Open Access
Subscription Access
If You Have Nothing to Hide, You Still Have Something to Fear: How Libraries Can Support Alternative Information Channels
Abstract
Libraries in the U.S. have seen massive increases in book challenges in recent years. Since books are one of the library’s vital resources, censoring books can have a great impact on libraries and patrons. To counteract the effects of censorship, libraries need to adopt and support alternative information channels so information can still be accessed through other channels even if one is shut down. When researching the behaviors of marginalized communities, most of them rely on the Internet to access vital information from various channels such as online support groups and social media. If libraries are to fully support marginalized patrons, then it is vital for them to provide Internet access while also protecting patron privacy. By adopting cybersecurity measures and implementing security culture within libraries, librarians can continue to provide access to information for marginalized communities.
References
American Library Association. 2023a. “Book Ban Data.” https://www.ala.org/bbooks/book-ban-data.
American Library Association. 2023b. “Top 10 Most Challenged Books Lists.” https://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10.
American Library Association. 2021a. “ALA Adopts New Code of Ethics Principle on Racial and Social Justice.” https://www.ala.org/news/2021/07/ala-adopts-new-code-ethics-principle-racial-and-social-justice.
American Library Association. 2021b. “How to Respond to Law Enforcement Requests for Library Records and User Information: Suggested Guidelines.” https://www.ala.org/advocacy/privacy/lawenforcement/guidelines.
Arbanas, Krunoslav, Mario Spremic, and Nikolina Zajdela Hrustek. 2021. “Holistic Framework for Evaluating and Improving Information Security Culture.” Aslib Journal of Information Management 73 (5): 699–719. https://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-02-2021-0037.
Barrière, Louise. 2021. “Underground Pedagogy of Hope?: German Punk-Feminist Festivals as Education in Feminist Theories and Actions.” Open Gender Journal 5:1–19. https://doi.org/10.25595/2146.
Brafman, Ori, and Rod Beckstrom. The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations.
Chancellor, Renate L. 2019. “Communities in the Crossfire: Models for Public Library Action.” Collaborative Librarianship 11 (1): 48-65. https://digitalcommons.du.edu/collaborativelibrarianship/vol11/iss1/9.
Chatman, Elfreda A. 1996. “The Impoverished Life-World of Outsiders.” Journal of the American Society for Information Science 47 (3): 193-206.
Chertoff, Michael. 2017. “A Public Policy Perspective of the Dark Web.” Journal of Cyber Policy 2 (1): 26–38. https://doi.org/10.1080/23738871.2017.1298643.
Chin, Chieh-Li, Tian Wang, Erh-Hsuan Wang, and Masooda Bashir. “Patron Privacy Protections in Public Libraries.” Journal of Intellectual Freedom & Privacy 8 (3): 28-39.
Clough, Nathan L. 2012. “Emotion at the Center of Radical Politics: On the Affective Structures of Rebellion and Control.” Antipode 44 (5): 1667–86. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8330.2012.01035.x.
Costello, Kaitlin L., John D. Martin III, and Ashlee Edwards Brinegar. 2017. “Online Disclosure of Illicit Information: Information Behaviors in Two Drug Forums.” Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology 68 (10): 2439–48. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23880.
CrimethInc. 2004. “What is Security Culture?” The Anarchist Library. https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/crimethinc-what-is-security-culture.
Delmonaco, Daniel, and Oliver L. Haimson. 2023. “‘Nothing That I Was Specifically Looking for’: LGBTQ + Youth and Intentional Sexual Health Information Seeking.” Journal of LGBT Youth 20 (4): 818–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/19361653.2022.2077883.
“Desktop Browsers.” PrivacyTests.org. November 4, 2024. https://privacytests.org/.
Etengoff, Chana. 2015. “Using Zines to Teach about Gender Minority Experiences and Mixed-Methods Research.” Feminist Teacher 25 (2/3): 211–18. https://doi.org/10.5406/femteacher.25.2-3.0211.
Fernandez, Laleah, Bianca C. Reisdorf, and William H. Dutton. 2020. “Urban Internet Myths and Realities: A Detroit Case Study.” Information, Communication & Society 23 (13): 1925–46. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2019.1622764.
