MLA Intellectual Freedom Committee

Geraldine School Challenge

2012-02-09T17:34:00.000-07:00

BJ shared this news:

A parent at the Geraldine school district challenged The Absolutely True Diary of an Indian as an appropriate book for the classroom (sex and language). The hearing before the school board occurred last night and according to the teacher who had to defend the book, the board voted to “take no action on the book, as they were led to the reality that as a policy approved part of the curriculum, they indeed needed to take no action [Emphasis added].” Amy reported the evening as having “some bumps and bruises.” A loud shout out for Amy! YEA! Another Montana victory for Intellectual Freedom.

Amy also reported being overwhelmed by the support she received and amazed that so many people would rally around an unknown person to help. I am sure she will pass along the word to others that there is a support system if they find themselves in this situation. By the way, it was the day before the hearing (Tuesday) before I heard about the situation and sent her an e-mail, after which she called me at home and we strategized. This was a tight time span and I was home sick on Wednesday (night of the hearing), so did not communicate with anyone (even my husband…I just growled and whined) and I just learned the outcome. So, now you know about the challenge and the outcome and we can all celebrate!

Banned Books Week Roadshow Visits the Hi-line

2011-10-04T15:34:00.003-06:00

On Monday at Sheridan County Library in Plentywood I helped the librarian pull books for a BBW display and we had a small but interested group attend a “Too Dangerous for the Big Sky?” public presentation that evening. On Tuesday we had a “Dangerous” training for library staff and board at Daniels County Library in Scobey. Neither of these neighboring libraries has experienced censorship attempts during the tenure of the librarians who work there now. We had good discussions that extended into the realm of Internet censorship. Incidentally, Sheridan County was the "red corner" of Montana at one time.

Later in the week I visited two libraries in Blaine County. Staff members at the Harlem Public Library were busy gathering books from the challenged lists for display when I walked in the door – yea!!! And on Thursday I was thrilled to find this very cool BBW display at the Blaine County Library in Chinook:

Caution: Dangerous Books!

One of the librarians said they were pretty surprised to realize that many of the books on the display bear “staff picks” stickers.

The best books are the most dangerous, apparently.

It's the Banned Books Week Roadshow!

2011-09-16T05:36:00.000-06:00

September 24 - October 1, 2011

MLA Intellectual Freedom Committee members and partners will be busy during Banned Books Week offering presentations for students, public or staff at locations across Montana. If you're interested, you call the host library for more information about these events:

Billings: Sept 21, 23 and 28 Lockwood Schools

Helena: Sept 26 – Lewis & Clark Library

Great Falls: Sept 26 – Montana State University Great Falls

Plentywood: Sept 26 - Sheridan County Library

Scobey: Sept. 27 - Daniels County Library

Bozeman: Sept. 27 – Montana State University Renne Library

Butte: Sept. 27 - Montana Tech Library

Kalispell: Sept 28 – Glacier High School

Bozeman: October 3 – MSU Young Adult Lit class

Bozeman: October 4 - MSU Childrens Lit class

June 2011 Report

2011-06-27T09:37:00.000-06:00

Members of the Intellectual Freedom Committee presented the program Privacy - Roadblock on the Information Highway? at the MLA/MPLA Conference in Billings in April. Presenters were BJ McCracken, Lauren McMullan, Tamara Miller, and Sheila Bonnand. Lauren McMullen introduced the winner of the 2011 Pat Williams Intellectual Freedom award at the awards banquet.

Because of the popularity of the banned books poster, a second printing was done in May. Again, IFC shared the costs with ACLU of Montana.

The Intellectual Freedom Committee roster for 2011-2012 is:

Term ends 6/30/2012
Samantha Schmechl Hines, chair-elect - University of Montana
BJ McCracken, chair - Great Falls High School Library
William Talbott - Sheridan Public Library

Term ends 6/30/2013
Sheila Bonnand - Montana State University
Johanna Freivalds - Lockwood Middle School
Lisa Sukut - Livingston Park County Library

Term ends 6/30/2014
Tamara Miller - Montana State University
Holly Harper - Whitehall Schools, Jefferson County Library Board
Bobbi Otte - Rocky Mountain College

Alternate: Judy Hart – Lewis & Clark Public Library

Sue Jackson - Montana State Library - ex-officio
Lauren McMullen – ex-officio as ‘owner’ of the blog and wiki

MLA Intellectual Freedom Committee Report April 2011

2011-04-15T15:02:00.001-06:00

The IF Committee will be busy during the MLA/MPLA conference. IFC members Sheila Bonnand, Lauren McMullen, B. J. McCracken, and Tamara Miller will be presenting a program: Privacy-Roadblock on the Information Highway? A program description follows:

Privacy and confidentiality have long been hallmarks of librarianship. In this age of online access and social media, do patrons still care? Do librarians? Not only do members of the Intellectual Freedom Committee think that privacy is still important, they think that librarians should help patrons become more aware of threats to their privacy and learn about ways that they can protect their identities. This workshop will cover privacy issues affecting libraries and highlight new privacy issues that are the product of increased technology use. Participants will have the opportunity to discuss privacy issues of importance to their libraries, whether academic, public, school or special.

