OIF webcasts offer convenient, affordable professional development opportunities

CHICAGO – ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) is pleased to announce the availability of eight recorded webcasts on vital topics in intellectual freedom today.

OIF’s “Intellectual Freedom Summer School” offered a series of five online learning programs for public, academic and school librarians in August 2011. Each hour-long session was recorded and is now available for purchase and viewing:

• Hot Topics in Academic Libraries – featuring Barbara Jones, Deborah Caldwell-Stone and Mike Wright (8/2/11)
• Privacy Law, Ethics and Policy in the Library – featuring Deborah Caldwell-Stone (8/9/11)
• Hot Topics in School Libraries – featuring Angela Maycock and Frances Jacobson Harris (8/18/11)
• Collection Diversity and Self-Censorship – featuring Angela Maycock (8/24/11)
• Hot Topics in Public Libraries – featuring Angela Maycock and Kent Oliver (8/30/11)

In November 2011, OIF and the IFLA Committee for Freedom of Access to Information and Freedom of Expression (FAIFE) co-sponsored “Intellectual Freedom across the Globe,” a series of three webinars on international issues related to free speech, censorship and access to information. These hour-long sessions are also now available as recorded webcasts:

• Comics, Graphic Novels, Manga and Libraries – featuring Charles Brownstein, executive director, Comic Book Legal Defense Fund; Yasuyo Inouye, professor, Dokkyo University, Japan; and Angela Maycock (11/9/11)
• Religion, Free Expression and Libraries – featuring Paul Sturges O.B.E., professor emeritus, Loughborough University, and professor extraordinary, University of Pretoria, United Kingdom; Almuth Gastinger, senior research librarian, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway; and Deborah Caldwell-Stone (11/15/11)
• Access to Health Information and Education in the Developing World – featuring Alejandra Martinez del Prado, reference librarian, School of Medicine Library of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico; and Barbara Jones (11/22/11)

Recorded webcasts may be downloaded and viewed at any time, making them a flexible and convenient option for professional development. OIF webcasts are priced as follows:

• Cost for individual registration (all OIF webcasts): $15 for ALA members, $20 for non-members
• Group rate for two or more individuals at one location (all OIF webcasts): $35
• Series: Intellectual Freedom Summer School (5 webinars): $60 for ALA members, $80 for non-members
• Series: Intellectual Freedom Across the Globe (3 webinars): $40 for ALA members, $50 for non-members

To register, visit http://bit.ly/wHVlGP and click on the “Register” link to the right of the webcast you wish to purchase. For more information on these and other OIF online learning offerings, please visit ala.org/onlinelearning/unit/oif. Contact Angela Maycock at amaycock@ala.org or (800) 545-2433, ext. 4221 with any questions.