Since October, our office has taken calls from 52 librarians seeking censorship support. 39 of those cases involve schools.

OIF hosts quarterly web meetings with state IFC chairs from ALA Chapters and AASL Affiliates. These meetings are an opportunity for state IFC chairs to “meet” each other and to discuss state, local, and national intellectual freedom issues; projects & programs OIF and various chapter IFCs are working on; and how ALA can provide assistance and communication to your groups.

Because so many of the requests for support are regarding challenges in the schools, we are squeezing in an extra meeting at a different time to before our next quarter meeting (2/23/15).  Hopefully, this will be more accessible to school librarians. This meeting will be specifically about School Librarians and Intellectual Freedom. Theirs is a vital perspective to hear.

WEDNESDAY JANUARY 21, 3:30pm CST (4:30pm EST, 1:30pm PST, 2:30 MST)

All State IFC Chairs and/or Representatives are welcome to attend. We’ve usually had plenty of virtual meeting room space (max 100) so if you know of a school librarian interested in IF issues or has struggled with a challenge, please invite them. I really want to strengthen the connection between AASL and OIF. Please contact me if you’re interested in participating. I will email you more details about how to access the web meeting online. kpekoll@ala.org

Kristin