OIF Blog

We have extended the deadline for nominees for the 2009 Intellectual Freedom Round Table Awards until January 9th! The awards will be presented at the 2009 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, IL.

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, a group of individuals or an organization are eligible for the award.

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.

Examples might include a statewide public relations initiative to promote awareness of intellectual freedom, programmatic assistance to meet a broad-based censorship challenge, coalition building or education outreach efforts, or effective reorganization or management of an intellectual freedom committee.

State libraries or library associations, educational media associations or programs, legal defense funds, intellectual freedom committees or coalitions and related parties are eligible for nomination by themselves or others.

Nomination forms are available here and here.

Nominations and supporting evidence should be sent to:

Jen Hammond, IFRT Staff Liaison, ALA, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. E-mail: jhammond@ala.org. Fax: 312-280-4227.

Tags: Intellectual Freedom Round Table by Jen Hammond
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Note: This is being posted as a courtesy to the Public Library Association. The PLA Gordon M. Conable Award is NOT to be confused with the Freedom to Read Foundation’s Gordon Conable Conference Scholarship, which provides funding for a library school student or new professional to attend an Annual Conference, with a focus on intellectual freedom programs and meetings. The application process for the 2009 FTRF Conable Scholarship will open in early 2009 – stay tuned!

Nominees are being sought for the PLA Gordon M. Conable Award. The Conable Award honors a public library staff member, a library trustee, or a public library that has demonstrated a commitment to intellectual freedom and the Library Bill of Rights. This award is sponsored by LSSI.

The recipient of the Gordon M. Conable Award must have demonstrated a commitment to intellectual freedom and the Library Bill of Rights in various ways, including, but not limited to, the following: developed and promoted collections that include diverse points of view; provided programs that promote community dialog on controversial issues; created and nurtured an organizational climate that fosters an understanding of the Library Bill of Rights amongst the library staff, library board, and elected and appointed officials; initiated activities at the local, state, or national level that promote, support, or defend intellectual freedom, the Library Bill of Rights, or the First Amendment; guaranteed open access to library materials and services for children and young adults; guaranteed open access to electronic information; defended library materials, programs, or services when confronted with a censorship challenge.

The award consists of a $1,500 check and a commemorative plaque that will be presented at the ALA Annual Conference.
For information about the award, please go to http://www.pla.org/ala/mgrps/divs/pla/plaawards/gordonmconableaward/index.cfm

To submit a nomination for this award, please visit PLA’s Online Awards Application. Questions? Contact Sara Dallas at sdallas@sals.edu or 518-584-7300 ext 205.

Tags: General Interest by Jonathan Kelley
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With the end of the year approaching, the Office for Intellectual Freedom will be compiling our yearly list of most frequently challenged books. We collect information for our challenge database from newspapers and reports submitted by individuals and, while we know that many challenges are never reported, we strive to be as comprehensive as possible in our records. We would greatly appreciate if you could send us any information on challenges in your library or school from 2008.

Challenges reported to ALA by individuals are kept confidential. When requests come from the media or others regarding the details of challenges to particular materials, we report only the state, type of institution and reason for the challenge. (Check out the OIF site for more about what constitutes a challenge or ban and ALA’s role in tracking challenges.)

To report a challenge, you may fill out the online challenge database form, or email the information to Angela Maycock at amaycock@ala.org or call (800) 545-2433 x4221. To ensure that we don’t double count a challenge, we will cross-check your report with existing entries in the database.

If you have any questions at all, please be sure to contact us. Many thanks!

Click here or the image above for the list of books banned or challenged in 2007-2008 (pdf).

Tags: Office for Intellectual Freedom by Angela Maycock
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