Gabriele-Black, Kaitlin A., and Abbie E. Goldberg. 2021. “‘I’ve Heard There’s Some Sort of Underground Group’: LGBTQ Activism on Evangelical Christian Campuses.” Journal of Diversity in Higher Education 14 (3): 316–27. https://doi.org/10.1037/dhe0000163.
Garimella, Kiran, Orestis Kostakis, and Michael Mathioudakis. 2017. “Ad-Blocking: A Study on Performance, Privacy and Counter-Measures.” In Proceedings of the 2017 ACM on Web Science Conference, 259–62. Troy, NY: ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3091478.3091514.
Garrett, Willie. 2016. “Marginalized Populations.” Minnesota Psychological Association. https://www.mnpsych.org/index.php?option=com_dailyplanetblog&view=entry&category=division%20news&id=71:marginalized-populations.
Gervais, Arthur, Alexandros Filios, Vincent Lenders, and Srdjan Capkun. 2017. “Quantifying Web Adblocker Privacy.” In Computer Security – ESORICS 2017, edited by Simon N. Foley, Dieter Gollmann, and Einar Snekkenes, 10493:21–42. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66399-9_2.
Gibson, Amelia N., and Sandra Hughes-Hassell. 2023. “‘Maybe She’s Just Strict to Everybody’: Race, Belonging, and Surveillance in the Library.” The Library Quarterly 93 (3): 277–93. https://doi.org/10.1086/725068.
Hasler, Laura, Ian Ruthven, and Steven Buchanan. 2014. “Using Internet Groups in Situations of Information Poverty: Topics and Information Needs.” Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology 65 (1): 25–36. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.22962.
Hemphill, David, and Shari Leskowitz. 2013. “DIY Activists: Communities of Practice, Cultural Dialogism, and Radical Knowledge Sharing.” Adult Education Quarterly 63 (1): 57–77. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741713612442803.
Huertas, Elyla. 2023. “Banning Books is an Act of Censorship and it Can Take Many Forms – Here's How to Spot it.” ACLU New Jersey, September 5. https://www.aclu-nj.org/en/news/banning-books-act-censorship-and-it-can-take-many-forms-heres-how-spot-it.
Koh, Rowena. 2008. “Alternative Literature in Libraries: The Unseen Zine.” Collection Building 27 (2): 48–51. https://doi.org/10.1108/01604950810870182.
Jacobi, Tobi. 2008. “Writing for Change: Engaging Juveniles through Alternative Literacy Education.” Journal of Correctional Education 59 (2): 71–93.
Jadoon, Abid Khan, Waseem Iqbal, Muhammad Faisal Amjad, Hammad Afzal, and Yawar Abbas Bangash. 2019. “Forensic Analysis of Tor Browser: A Case Study for Privacy and Anonymity on the Web.” Forensic Science International (Online) 299 (June):59–73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2019.03.030.
Jia, Romy Menghao, Jia Tina Du, and Yuxiang Chris Zhao. 2022. “Characteristics of the Health Information Seeking Behavior of LGBTQ+ Individuals: A Systematic Review on Information Types, Information Sources and Influencing Factors.” Journal of Documentation 78 (2): 361–88. https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-03-2021-0069.
Leff, Leonard J., and Jerold Simmons. 1991a. “Appendix: The Motion Picture Production Code.” In The Dame in the Kimono: Hollywood, Censorship, and the Production Code from the 1920s to the 1960s, 283–92. New York, New York: Anchor Books.
Leff, Leonard J., and Jerold Simmons. 1991b. “Welcome Will Hays!.” In The Dame in the Kimono: Hollywood, Censorship, and the Production Code from the 1920s to the 1960s, 3-16. New York, New York: Anchor Books.
LePrevost, Catherine E., Leslie E. Cofie, Jamie E. Bloss, and Joseph G. L. Lee. 2024. “Focus Groups Revealed How Community Health Workers in North Carolina Find, Verify, and Process Health Information for Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers.” Health Information & Libraries Journal 41 (1): 43–52. https://doi.org/10.1111/hir.12445.
Lingel, Jessa, and Danah Boyd. 2013. “‘Keep It Secret, Keep It Safe’: Information Poverty, Information Norms, and Stigma.” Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 64 (5): 981–91. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.22800.
