Prioritizing Intellectual Freedom & Privacy: Your Itinerary for ALA Annual 2023

Whether you’re a seasoned advocate or new to ALA Annual, we encourage you to prioritize the many events focusing on intellectual freedom and library privacy. In an era marked by rising censorship and attempts to limit intellectual freedom, it’s more crucial than ever for library workers to champion these fundamental principles of a healthy democracy.

A fisheye security camera shown in front of a blurred U.S. flag

Protecting health privacy in the age of digital surveillance

With the Supreme Court apparently set to overturn Roe v. Wade, patrons may turn to libraries for help seeking information about reproductive health options in private. The ethics of our profession mandate that we do so. We can help patrons by teaching them how to protect their digital privacy on their own devices and ensuring our public computers employ the strongest, most up-to-date protections.

white surveillance camera

IFC Forms Working Group to Respond to Facial Recognition Technology

By: IFC Chair Julia Warga. The ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee formed the Facial Recognition Working Group in order to better understand the issues relating to this evolving technology and how it would impact the privacy of library users. We believe the work is urgent given that there are libraries and educational institutions who are beginning to adopt facial recognition software as a means of identifying authorized users and students.

NY Municipal Archives.

An Interview With Snowden Becker. “Keeping the Pieces:” Police Work and Documentation

Bodycams, First Amendment, Live PD, law and order: police work has been in the news a lot lately, and I have been thinking about how the police order, organize, and control all of that information when literal life and freedom are on the line. I sat down with Snowden Becker, formerly of UCLA, and a researcher into police archives and work to talk about these topics and intellectual freedom.

Freedom of Information Act

Actions Shutting Down Information and Freedom – Interior’s Attack on FOIA

The Freedom of Information Act, an invaluable tool for democracy, is under attack. New Interior Department regulations are targeting those who use it the most–journalists, academics, researchers and more. Furthermore, the shutdown is compounding the issue and allowing the possibly-illegal and definitely-unethical change to happen unnoticed.