The committee will also be holding a meeting during the conference. The Committee identified Nike Whearty as the winner of the 2011 Pat Williams Intellectual Freedom award and a committee member will introduce Niki during the awards ceremony.

Privacy program at MLA

2011-04-14T17:27:00.002-06:00

The slides for the MLA program, Privacy: Roadblock on the Information Superhighway? can be found on the MLA conference website under 'handouts' or you can go directly to http://www.mpla.us/documents/handouts/2011/bonnand.pdf. Enjoy!

MLA Conference Activities

2011-04-05T18:32:00.001-06:00

Intellectual Freedom Committee members and friends have several events to attend at this week's MLA/MPLA Conference in Billings:

Lauren is introducing a session on "True Stories of Censorship Battles in American Libraries" - that's at 8:30am on Thursday, April 7
Niki Whearty will be the recipient of the 2011 Pat Williams Intellectual Freedom Award
Intellectual Freedom Committee meeting is also on Thursday at 3:45pm, check on the location when you get your registration package.
Sheila, BJ, Tamara and Lauren are presenting "Privacy: Roadblock on the Information Superhighway" at the on Friday, April 8 at 2:30pm - it will be a great session and we hope you can attend!

It's a Book challenge update

2011-03-24T15:57:00.001-06:00

According to Samantha Pierson, the library's review committee chose to retain the title.

"It's a Book" Challenge

2011-02-15T18:50:00.000-07:00

When I visited the Lincoln County Library at Libby last month Sami showed me a Request for Reconsideration Form that had been submitted on this book. The complaint was received while Library Director Sami Pierson had been in Helena for MLA lobbying. She told me that she believed if she had she been there she could have explained the policy and nipped the challenge in the bud, and that a personal meeting with the patron would alleviate the patron's concern. Today she reported to the wired listserve that the library policy withstood the challenge. The patron's concern was that the word "jackass" appeared in the book.

The Lincoln County Libraries' intellectual freedom policy has seen a lot of action in the past few years and it's still standing - good job! You can learn more about "It's a Book" here: http://lanesmithbooks.com/Home.html

Helena challenge - Absolutely True Diary retained

2011-02-03T10:19:00.000-07:00

Full story: http://helenair.com/news/article_02cc1a9a-2f66-11e0-a93b-001cc4c03286.html

January 2011 Quarterly Report

2011-01-28T12:47:00.000-07:00

Written and submitted to the MLA Board by Sheila:

On November 18, IFC members Sheila Bonnand, Lisa Sukut, and Lauren McMullen presented “Intellectual Freedom 101” to Livingston School District librarians, faculty members, administrators and School Board members at Park High School Library. The program covered foundations of intellectual freedom and supporting documents, a history of censorship/censorship in Montana, and how to be prepared for censorship challenges. The session ended with small groups doing table talks with censorship scenarios and case studies.

The IF Committee has a committee meeting scheduled during the MLA/MPLA conference. The IF Committee’s proposal for a program at the 2011 MLA/MPLA conference in Billings has also been accepted. Privacy-Roadblock on the Information Highway? will be presented by IFC members Sheila Bonnand, Lauren McMullen, B. J. McCracken, and Tamara Miller. Below is the program description:

Privacy and confidentiality have long been hallmarks of librarianship. In this age of online access and social media, do patrons still care? Do librarians? Not only do members of the Intellectual Freedom Committee think that privacy is still important, they think that librarians should help patrons become more aware of threats to their privacy and learn about ways that they can protect their identities. This workshop will cover privacy issues affecting libraries and highlight new privacy issues that are the product of increased technology use. Participants will have the opportunity to discuss privacy issues of importance to their libraries, whether academic, public, school or special.

Currently, the IF Committee is working to identify prospects for the 2011 Intellectual Freedom award.

Committee news can be found on the IF Committee’s blog at http://mlaif.blogspot.com/ and its business can be followed on its wiki at http://mlaif.pbworks.com/.

