To Do: Digital Rights in Libraries

[Hi, pirates. The following is a press release from our dear comrade Alison Macrina of the Library Freedom Project. If you are going to ALA, or live near the Bay Area, you gotta get on this.

*Librarians Convene With Leading Anti-Surveillance Advocates and Technologists In San Francisco to Defend Digital Rights – June 29-30, 2015*

Librarians, technologists, and privacy activists and are gathering in San Francisco on June 29-30 to strategize about initiatives to protect reader privacy, reform digital lending, combat censorship, and champion access to information technology in light of emerging concerns over government surveillance, censorship, and other forms of electronic exploitation of personal data.

The two-day event, which will take place at San Francisco’s iconic Noisebridge hackerspace, falls directly after the American Library Association’s Annual Conference; it’s also being held in San Francisco this year.

Attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who are leading lawsuits challenging the legality of the National Security Agency’s mass surveillance programs, will present, along with experts on copyright and the future of digital lending from Creative Commons and the Internet Archive. Technologists from the Freedom of the Press Foundation (where Edward Snowden is a board member) and Mozilla will be onsite providing in-depth technology training at the hackerspace. The event also features librarians from a number of libraries, including the San Francisco and Oakland Public Library systems, as well as Oakland-based Hack the Hood, speaking on the challenges of providing access to technology and training for Bay Area youth.

Librarians have long been working on the front lines of information activism and their communities’ right to research. Whether by providing access to technology and the Internet, as well as free education, or by standing firm for over a decade as staunch opponents of the USA PATRIOT Act, librarians are at the grassroots of the Internet freedom debate and are uniquely plugged into serving the information needs of local communities, especially those that lack technological or financial resources.

The conference is being organized by the Library Freedom Project, a recent grantee from the Knight Foundation that is a partnership among librarians, technologists, attorneys, and advocates to teach librarians about surveillance threats, digital rights, and privacy-protecting technology. The Nation Magazine recently featured the work of the Library Freedom Project as a cover story.

What: “Digital Rights in Libraries”
Date: June 29-30, 2015
Where: Noisebridge hackerspace, 2269 Mission Street; San Francisco

Website:
https://libraryfreedomproject.org/digital-rights-in-libraries/digital-rights-in-libraries-schedule/

*Contact:*
Alison Macrina
alison@libraryfreedomproject.org

April Glaser
april@libraryfreedomproject.org