OIF Blog

The Intellectual Freedom Round Table is seeking nominees for its three IF awards.  Each award celebrates the achievements of librarians, writers, and citizens in their defense of our basic right to read and express ideas.

• The John Phillip Immroth Memorial Award honors intellectual freedom fighters in and outside the library profession who have demonstrated remarkable personal courage in resisting censorship. The award consists of $500 and a citation. Individuals, groups of individuals, or  organizations are eligible for the award.
• The Eli M. Oboler Memorial Award is presented for the best published work in the area of intellectual freedom. Works to be considered for the award may be single articles (including review pieces), series of thematically connected articles, books, or manuals published on the local, state, or national level in English or English translation.
• The ProQuest/SIRS State and Regional Intellectual Freedom Achievement Award is given to the most innovative and effective intellectual freedom project covering a state or region. Programs may be one-time, one-year, or ongoing/multi-year efforts. The award consists of a citation and $1,000 donated by ProQuest.

The deadline for nomination is December 1. If you have any questions about these awards, please contact Nanette Perez (nperez@ala.org) at the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom.

Tags: General Interest, Intellectual Freedom Round Table, Office for Intellectual Freedom by Jen Hammond
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From May 2 through May 8, 2010, libraries across the nation will celebrate Choose Privacy Week for the first time. This new campaign invites library users into a national conversation about privacy rights in a digital age. The campaign gives libraries the resources they need to educate and engage their users, helping citizens think critically and make more informed choices about their privacy. Print and online tools provide libraries with out-of-the-box programming and outreach.

Posters, buttons, bookmarks, and a resource guide are now available for purchase in the ALA Online Store. (You can receive a 20% discount to these materials if you order before November 15, 2009 by using code PRIV20.) Be sure to visit the Choose Privacy Week website to learn more about the campaign, programming, and the privacy issues that libraries and their users face every day.

If you have questions or want to get more involved, contact Angela Maycock at (312) 280-4221 or amaycock@ala.org.

(Note: You also can follow Choose Privacy Week developments on Twitter at “privacyala“.)

Tags: General Interest, Office for Intellectual Freedom, Privacy by admin
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To kick off Banned Books Week 2009, our new Banned Books Week PSA featuring the puppets from “Crash Pad” is out!

Watch as Chad, Rustle, and Mooch misinterpret the meaning of Banned Books Week and Herb comes to the rescue.  Also check it out at AL Focus.

Tags: Banned Books Week, Censorship, General Interest by Bryan Campbell
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We invite all those who are new to ALA’s Annual Conference, to librarianship, to ALA itself, or to the world of Intellectual Freedom to attend the following session:

Intellectual Freedom 101
Friday, July 10, 2009
5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.

McCormick Place West, Room W-194a

This session is part of ALA’s “Conference 101″ series of programs.

Our excellent speakers will discuss the history and ongoing work of OIF, IFC, IFRT, FTRF, COPE, the Merritt Fund, and more! Curious to know what these acronyms mean? Want to get more involved in this critical aspect of librarianship?  This is the session for you!

Tags: Committee on Professional Ethics (COPE), Freedom to Read Foundation, General Interest, Intellectual Freedom Committee, Intellectual Freedom Issues, Intellectual Freedom Round Table, LeRoy C. Merritt Humanitarian Fund, Midwinter Meeting/Annual Conference, Office for Intellectual Freedom, Privacy, Special Events by Jonathan Kelley
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Since the death of Judith F. Krug on April 11, 2009, there has been an immense outpouring of support from both within and outside of the library community. All state chapters of the American Library Association—and many other groups—have passed resolutions honoring her life and achievements. Colleagues and friends of Krug have overwhelmed the staff of the Office for Intellectual Freedom with their notes offering memories, stories, and tributes. The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, Huffington Post, and dozens of other magazines, blogs, and newspapers published articles and opinion pieces reflecting on the incredible impact Krug had on libraries in the last half the of the 20th century.

We invite you to honor Judith’s memory and her works during a reception at the ALA Annual Conference on Friday, July 10th, at 6:00pm. The event will be held in the Hyatt Grand Regency Ballroom A. Kent Oliver, past chair of the Intellectual Freedom Committee, will host the event. If you would like to say a few words, please e-mail me at nperez@ala.org.

Tags: General Interest, Midwinter Meeting/Annual Conference, Office for Intellectual Freedom, Special Events by Nanette Perez
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In our era of social networks, online databases, and cloud computing, more and more individuals’ personal information is available online and elsewhere. Personal privacy has emerged as one of the most pressing concerns in libraries and beyond. ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom invites you to take up these issues and join with us as we kick off our year long National Conversation on Privacy, an initiative that will culminate in Choose Privacy Week, May 2 – 8, 2010.

This civic engagement campaign calls upon libraries and librarians to stand up as leaders and educators in communities all across the country – calling attention to the value of privacy as the foundation for civil liberties and highlighting growing threats to our privacy rights.

At ALA’s Annual Conference, OIF and the Washington Office invite you to attend an exciting program on these issues. “Privacy in an Era of Change: Privacy and Surveillance Under the New Administration” will feature Mary Ellen Callahan, Chief Privacy Officer for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; David Sobel, Senior Counsel at the Electronic Frontier Foundation; and Jeff Jarvis, author of What Would Google Do? (HarperCollins, 2009).**  The panel will discuss various aspects of privacy, from civil liberties and consumer protection to social networking and security. Please join us on Monday, July 13 from 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. in Room 474, McCormick Place!