Here's how it went

2010-12-11T07:15:00.000-07:00

...according to the Helena Independent Record and KFBB.

Public Hearing Scheduled for Alexie Book

2010-12-02T06:15:00.000-07:00

There's a public hearing on the reconsideration request of "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian" on Thursday, December 2 at 4:00pm at the Front Street Learning Center in Helena. You can read more in this article from the Helena Independent Record. You might also like to take a look at this editorial that appeared in the IR. I hope you can attend if you're in town!

MLA Intellectual Freedom Committee Has Busy Season

2010-11-22T14:35:00.004-07:00

Fall was a busy season for MLA Intellectual Freedom Committee members, starting with Banned Books Week September 25 - October 2.

IFC member BJ McCracken was invited to speak at the Great Falls Public Library Banned Book Week forum on what qualifies a work as having literary merit. They used Fool’s Crow as a spring board into the discussion. BJ was joined on the panel by GFPL Director Kathy Mora and a home school parent and student.

BJ also participated on a panel at University of Great Falls on school selection policies. Other members of the panel included an elementary school librarian and former IFC member-for-life Jim Heckel. Both of the events were attended by the public.

Lisa Sukut, IFC member and Teen Services Librarian at Livingston Park County Public Library joined Suzanne Goodman at Park High School to give a presentation to students about Banned Books Week. Twenty six students attended.

Lockwood Middle School Librarian and IFC member Johanna Freivalds told us about activities in her school:

“I visited with the scheduled classes in the library during the week preceding and week of BBW. At the middle school level we talk about reading as our right but also as our responsibility.

• It's the library's job is to provide all different kinds of materials to use, but each person needs to follow their own family's rules for use. I use the TV analogy...we all know families that have rules about what programs their family members are allowed to watch or not watch...it is the same with library materials (your parents can tell you what they want you to read--but can't make those choices for your friends). Different families, different rules

• The main thing that we want the students to do is to read in their interest areas and sprinkle in some unfamiliar stuff as well from time to time.

I was pleasantly surprised at how many students/staff noticed ‘Lockwood School’ featured on the ‘Too Dangerous for the Big Sky’ poster. These observations started some wonderful conversations.”

Amy Cannata of ACLU Montana took the “Too Dangerous for the Big Sky?” poster session on the road during Banned Books Week, visiting MSU Billings Library, Rocky Mountain College Paul M. Adams Library (where she was joined by IFC chair Sheila Bonnand) and Lewis & Clark Library. The Dangerous poster is a cooperative project between the MLA Intellectual Freedom Committee and ACLU-MT.

At the MLA Chico Retreat on October 20, Sheila and Lauren McMullen presented an update on IFC membership, activities and resources.

On November 18 Sheila, Lisa, and Lauren presented “Intellectual Freedom 101” to Livingston School District librarians, faculty members, administrators and School Board members at Park High School Library. The program covered foundations of intellectual freedom and supporting documents, a history of censorship/censorship in Montana, and how to be prepared for censorship challenges. We wound up the session in small groups doing table talks with censorship scenarios and case studies.

At Park High School Library - Discussing real-life censorship scenarios in Montana schools.

These are just some of the many ways the Intellectual Freedom Committee helps Montana libraries. If you’d like to learn more about the committee or its activities, check out our wiki: http://mlaif.pbworks.com/ and our blog: http://mlaif.blogspot.com/.

Challenge at Helena High School

2010-11-05T08:50:00.000-06:00

HHS librarian Niki Whearty informs us of a curriculum materials challenge that is currently in process. The book is Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. The novel is one of three different novels that can be taught for sophomores as part of Indian Education for All (IEFA). According to policy, parents, teachers and students can request alternative assignments and in this case the student completed an alternative reading assignment. However, the parent thinks the Alexie book should be removed from the curriculum and possibly from library shelves as well. A request for reconsideration form has been filed. The district has hired retired district library coordinator Suzi Watne as a facilitator for the challenge process. Suzi had lots of experience with challenges under her watch, including two incidents in elementary school libraries (World War II and Horse) and a curriculum challenge to Fool’s Crow – which happens to be another IEFA selection. We'll keep you posted.....

Banned books video featuring author Kenneth Davis

2010-09-29T09:28:00.002-06:00

Listen to Kenneth Davis, author of Don't Know Much About History, talk about book banning at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgYQGnWCYzU

It's Banned Books Week!

