Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF)

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Privacy All Year Round: Choose Privacy Week, May 1 – 7, 2014

CHICAGO – Each year on May 1, librarians, library users and privacy advocates come together to observe Choose Privacy Week - an annual event promoting the importance of individual privacy rights.  But protecting and promoting privacy in libraries and in patrons’ lives shouldn't be a one-off annual event.  Libraries and librarians should provide privacy programming and resources throughout the year, whether the topic is government surveillance, data mining, identity theft, or threats to personal privacy from implementation of emerging technologies. 

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'Protecting Intellectual Freedom in Your Public Library' receives the 2014 Eli M. Oboler Award

CHICAGO — The Intellectual Freedom Round Table (IFRT) of the American Library Association (ALA) announces that "Protecting Intellectual Freedom in Your Public Library: Scenarios from the Front Lines” by June Pinnell-Stephens is the recipient of the 2014 Eli M. Oboler Memorial Award.

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ALA joins SXSW technology policy discussions

CHICAGO — The American Library Association (ALA) will join the technology policy conversations in play at the South by Southwest EDU and Interactive conferences in Austin starting this week. Privacy and the “internet of things” will be among the topics on the agenda for the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) and Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP). ALA also will join members and sister library organizations at the joint “Innovative Booth for Libraries” March 7-11, 2014.

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FTRF, ALA file amicus brief in U.S. Supreme Court case on ability to bring First Amendment challenges

CHICAGO — The Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF) and American Library Association (ALA) on Friday joined a broad range of organizations and bookstores in filing an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court (PDF) in a case potentially affecting the right to challenge laws that infringe on the First Amendment prior to their enforcement.

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ALA seeking nominations for the Lemony Snicket Prize for Noble Librarians Faced With Adversity

CHICAGO — Librarians face adversity every day, whether they are defending a book that has been challenged or fighting to provide services on a limited budget.

If you know a similarly beleaguered librarian, now is your chance to give that person some much needed recognition by nominating them for the Lemony Snicket Prize for Noble Librarians Faced With Adversity, a new American Library Association (ALA) award.

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ALA Council approves new Lemony Snicket Prize for Noble Librarians Faced with Adversity

CHICAGO — The American Library Association (ALA) Council, at a Tuesday session during the ALA Midwinter Meeting & Exhibits, approved the new Lemony Snicket Prize for Noble Librarians Faced with Adversity.

The award, which ALA intends to present at its Annual Conference in Las Vegas, recognizes a librarian who “has faced adversity with integrity and dignity intact.” It will be given annually to a deserving librarian. If a suitable candidate is not found, the award will not be presented that year.

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News Know-how digital supplement highlights the achievements of ALA’s groundbreaking news literacy project

CHICAGO — The American Library Association (ALA) has released a digital supplement focusing on the two-year News Know-how news literacy project.

The project, which was conducted in 2012 and 2013 by the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) using grant funds provided by the Open Society Foundations, involved librarians, journalists, news ethicists and students nationwide. Using libraries as “newsrooms,” high school students were taught how to engage in a nonpartisan, critical analysis of news and information.

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Freedom to Read Foundation and ALA file brief in lawsuit challenging Arizona ethnic studies ban

CHICAGO — The Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF) yesterday joined with the American Library Association and several other library, education and free speech organizations in filing an amicus brief with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Arce v. Huppenthal, a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Arizona Revised Statute § 15-112(A).

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John Phillip Immroth Memorial Award nominations deadline extended

CHICAGO - The John Phillip Immroth Memorial Award honors intellectual freedom fighters in and outside the library profession who have demonstrated remarkable personal courage in resisting censorship. The award consists of $500 and a citation. Individuals, a group of individuals or an organization are eligible for the award.

Sponsor and Deadline

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Call for nominations for the Gerald Hodges IF Chapter Relations Award

CHICAGO — The Gerald Hodges Intellectual Freedom Chapter Relations Award recognizes an intellectual freedom focused organization that has developed a strong multi-year, ongoing program or a single, one-year project that exemplifies support for intellectual freedom, patron confidentiality and anti-censorship efforts. The award consists of $1,000 and a citation.

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