Lloyd, Annemaree. 2015. “Stranger in a Strange Land; Enabling Information Resilience in Resettlement Landscapes.” Journal of Documentation 71 (5): 1029–42. https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-04-2014-0065.
Lund, Brady. 2021. “Public Libraries’ Data Privacy Policies: A Content and Cluster Analysis.” The Serials Librarian 81 (February):1–9. https://doi.org/10.1080/0361526X.2021.1875958.
Lund, Brady, and Matthew Beckstrom. 2019. “The Integration of Tor into Library Services: An Appeal to the Core Mission and Values of Libraries.” Public Library Quarterly 40 (November):1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/01616846.2019.1696078.
Macrina, Alison. 2015. “The Tor Browser and Intellectual Freedom in the Digital Age.” Reference & User Services Quarterly 54 (4): 17–20.
Marler, Will. 2023. “‘You Can’t Talk at the Library’: The Leisure Divide and Public Internet Access for People Experiencing Homelessness.” Information, Communication & Society 26 (7): 1303–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2021.2006742.
Mathur, Arunesh, Arvind Narayanan, Jessica Vitak, and Marshini Chetty. 2018. “Characterizing the Use of Browser-Based Blocking Extensions To Prevent Online Tracking.” In Proceedings of the Fourteenth Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security, 103-16. Baltimore, MD: USENIX Association.
McInroy, Lauren B., Rebecca J. McCloskey, Shelley L. Craig, and Andrew D. Eaton. 2019. “LGBTQ+ Youths’ Community Engagement and Resource Seeking Online versus Offline.” Journal of Technology in Human Services 37 (4): 315–33. https://doi.org/10.1080/15228835.2019.1617823.
Moms for Liberty. 2024. “Our Key Issues.” https://momsforlibertywc.org/the-issues/.
Morales, Jacquelyn Dolezal. 2021. “Historically Marginalized Groups.” Inter-American Foundation. https://www.iaf.gov/what-we-do/publications/plans-and-reports/cbj/historically-marginalized-groups/.
Moreno, Teresa Helena. 2022. “Beyond the Police: Libraries as Locations of Carceral Care.” Reference Services Review 50 (1): 102–12. https://doi.org/10.1108/RSR-07-2021-0039.
Oltmann, Shannon. 2024. “Accessing LGBTQ+ Content in One US State: The Role of CIPA and Internet Filters.” Journal of Intellectual Freedom & Privacy 8 (4). https://doi.org/10.5860/jifp.v8i4.8040.
Oyez. n.d. “Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District No. 26 v. Pico by Pico.” Accessed January 14, 2025. https://www.oyez.org/cases/1981/80-2043.
San Nicolas-Rocca, Tonia, and Richard J. Burkhard. 2019. “Information Security in Libraries: Examining the Effects of Knowledge Transfer.” Information Technology & Libraries 38 (2): 58–71. https://doi.org/10.6017/ital.v38i2.10973.
Security Culture: A Handbook for Activists. Zine. 2001.
Steele, Jennifer Elaine. 2023. “Access to LGBTQ-Themed Children’s Materials.” Journal of Intellectual Freedom & Privacy 8 (4): 3-9. https://doi.org/10.5860/jifp.v8i4.
Steiner, Ronald. 2024. “Community Standards.” Free Speech Center, July 5. https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/community-standards/#.
Thomas, Susan. 2018. “Zines for Teaching: A Survey of Pedagogy and Implications for Academic Librarians.” Portal: Libraries and the Academy 18 (4): 737-58. https://doi.org/10.1353/pla.2018.0043.
United States Department of Justice. 2023. “Child Sexual Abuse Material.” https://www.justice.gov/d9/2023-06/child_sexual_abuse_material_2.pdf.
Webb, Susan L. 2024. “Book Banning.” Free Speech Center, September 20. https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/community-standards/.
Wu, Zongda, Shigen Shen, Huxiong Li, Haiping Zhou, and Dongdong Zou. 2022. “A Comprehensive Study to the Protection of Digital Library Readers’ Privacy under an Untrusted Network Environment.” Library Hi Tech 40 (6): 1930–53. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHT-07-2021-0239.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5860/jifp.v10i4.8405
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
© 2025 OIF