2010-09-28T11:42:00.002-06:00

Check out the ALA video of 2009's most challenged books at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxJBFMp-2sI

IFRT Monthly Video Series: Carolyn Caywood on Privacy and Libraries

2010-09-01T10:11:00.000-06:00

ALA's Intellectual Freedom Round Table has started a monthly series of videos to promote intellectual freedom in libraries. This month's is on privacy. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9HLuBksOYE

New IF Committee members

2010-07-14T11:41:00.002-06:00

Three new IF Committee members have been appointed:

Lisa Sukut from Livingston Park County Library - Term ends 6/30/2013

Tamara Miller from Montana State University - Term ends 6/30/2011

Holly Harper from Whitehall Schools - Term ends 6/30/2011

Bobbi Otte from Rocky Mountain College will serve as an alternate

Member Recruitment

2010-06-16T09:06:00.002-06:00

We're getting ready to submit our nominations to the MLA president to fill open committee seats for the coming year which begins on July 1st. Stay tuned for an announcement of the new member roster - coming soon.

Choose Privacy Week

2010-05-03T19:26:00.002-06:00

Here's the Choose Privacy Week Video from ALA OIF (around 20 minutes)

For further information and resources about Choose Privacy Week check out: www.privacyrevolution.org

Montana Banned Books Poster

2010-04-16T15:09:00.005-06:00

Thanks to Sheila (MLA IFC) and Amy (of MT ACLU) for their work on the wonderful MT banned books poster. Many librarians picked up one of these from the ACLU booth at last week's MLA conference. If you didn't get one for your library, contact Sheila to see if she can get one to you.

This year Banned Books Week is September 25 - October 2. It's never too early to start planning your celebration!

ttyl series by Lauren Myracle first on ALA's 2009 Top Ten list of most frequently challenged books

2010-04-14T12:04:00.002-06:00

ALA announced its top 10 challenged books list for 2009. See http://www.ala.org/ala/newspresscenter/news/pressreleases2010/april2010/mostchallenged2009_oif.cfm for details.

Intellectual Freedom Award

2010-01-12T14:49:00.002-07:00

The awards committee of MLA is seeking nominations for the awards to be presented at the upcoming MLA conference. Would you like to nominate a deserving Montana librarian for the Pat Williams Intellectual Freedom Award? Three letters are required to qualify a nomination: one letter of nomination and two letters of support. The nomination materials are due January 25 to Molly Ledermann.

During the past year Julie Hainline did a good job standing up to a pile of challenges at Missoula Public Schools. Nancy Silliman also led an effective response to a high profile censorship attempt at Kohrs Memorial Library. Please let me know if you would be interested in helping with a nomination - and I'll help too.

Challenging Times in Libby

2009-12-16T08:59:00.004-07:00

The Lincoln County Libraries are having an opportunity to see how well their Intellectual Freedom policies hold up in the face of two challenges that came up last month. The first incident was a request to label or rate a movie - the PBS Series "I, Claudius". The second incident is a statement of concern from a patron about a graphic novel "Sundome #1" by Kazuto Okada. I talked with Sami yesterday; she says their policies are solid and management of these situations is going well. The library's policies are available on their website: http://www.lincolncountylibraries.com/policies.html

The library policies do not allow for labeling or rating of library materials as in the case of the videorecording "I, Claudius" so that one might be nipped in the bud. It is not known whether the complainant will carry the complaint to the level of challenging the presence of the material in the library.

As for "Sundome", a reconsideration committee (2 staff members, 2 board members, 2 people from the community college and a person-at-large from the community) is currently in the process of reviewing and submitting written comments by December 22, with a decision on the request to follow.

I'll let you know if/when I find out how it all turns out.

Recent Activities

2009-11-02T09:21:00.002-07:00

Our panel discussion at the MEA-MFT Educators’ Conference on censorship attempts in Montana schools was very interesting and well received. Thanks to our wonderful panelists Ginny Waples, Johanna Freivalds, BJ McCracken, and Julie Hainline, who had valuable experience to share from elementary, middle, high school, and system-wide perspectives. Many audience questions were addressed and panelists enjoyed lively interaction. The time went fast.

Here are some of the new things I’ve added to my tips list for managing censorship challenges:

"Affected persons” in challenge situations also include the librarians! - this seems like a no-brainer, but often the focus is entirely directed upon the other stakeholders.
The library’s automated circulation system can be used to flag items in support of a parent’s restriction(s).
Make sure there is a conversation early in the process – Ginny brought a graphic flow chart of Billings Public Schools “Challenges to Education Materials Procedures” that illustrates this nicely. I’ll try to get a copy to put up on the wiki.
Johanna pointed out that policies are often fuzzy regarding teachers’ classroom collections. Some recent Montana challenges have related to classroom collections.
Collection analysis should be based upon rationales for acquisition of all items. A rationale is a mental exercise that provides the underlying reason for why an item belongs in the collection. Creating a rationale during the acquisitions process allows you to present/evaluate a material in an un-emotionally challenging time.

