RLA-CE is excited to announce that Barbara Jones, ALA’s Director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom will be our End of Year speaker this year. The event is on Thursday, May 26th, from 9:30-noon at the Des Plaines campus of Oakton Community College.
Ms. Jones will speak about Intellectual Freedom in hard times. In the current economy many libraries are struggling to simply survive. Have they put Intellectual Freedom on the back burner as an issue? How are libraries dealing with situations where they are struggling to stave off drastic budget cuts while also taking the oftentimes unpopular stance in protection of a particular title/program/decision? She’ll also touch on the meaning of intellectual advocacy in the digital age.
Barbara Jones is the Director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association in Chicago. She holds a Ph.D. in U.S. History, with a specialty in legal history, from the University of Minnesota. She holds an MLS from Columbia University in New York. She spent most of her library career in academic libraries, the latest being as University Librarian at Wesleyan University in Connecticut from 2003-2009. Her professional career has been devoted to intellectual freedom. She served on several state IF committees and on ALA committees as well, such as the Intellectual Freedom Committee. She also served on the international FAIFE Committee (Free Access to Information and Freedom of Expression) for IFLA, and in that capacity has conducted “train the trainer” workshops in Nigeria, South Africa, Croatia, Serbia, Japan, the Philippines, Mexico, Ecuador, Brazil, and Costa Rica.
We’re expecting a big crowd, so please register early to secure your spot
When: Thursday, May 26th at 9:30am
Where: Oakton Community College (map and directions)
Cost: Free – sponsored by Gale
Registration: Online registration
Any questions? Please contact us!
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