeting in Mangalore, bordering Kasaragod in northern Kerala, in February, Home Minister Amit Shah made an indirect jab at the Left Front government of Kerala by asserting that the BJP in Karnataka had protected the state from anti-nationals. Kerala is in your neighbourhood. I dont want to say anything more, Shah told the gathering.

Also read: Karnataka: Amit Shahs use of Kerala as bad example draws criticism

In his opinion piece titled Perils of Propaganda published in The Indian Express, Brittas came down heavily on Shah for his remarks against Kerala.

Shahs periodic outbursts targeting Kerala are proof of his desperation as well as his attempt to turn India into a Hindu Rashtra and rewind this country to a past with the Manu Smriti replacing the Constitution. Kerala has tirelessly resisted his partys designs. It is an irony that his party colleagues have launched a contrived outreach scheme to lure Muslims and Christians into their fold. Incidentally, Shah had earlier threatened to pull down the Left government in Kerala, read his article.

Brittas has been a journalist for decades and is one of the prominent voices of the Left in the Rajya Sabha.

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This is censorship: John Brittas on RS notice over article slamming Amit Shah - The Federal

The effort to restrict books in Republican-led Texas is snowballing out of the school library and into the classroom.

House Bill 1804 by Galveston state Rep. Terri Leo-Wilson, which was left pending in committee last week, would let the State Board of Education veto certain textbooks that discuss gender identity, as well as sexual orientation and activity, according to The Texas Tribune.

Anything deemed to encourage lifestyles that deviate from generally accepted standards of society could be rejected. Officials could also spurn textbooks that don't frame U.S. history in a positive way.

Historians and literary advocates are decrying the bill as the latest attack on academic freedom. Michael Phillips, a North Texas-based historian and author, blasted the bill as dangerous.

Phillips and other critics fear that a clampdown on true history could have catastrophic consequences for the states youth.

Erasure of LGBTQ+ Identities

The potential erasure of LGBTQ+ people in textbooks could increase suicidal behavior for an already at-risk group, Phillips said. It may magnify the feelings of young LGBTQ+ and nonbinary students that they dont fit in.

Phillips pointed out that the effort to restrict textbooks has precedent: Starting in the late 1800s, groups like the United Daughters of the Confederacy began pushing to vet textbooks to ensure that there werent any claims that slavery led to the Civil War, he said. Many books indeed minimized slavery, whitewashing it as a matter of states rights.

They wanted to make sure that Reconstruction was depicted as a misguided tragedy in which white Southerners were stripped of their rights, and the freedmen who were unprepared for citizenship were given control and that Reconstruction was a time of lawlessness, he said. They didn't want the textbooks to say anything positive about the enfranchisement of Black people.

While conducting research for his book White Metropolis, Phillips said he read 100 years worth of Dallas-approved textbooks that legitimized popular prejudices. He believes that theres a direct line from what was taught back then to the citys resistance to racial justice.

He worries about what the teaching of events like the civil rights movement would look like if the bill were to become law.

There's so many things that will not make any sense, he said. We will leave kids not able to comprehend the world they live in, and it will create a vacuum of knowledge and into that vacuum of knowledge is poured all the prejudices, biases, hatreds that society provides. I mean, it's a dangerous thing.

The public schools will produce children who are going to be ignorant of so much of what they need to know in order to thrive in this society and make it better. Dr. Michael Phillips

In a statement to the Observer, Leo-Wilson said that the states standards, the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, are required to be taught and are quite extensive in the coverage of topics like slavery.

What HB 1804 requires is that when acts of civil disobedience are covered in materials it is noted when those movements have used illegal means to accomplish their purpose. Kidnapping and burning down innocents [sic] private property are covered as such, the statement continued. HB 1804 allows an elected body, by majority vote, to determine suitability. Currently, publishers have free reign and parents/teachers have no recourse or way to object.Texas Leading the Nation in Book Bans

The 2022 fall semester marked an escalation in censorship and book bans throughout the United States, both in school libraries and in classrooms, according to the literary and free speech organization PEN America. Unsurprisingly, Texas led the way.

