Citing an apparent “lack of enthusiastic support for intellectual freedom principles not representative of the membership,” the six members of the Intellectual Freedom Committee of the New Hampshire Library Association submitted their resignations April 10.
In a letter to the NHLA executive board, the committee said the reasons for the action include the association’s failure to join as a plaintiff in one of the Children’s Internet Protection Act lawsuits filed by the American Library Association and the American Civil Liberties Union in spite of a poll that supported the move, the altering of the IFC’s mission statement to remove a reference specifying cooperation with those two groups, and inadequate support of the state ACLU in a filtering case against the Nashua Public Library.
“We decided that a mass resignation would effectively make a major statement to the executive board as well as to the membership at large,” said former committee chair Elizabeth Heath.
“The executive board regrets that the members of the IFC felt the need to resign,” NHLA President Theresa Paré said in an April 25 letter to members accepting the resignations. “Intellectual freedom is a cornerstone for our profession and not one taken lightly by any member of the board.”
Posted April 30, 2001.