**Update: 7/11/09 – Jeff Jarvis will be unable to join us.  In his place will be Craig Wacker, program office for the Digital Media & Learning initiative of the MacArthur Foundation.  Thanks to Craig for filling in on such short notice!

Learn more about privacy and the privacy revolution at these other ALA Annual programs:

• The Secret Life of Our Data: Privacy in the Digital Age (RUSA STARS), Saturday, July 11, 1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m., McCormick Place, Room 474
• Who Cares About Privacy? Boundaries, Millennials and the MySpace Mindset (RUSA MARS), Sunday, July 12, 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., Sheraton Ballroom II/III
• Libraries and Mobile Devices: Public Policy Considerations (OITP), Sunday, July 12, 1:30 – 3:00 p.m., McCormick Place, Room 192a

Learn how you can join ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom in rallying Americans to choose privacy – protecting the freedom to read, search, and learn in a digital age. Please visit www.privacyrevolution.org to get involved and provide your input as we kick off the conversation! For more information, contact Angela Maycock, Assistant Director, Office for Intellectual Freedom, at amaycock@ala.org.

Tags: General Interest, Intellectual Freedom Committee, Midwinter Meeting/Annual Conference, Privacy, Uncategorized by Angela Maycock
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OK, you ask, how’s he going to connect intellectual freedom and torture? Seems a bit of a stretch. Easy. Here’s how.

Intellectual freedom is concerned with the freedom of folks to access what ever information they wish without government limitation or intimidation. In order to ensure that folks are not encouraged to censor themselves we insist (and courts have held) that what we access is our own business and no one else’s — unless there is evidence linking us specifically to a crime (probable cause). OK, OK there is the little matter of the USA PATRIOT Act and NSLs but we’re working on that.

If we are concerned about the records of peoples’ reading habits being confidential, then we sure as heck should be concerned about the rights of people to think and believe what they want without fear of having it tortured out of them.

The fact that we as a society could even be having a public debate about the acceptability of “enhanced interrogation techniques” says something profound about how far our ethical base has eroded. Let’s be clear. Though I have no doubt that during many previous national crises some folks have stooped to torture, it has never, never been consciously accepted public policy to do so. In fact we have been in the forefront of international efforts to outlaw the very behavior now being justified as expedient. For example, after WWII we charged, tried, convicted and sentence at least one Japanese officer to 15 years at hard labor for waterboarding.

If folks can get away with justifying even just a little bit of torture, how much protection do you think will be left for reader privacy? If we can legally beat information out of someone, what’s wrong with a few subpoenas? Heck, why bother with a court order. Just let the government seize anything it wants when it wants it. It’s way past time for the average citizen to wake up and say enough, “have you no decency!”

Tags: General Interest, Intellectual Freedom Issues, Privacy by Doug Archer
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At least 35 ALA state and regional chapters have passed resolutions saluting “the life and legacy” of Judith F. Krug, founding director of the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom. The resolutions detail her extensive accomplishments and multitude of awards, and make special note of the “practical assistance and unstinting support” Judith provided to librarians facing challenges to intellectual freedom in their communities.

For a list of the chapters honoring Judith, see here.

A sample resolution is available on our website.

If your chapter has passed a resolution and would like to be listed, please contact Jen Hammond at jhammond@ala.org.

The OIF staff would like to send a special thanks to all the individuals and organizations who have taken the time to remember and honor our mutual friend.

Tags: General Interest, Office for Intellectual Freedom by Jonathan Kelley
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The winners of the John Phillip Immroth Memorial Award and the SIRS/ProQuest State and Regional Achievement Award were announced in ALA News Tuesday.

Alanna Natanson and Kam MacPherson, both of Takoma Park, Maryland, have been awarded the John Phillip Immroth Award, which honors commitment to the ideals of intellectual freedom. Natanson founded the “Banned Books Club,” a reading group sponsored by the Takoma Park Maryland Library that is devoted to reading books that have been targeted by censors. MacPherson, the youth and children services librarian, leads the discussions. The group has already read “The Chocolate War” by Robert Cormier and Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Read more about Alanna Natanson, Kam MacPherson, and the “Banned Books Club” here.

“Celebrate the Freedom to Read,” a coalition made up of the Oregon Library Association Intellectual Freedom Committee, the Oregon School Library Association Intellectual Freedom Committee, and the Oregon ACLU has been awarded the 2009 SIRS/ProQuest State and Regional Achievement Award. The group’s campaign to increase participation in Banned Books Week state-wide has been a rousing success: in 2008, 31 of the 36 counties in Oregon were home to a variety of Banned Books Week celebrations, hosted at schools, public libraries and academic libraries. Read more about the coalition and their success here.

Attendees of ALA’s Annual Conference in July are invited to join us for a reception in honor of the award winners. The reception is on Friday, July 10th, at 12:30pm, in the Pullman Room of the Hyatt Regency McCormick.

Tags: General Interest, Intellectual Freedom Round Table, Midwinter Meeting/Annual Conference by Jen Hammond
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This is a wonderful tribute video to Judith Krug, prepared by Greg Landgraf of American Libraries.

Tags: Freedom to Read Foundation, General Interest, Office for Intellectual Freedom by Jonathan Kelley
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