Each week, we reflect on the top articles, blog posts, tweets, news, thoughts, and other tidbits we’ve found interesting or useful. Enjoy!

Nisha

ALA released a statement indicating the direct contradiction of the current administration’s policies with their core values. Nominations for the annual CALA Best Book Award recognizes outstanding books, published in English or Chinese is open until March 1, 2017. Nominations should exhibit excellence in addressing topics about China and written by authors of Chinese descent.

Des

Recent weeks have seen the creation of two amazing resource lists, the #ImmigrationSyllabus created by the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota, and the #LibrariesResist Resource List. Both are well worth going through, and in the case of the latter contributing resources to as well.

The SAA also finally released a statement opposing the Trump Administration’s executive order restricting the entry of Muslims into the United States. Along those lines, John Overholt wrote succintly about the ways in which our professions are inherently political:

We are in fact at a moment of crisis; a moment at which choosing to assume that things will probably be OK, because they’ve always been OK (for you) until now, means choosing complicity in crimes against humanity. It means turning a blind eye to the destruction of the America that you believe in. This will not be a thing other people did. It will either be a thing you resisted, or a thing you helped to do.

Finally, Reveal News also posted a very interesting article on how private contractors are being used to digitize public domain information (such as municipal and state legal codes) and in many cases charging exorbitant fees to access information that should be freely available. An excellent read particularly for those interested in open access info and government accountability, which should be everyone at this point.

Cover photo from JSMetcalf Photos on Flickr Commons.  Licensed under CC 2.0.