I’ll try to get BJ’s powerpoint up on the wiki soon – she has great suggestions on how to be proactive about academic/intellectual freedom, making sure everyone is on the same page and heading off censorship attempts while they are at the beginning stages of “concern.” And we all remembered that of course a policy is only as effective as it is followed and kept current.

In other IF news, Susie McIntyre presented a workshop at Chico on Censorship and Selection- a topic that underlies many conversations about intellectual freedom in the library. I didn’t make it to Chico this year but would really like to hear about Susie’s session if any of you were able to attend.

At its October meeting, the MLA Board adopted a resolution on the 2009 re-authorization of the Patriot Act (the resolution is posted under pages and files on the wiki). Also, there have been some discussions on Wired from the Alberton School librarian who is dealing with a parent’s concern about a graphic novel titled “Life Sucks”. No word yet about whether this concern is going anywhere.

MEA-MFT Sectional on Challenges

2009-10-12T21:37:00.002-06:00

We're getting ready for our panel discussion at the Educators' Conference on "Censorship Challenges in Montana Public Schools". It's on Friday, October 16 at noon in room #213 of Skyview High School. Our illustrious panel includes Ginny Waples, Johanna Freivalds, BJ McCracken, and Julie Hainline. We hope to see you there!

Intellectual Freedom session at Wibaux Public Library

2009-09-01T16:23:00.004-06:00

I presented the session "Intellectual Freedom in Montana Libraries: Are you up to the challenges?" as part of a day-long training for eastern Montana librarians at the Wibaux Public Library on Saturday. It was the same session that I did at the Pathfinder Federation Meeting this spring. Since we were a smaller group, everyone got to do three scenarios. This group was pretty fierce about defending access - they didn't show any ambivalence or fear of challenges.

Workshop participants discuss free access scenarios. Library patrons in eastern Montana are lucky to have these folks running their libraries!

Privacy and GoogleBooks

2009-09-01T10:46:00.003-06:00

Good Gear Guide featured an article Monday on the ALA's concern over user privacy when accessing Google books-- Privacy missing from Google Books settlement The article includes links to the Google Books Settlement and Privacy FAQ.

Slashdot.org then follows up with a thread on the subject, which has some useful comments, though it mostly highlights how

how poor a job we have done in educating the public about the issue;
how we have failed to correct public impressions of our data retention, even among library workers;
how those few that actually care about the issue have the same concerns about us as Google; and
how few people actually read the article, preferring instead to argue about the fate of libraries in the digital world.

How can we raise public awareness of the issue? Additionally, how can we address the perception that we are contributing to the issue? I must admit that the last time I thought about patron record retention (prior to joining the MSC), I accepted the "we're working on it" answer I was given. I need to ask again, so that I will understand what is happening.

Book challenges map

2009-08-27T08:48:00.000-06:00

Check out the book challenges map: http://www.oif.ala.org/oif/?=528

Annual Report

2009-07-29T06:33:00.003-06:00

Here's the report that was submitted for the MLA Board Retreat next week in Pablo:

MLA Intellectual Freedom Committee
2009 Annual Report

Committee members Lauren and Sheila attended intellectual freedom sessions at the July 2008 ALA Conference in Anaheim, California.

During the autumn months, a challenge to “The Joy of Gay Sex” at the Lewis & Clark Library (Helena) became public. Committee members attended and commented in support of retaining the book at Library Board meetings. Written comments were also submitted by IFC members. The challenge was resolved by a decision to retain the book with unrestricted access in the library collection.

MLA’s Lawyer for Libraries Brian Close provided an update at the Chico Retreat about a recent court ruling regarding use of library meeting rooms for religious activities.

Big Sky High School (Missoula) was the scene of several challenges to curriculum and library materials in the early months of 2009. IFC members assisted the Challenged Educational Resources Committee by providing supporting resources on Catcher in the Rye and Dead Folks. Both items were retained in the curriculum/library.

Around the same time, the Kohrs Memorial Library (Deer Lodge) managed a challenge to a holocaust memoir For Those I Loved. IFC members provided assistance to the Library Director with guidance and supporting materials. In April, the challenge was resolved with a decision to retain the book.