PEN America found that from July to December of last year, Texas had the greatest number with 438 bans. Florida came in second, clocking 357 bans.

Texas and Florida were also at the front of the pack when it came to banning books during the 2021 2022 school year, noted Kasey Meehan, Freedom to Read project director at PEN America. The advocacy group has tracked Texas legislative cycle, and there are several bills that represent a ramping up of the states efforts to suppress content, ideas and identities in public schools, she said.

There are many ways that we see a coordinated effort to restrict the freedom to read, the freedom to learn and the freedom to express, Meehan said.

For his part, Phillips is terrified that, if ultimately signed into law, HB 1804 would lead to a widespread brain drainand affect Texans for decades to come. The university system is going to become a joke, and we will not draw the top researchers here, he said. The public schools will produce children who are going to be ignorant of so much of what they need to know in order to thrive in this society and make it better. It's an absolute tragedy.

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Texas Textbook Censorship Latest Part of National Book Banning ... - Dallas Observer

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EDITORIAL Compromise is still censorship | Observer-Tribune ... - New Jersey Hills

There is a common misconception, even held by media editors, that Myanmar is just a military country now and thats the end of its story. And yet this couldnt be further from the truth, says Oliver Slow. The journalist, who lived in Myanmar between 2012 and 2020, tells Index that people in Myanmar have got a taste of democracy.

They want to at least have a free choice in their matters, they dont want to be controlled by this very violent military, they want to have leaders who they have chosen for themselves, he says.

Slow is talking to Index in light of his newly released book Return of the Junta: Why Myanmars military must go back to the barracks, an excerpt of which is featured below. For Slow, getting across this message is one of his hopes for the book.As he says, he wants everyone to not give up on Myanmar, to understand that there is a vibrant future there.

Return of the Junta blends first-hand accounts with wider research into the background of the military. The result is an accessible, informed read on the 2021 coup dtat, and ultimately on this very complex country. While there are lighter moments in the book, it is not a sugar-coated retelling. Struggle for basic rights nay survival is a constant and unifying thread.

Early on Slow writes about how doctors have been a primary target of repression, persecuted in large part because they were central to the civil disobedience movement that formed in the immediate aftermath of the coup.

That angered the regime and they decided essentially that they would punish doctors in many ways, Slow tells Index. I remember from the time some pretty horrendous videos of soldiers just beating doctors in the streets. He says that when a third wave of Covid hit a few months after the coup the authorities would call doctors out to what they described as bad cases of Covid only to then arrest them.

Slow saysit speaks to the violence of the Myanmar military that doctors were specifically targeted and showstheir lack of respect for international norms.

Such violence against doctors not only punishes them, it punishes the population more broadly. Two years on hospitals are in a parlous state in Myanmar. Doctors have fled.

There is this feeling that they dont want to work for any institution which aligns with the military, says Slow. A friend of Slows who recently visited a hospital in central Yangon described the conditions as horrendous.

Slow who wouldnt return to Myanmar right now because it would be too risky finds it tougher and tougher to communicate with people there. Most of my contacts have left because theyre journalists. Instead Slow relies on secure messaging apps to reach people on the ground.

According to Slow the main resistance is in the form of armed militia in the border areas. Many of the people in these militia were university students in 2021 and were enraged over the disappearance of their promising future. He says these militia are making some advances.

Of course its not just in the border regions that protest exists. On the anniversary of the coup this year Twitter was filled with images of a silent protest streets of towns and cities across Myanmar were empty as people stayed at home to make a statement.There are also flash protests, very short protests where peoplewalk through the streets, do a photo, it goes on social media, theyre usually wearing a mask (for obvious reasons) and then they disband.

These anecdotes, combined with rising discontent over the military, give Slow hope.

