Portside

Reader Comments: Hearings and Republican Witnesses Show that Trump Planned Armed Coup; Supreme Court Rules Based on Lies, and Religion; Librarians and Books Under Attack; Starbucks Union Grows; Socialism 2022 Conference Labor Day weekend; more ....

Caustic fights over which books belong on the shelves have put librarians at the center of a bitter and widening culture war. Some of the conflicts have gotten so heated that community members have tried to seek criminal charges against librarians.

War, fascism, and three gifted women

Is the corona virus Trump's Chernobyl moment? And more

Reader Comments: Return of Fascism; 2/3 Support Wealth Tax; CNN and Democratic Debate; Imminent Danger(?) - Soleimani Murder; Biden and Buttigieg; Boeing; Australia; Spain; Pesticide Use; Chesa Boudin; Missouri Seeks to Burn Books, Jail Librarians;

Along with efforts to guide readers to trustworthy information sources, many branches are working to make themselves `sanctuary spaces' for immigrants. 'Our nation's 120,000 public, academic, school and special libraries serve all community members, including people of color, immigrants, people with disabilities and the most vulnerable in our communities, offering services and...resources that transform communities, open minds, and promote inclusion and diversity,'

Reader Comments: Two Weeks to Go - Dump Trump, Defeat Racism and Misogyny; Learning to Claim Our Victories; Bernie Sanders' Donor Network Comes Thru for House and Senate Candidates; John Oliver on Third Parties; Support Hillary, Then Fight Like Hell; and: Remembering Tom Hayden; Syria; Silencing Librarians; DuBois and the Fight for Peace; Bob Dylan; Announcements; and more...

A librarian in Kansas City, Missouri was arrested for standing up for a library patron's free speech rights. The right to read, to think, to discuss and listen to ideas in a public forum is essential to an open society, as is our individual privacy. One hopes that the Kansas City case-only the most recent of many-will be resolved, and that librarians there and everywhere will be able to do their jobs without taking on the added burden of battling for our freedom.

School libraries with more staff and larger collections lead to stronger academic performance, a study says. Yet one-third of public schools do not have a full-time, state-certified librarian. Often when education funding is cut, libraries and the arts are the first to go.