Two intellectual freedom-related programs were presented at MLA Conference 2009. Guest speakers Kembrew McLeod and Jeremy Smith presented “Freedom of Expression”- a program dealing with questions of copyright, intellectual property, and free expression. In “Up to the Challenges” a panel of school, public, and academic librarians presented information and answered questions about intellectual freedom in Montana libraries.

IFC members submitted nomination materials for the 2009 Pat Williams Intellectual Freedom Award and committee chairperson Lauren McMullen presented the award to the director, board and staff of the Lewis & Clark Library during the Awards Luncheon at the conference.

In partnership with the ACLU, IFC members are working on a Banned Books poster for distribution to Montana libraries.

In partnership with the MLA School Library Media Division, the IFC has submitted a program proposal for the 2009 MEA-MFT educator’s conference – a panel of elementary, middle, and high school librarians will discuss intellectual freedom challenges in Montana schools.

Bill Talbot takes over as IFC chair for the coming year and there are other upcoming changes in the committee membership. The current membership roster is available on the committee wiki: http://mlaif.pbworks.com/Committee+Members and this report, along with other IFC news, can be found on the blog: http://mlaif.blogspot.com/ .

Thanks for the opportunity to serve as chair of this committee for the past two years.

Lauren McMullen

What happened to May?

2009-06-05T09:10:00.003-06:00

May sure went fast - spring is always such a busy time, with all the things one is doing indoors and out. I fell a little behind on my blogging so there is quite a bit of news:

I did a workshop on book challenges at Pathfinder Federation meeting early last month. It was held at Choteau County Library (Fort Benton) and there were around 30 librarians and trustees in attendance. I presented some foundation material on the First Amendment, the role of libraries, and resources on policies & procedures. We discussed a few actual challenges and spent quite a bit of time with scenarios. Many of the scenarios dealt with situations in the library where free access is hindered in small ways that sometimes go unnoticed. As an example, I was able to show a book I recently checked out of a library - "And Tango Makes Three" - that had a parental warning lablel. It was interesting to observe that there were some differences in understanding and acceptance of Intellectual Freedom principles shown by the librarians from the different communities. Nevertheless, the session evaluations indicated that everyone was going to review their policies when they returned to their libraries.

Pathfinder Fed librarians and trustees discussing library scenarios relating to free access. Each small group worked with a different scenario. They reported on their solution and it was open to discussion by the whole room. There was some lively discussion!

Also in May, I submitted an IFC budget request for FY2009-10 that is exactly the same as this year's budget. We didn't spend much of the budget this year. I wasn't sure what expenses to anticipate, but I think this gives Bill a little something to work with - I'll put a copy of the budget on the wiki.

The IFC and School Library Media division submitted a program proposal for the MEA-MFT Educator's Conference (October, Billings) entitled: "Censorship Challenges in Montana Public Schools". It's a panel discussion with librarians representing elementary, middle, and high schools. Johanna and BJ have agreed to be panelists and Suzi Watne said she would find us an elementary school librarian with censorship challenge experience.

Bill will take over as IFC chair pretty soon. You may have heard that we might be losing a couple of our members this year. Lois is leaving the state, and Jim H is retiring. Jim has been an ex-0fficio member-for-life, so if he continues his membership in MLA after retirement he can keep that position if he wants. I'll contact Bill to clarify the membership as we make this change.

At our MLA meeting we discussed doing a BBW poster, and I'll be contacting everyone by email soon to see if we want to get started on that. Incidentally, I spoke with a school librarian recently who asked that the term "Banned Books" be used less prominently on the promotional materials. She claimed that it gave the wrong impression to students -- that they believed the books were not available and didn't ask what it really meant! She suggested featuring terms like "Challenged books" or "Freedom to Read"and that the BBW logo/term be less prominent on the poster, like at the bottom.

I hope everyone is having a pleasant season.

MLA Conference

2009-04-28T10:07:00.002-06:00

Several members and guests attended our meeting at MLA Conference on Friday afternoon. We didn't have a meeting agenda and we didn't keep minutes but here's a summary of what we talked about:

Lauren showed the information that is available on the blog and wiki
We discussed upcoming membership changes - Bill will take over as Chair in July. Lauren will leave the committee at the end of her term and BJ will become a new member.
Sheila suggested that we create a Banned Books Week poster featuring Montana banned books, similar to one that was exhibited at the ACLU vendor booth. This might be in partnership with ACLU. Planning for this project will take place by email and on the blog & wiki.
Incoming Chair Bill T wants us to consider other possible activities & programs for the coming year. We do book challenge support and information, but there are other proactive things we can do. Please share your ideas by email or on the blog & wiki.