Can the military ever rule again in that country with any legitimacy? Its a resounding no. Whether that means the resistance will win is a different matter as the military has made itself powerful over 50-60 years.The resistance is up against a pretty monumental machine, he says before adding:

But I do see a time at some point in the futurewhere the military will be defeated or removed from power.

Despite the increased investment, even in pre-coup Myanmar life was still incredibly difficult for most teachers, especially those living in rural areas.

Myat Kyaw Thein is a secondary school teacher close to the town of Monywa, in central Myanmar.

We have so many things to worry about as teachers, especially our safety and salary, said Myat Kyaw Thein, who told me in an interview conducted before the coup that he earned the equivalent of about US$150 per month. Its not enough, especially when you compare it with other countries in Southeast Asia. No wonder so many people leave teaching to go to better paying jobs.

Its a rotten salary, but whenever we raise it with authorities, they tell us its because of the low budget for education. Well, if you want to improve the education in this country, then increase the budget, he said.

A similar story was told by a teacher in a remote village of Myanmars Nagaland. The teacher had worked at a school in her local village for more than ten years, and although the resources had improved in recent years, life was still difficult for her and her colleagues. She told me they often used their own money to provide things such as pens and books for their students.

Its difficult for us because we dont have much salary, and sometimes have to use our familys [money], she said. But then we want [the students] to be happy and to come to school. Thats why we provide these things for them.

Even before the coup, it was clear that those tasked with overhauling Myanmars education system had an unenviable task ahead of them, including bringing together the dozens of different stakeholders national and foreign involved in such a monumental task and forming a cohesive strategy that pleases everyone.

Even what some may regard as the successes of the past decade in terms of reforms to education did not please everyone. For example, a recognition by the government about the need to switch from a teacher to a child-centred approach was a welcome step for those hoping to encourage more critical thinking, but parents who have only ever been exposed to the former their entire lives were understandably sceptical.

When a parent passes a school and doesnt hear students chanting in unison what the teacher has written on the board, they think, Whats going on in there? They arent learning, said an educator involved in the reforms.

Since the coup, however, much of the progress made over the last decade or so in Myanmars education sector has gone swiftly into reverse. With many teachers refusing to work under this junta, and parents not wanting to send their children to schools either due to legitimate security concerns or because they dont want them taught under this regime the SAC has resorted to many of the tactics of past military juntas to try and portray an image of normalcy in schools and universities.

Like in 1962 and 1988 it has closed universities and fired teachers not supportive of the coup. Thousands of teachers have been sacked, and hundreds jailed, for participating in the civil disobedience movement against the junta. To fill these teaching ranks, the military-controlled education ministry has encouraged applicants with lower qualifications to apply for jobs, and even been accused of dressing up army wives and female members of pro-military organizations in teachers uniforms and transporting them to schools. Like under the SLORC government [the military State Law and Order Restoration Council that ruled the country between 1988 and 1997], teachers have been sent on month-long refresher courses where they are urged to pay attention to the preservation of Myanmar culture and traditions as well as speak and behave respectfully and to be disciplined, almost certainly euphemisms to discourage teachers from imbibing any form of revolutionary thinking into their students.

Before the coup, despite some bumps, the general trajectory of the education system in Myanmar was on a positive path. The changes were also made largely free of the militarys sphere of influence, an indication of the potential Myanmar has as a whole if the Tatmadaws own interests are not directly threatened.

Like almost everything in Myanmar, however, the 2021 coup has created considerable concerns about what happens next. If the current situation continues, and the military manages to maintain an albeit loose grip on power, it is the next generation of young people in Myanmar, and others beyond that, who will be the ones to suffer the most, through a lack of investment, or care, in their education, a lack of capabilities to think critically and problem solve, and a lack of skills to prepare them for the working world. This could well manifest, as it has in the past, of creating a general feeling among the population that Myanmars remarkable diversity is something to be feared, not celebrated.

Return of the Junta was published by Bloomsbury in January 2023. Click here for more information on the book.

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Don't give up on Myanmar - Index on Censorship