Intellectual Freedom

Join the Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF) for “Emerging Issues in Intellectual Freedom,” a free webinar on Thursday, May 2, 2019 at 11 a.m. PST/1 p.m. CST/2 p.m. EST.

Twice a year, FTRF trustees and liaisons meet to discuss emerging intellectual freedom topics in our libraries, schools and government offices. Often these topics overlap with issues of privacy, censorship and the First Amendment.

Join members of the FTRF Developing Issues Committee Barbara Stripling and Ray James for an overview of newsworthy intellectual freedom topics, including:

Colson Whitehead, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Underground Railroad, will be the keynote speaker for the Freedom to Read Foundation’s 50th anniversary celebration in Washington, D.C. on June 22, 2019. Tickets for this commemorative celebration are now available.

Are you interested in Intellectual Freedom? Would you like to attend the American Library Association’s (ALA) Annual Conference in June and learn how the Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF) and other groups in ALA are working to protect access to information? Applications are now open for the 2019 Gordon M. Conable Conference Scholarship, sponsored by FTRF. The Scholarship provides funding for an LIS student or recent graduate to attend the ALA’s Annual Conference June 20-25 in Washington, D.C.

ALA Council adopted revisions to three Library Bill of Rights interpretations proposed by the Intellectual Freedom Committee (IFC) at the Midwinter Meeting in Seattle. On January 29, Council approved the proposed changes to “Challenged Resources,” “Prisoners’ Right to Read” and “Meeting Rooms.”