Is that everything? If I forgot anything, please add it in a post or comment.

Here's a photo of the folks at our meeting:

The Freedom of Expression program by Kembrew McLeod and Jeremy Smith was very good. I would like to read the book or see the film again. I hope we'll get more copies of both in Montana libraries so that our librarians can check them out and become more aware of the issues surrounding copyright and free expression.

Our panel discussion "Up to the Challenges: Intellectual Freedom in Montana Libraries" was well-received, although attendance was not as large as anticipated. The session was scheduled during the last time slot of the conference - before lunch on Saturday morning. In the future, I would recommend scheduling your workshop earlier in the conference if you want to reach a greater number of people.

Overall the conference was great and I'm sorry we didn't get a chance to see those of you who couldn't make it.

See You at Conference

2009-04-20T11:22:00.002-06:00

I hope you can make our meeting on Friday from 4:30 - 5:30pm. The location will be announced in the conference program. At the meeting, we'll review our activities and accomplishments for this year, discuss upcoming membership changes, and brainstorm what we might want to do next year. See you there!

April 2009 Report

2009-04-20T11:19:00.002-06:00

IFC members are facilitating and/or participating in two MLA conference sessions: Freedom of Expression – a program on intellectual freedom and copyright with guest presenters Kembrew McLeod and Jeremy Smith; and Up to the Challenges – a panel discussion on intellectual freedom in Montana libraries.

The committee also submitted nomination materials for Judy Hart and the Lewis & Clark Board of Trustees to receive the Pat Williams Intellectual Freedom Award. Judy and the Board had multiple nominations and were selected to receive the award. IFC member Lauren McMullen will present the award at the luncheon.

During the first quarter of this year, committee members assisted librarians at William H Kohrs Memorial Library (Deer Lodge) and Missoula Public Schools (Big Sky High) in managing challenges to library materials.

At Kohrs the challenge was to “For Those I Loved”, a holocaust memoir by Martin Grey. The request for reconsideration came from a patron who claimed the book was fraudulent. According to the library policy, the book was reviewed by the Library Director who recommended retaining it in the library collection. The patron was unsatisfied with the Director’s decision and the item is currently under review by the Board of Trustees.

At Big Sky High a library book - “Bad Folks” by Jon Jackson - was challenged by a parent who objected to sexual content. It was reviewed by the Challenged Educational Resources Committee which recommended it be retained in the school library. The patron has not taken further action. The Committee also evaluated a challenge to “Catcher in the Rye” (a curriculum item) from the same patron with the same result. IFC member Linette Ivanovich served on an ad hoc committee to evaluate/revise the Academic Freedom Policy at the school.

Current members of the Committee: Lauren McMullen – Chair, Samantha Hines, Sheila Bonnand, Bill Talbot, Jim Kammerer, Linette Evanovich, Janette Davie, Lois Fitzpatrick, Johanna Freivalds. Ex-officio: Jim Heckel, Sue Jackson.

Further information about the MLA Intellectual Freedom Committee and its activities can be found on the blog: http://mlaif.blogspot.com/ and wiki: http://mlaif.pbwiki.com/

Deer Lodge Challenge

2009-04-15T09:12:00.002-06:00

Here's an article from the Montana Standard about book challenges in general and the challenge in Deer Lodge to "For Those I Loved": http://montanastandard.com/articles/2009/04/11/area/hjjajfiijjheif.txt

I'm writing the quarterly report for the MLA board this week. Let me know if there is something in particular you would like me to include in the report.

Also, the Pat Williams Intellectual Freedom Award will be presented at the MLA Awards Luncheon to the Director and Board of Trustees of Lewis & Clark Library in recognition of their principled handling of the Joy of Gay Sex challenge last fall. I will present the award. Would anyone like to write a little speech for me to deliver on that occasion?

Deer Lodge Challenge

2009-04-01T11:53:00.001-06:00

Here's an article about the challenge to "For Those I Loved" at Kohrs Memorial Library. From the Montana Standard:

http://www.mtstandard.com/articles/2009/03/31/area/hjjajggijagjhh.txt

A couple of things

2009-03-19T11:51:00.002-06:00

The MLA Intellectual Freedom Committee is scheduled to meet at conference on Friday, April 24 from 4:30 - 5:30. The place and time will be announced in the program, so I hope we'll pick up a few interested visitors as we did last year. Unfortunately, I know some of you won't be able to make it to Kalispell this year - we'll miss you!

