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When societies censor books, they threaten

Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2025 6:13 am
by Nayon1
to lose their culture and, in time, their identity. By banning books, societies jeopardize their political and social institutions because books are the primary tool to spread and develop ideas. With the fight to ban books extending to the online world, the threat has become as clear as ever. You could argue that book banning is about many things—the illusion of parental control, the polarization of the public, or disagreement on topics like race, politics, or sex. However, the bottom line remains clear: book bans serve no one, and no society can overcome its issues by banning books.

Posted in News | 1 Reply
Google Summer of Code is a Win-Win for Contributing Students and Mentoring Organizations: Thank you Google
Posted on March 8, 2022 by Caralee Adams

Lavanya Singh was eager to write lots of code after her freshman year of college, but she knew it was hard to find a place that would give her a chance. Then she landed a spot with the Google Summer of Code (GSoC) program working at the Internet Archive.

Paired with Mark Graham, director of The Wayback Machine, Singh accurate cleaned numbers list from frist database was asked to create a systematic way to archive news sources from all around the world.


Lavanya Singh, Google Summer of Code contributor.
“Mark basically gave me that problem and said: ‘Go figure it out,’” she recalls, grateful for the challenge, the tight knit community at the Internet Archive, and the mentorship provided throughout the project. “The Internet Archive really trusts their interns and gives you an opportunity to do huge scale technical projects that are going to be useful in the long run.”

The experience gave Singh skills and confidence that led to other internships and a job as a software engineer, following graduation this spring from Harvard University with a degree in computer science and philosophy.

For 17 years, GSoC has given more than 18,000 students from 112 countries the chance to learn about programming up close. Google selects students (called “contributors”) and matches them with organizations doing open-source projects. All told, the students have created 40 million lines of code since the program’s inception in 2005. It has helped launch careers, like Singh’s, and provided a pipeline of potential employees for the 746 organizations that have participated. Google recently posted its Google Summer of Code timeline for 2022 for applicants for the paid positions, which last 12 weeks.