In the meantime, here are some updates on the challenges in the western part of the state:

The Wm H. Kohrs Memorial Library Board of Trustees will address the challenge to "For those I Loved" at tonight's regular meeting. You may recall that Library Director Nancy Silliman recommended retaining the item at the last board meeting. The challenger challenged her decision, so the board members have conducted their review. I'll let you know how it turns out.

At Missoula Public Schools, there are a couple of things going on. The Challenged Educational Resources Committee reviewed two items - Catcher in the Rye and Bad Folks - and submitted written recommendations to the school principle to retain the two items (in curriculum and in the library, respectively). It remains to be seen whether the complainant will continue to pursue the challenge. An academic freedom/controversial issues ad hoc committee was formed to review the school policies - IFC member Linette Ivanovich is serving on that committee and will give us a report on their activities. Sam Hines also consulted with Julie during the management of these challenges.

Deer Lodge Challenge

2009-02-25T17:40:00.002-07:00

Nancy Silliman is managing her first book challenge after more than 20 years at the Kohrs Memorial Library. The challenged title is "For Those I Loved", a holocaust memoir written by Martin Gray. It was first published in 1972, became a bestseller, had several reprints and was released in a new hardcover edition a couple of years ago. The concerned citizen wants the book removed because it is "fraudulent". He submitted a written request for reconsideration and Nancy evaluated the book and recommended retaining the item in the collection. The challenger appealed her decision at last week's Board Meeting so now the Board will undertake a review. I provided Nancy with some review materials for the book. It sounds like the process has been polite and orderly (and time consuming). I'll keep you posted on developments - and you can contact Nancy if you'd like to ask her about it or have some suggestions to help her.

Dead Folks

2009-02-17T09:04:00.003-07:00

Sorry I had the title of the BSHS challenged book wrong (no wonder I couldn't find anything on it!) The title is Dead Folks - by Jon A. Jackson.

Also, here's an article from the Missoulian about the challenges: http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2009/02/08/news/local/news02.txt

Challenging Times at Big Sky High

2009-02-13T14:23:00.002-07:00

I had a chance to talk with Julie Hainline last week about challenges going on in Big Sky High School - Missoula. You may have heard about the challenges to the use of two videos in the curriculum: Rage on the Radio was shown in a government class and The Story of Stuff was shown in a biology class. A parent challenged the use of these resources in the classroom saying they presented a liberal bias that was not balanced with opposing materials.

In accordance with procedure an 8-member Challenged Educational Resources Committee was established which includes administrators, librarians, and teachers (Julie chairs the committee). The committee reviewed the items and recommended retaining the items in the curriculum. At a School Board meeting on January 29, a decision was made to retain Rage and drop Stuff from the curriculum. The committee and the teachers involved took a bit of a beating. You can find the minutes of the School Board January 29 Special Meeting here: http://www.mcps.k12.mt.us/portal/SchoolBoard/AgendasMinutes/tabid/193/Default.aspx

In the wake of that decision, another parent stepped forward to challenge some books. One of the challenged books is part of the curriculum - Catcher in the Rye. The other is a library book - Bad Folks. I sent Julie some supporting materials and resources on Catcher but so far have been unable to find anything on Folks - which was a locally published book I believe. She may have contacted ALA Challenge support as well.

If you have anything that will be helpful to Julie as she manages these challenges, please contact her (she's in the Montana Library Directory). I'm sure she'd be happy to hear from you.

Upcoming MLA Conference Activities, etc

2009-02-06T07:10:00.003-07:00

Nomination materials for the 2009 Pat Williams Intellectual Freedom Award have been submitted to the MLA Honors and Awards Committee. I wrote a letter nominating the Director and Board of Lewis & Clark Library for their exemplary handling of a materials challenge last year (The Joy of Gay Sex). Jim H and Johanna wrote letters of support for the nomination. We can look forward to this honorable recognition at the MLA Conference Awards Luncheon. Would anyone like to write a short speech for the occasion?

Sheila's conference program proposal for "Freedom of Expression" with guest speakers Kembrew McLeod and Jeremy Smith has been accepted. See the website about the documentary http://www.freedomofexpression.us/dvd.html and learn more about Kembrew at his site: http://kembrew.com/. It should be a pretty good program!

The panel discussion "Up to the Challenges: Intellectual Freedom in Montana Libraries" has also been accepted in the conference program. We've rounded out our panel to include Karen Gonzales representing public libraries, Sheila B representing academic libraries, and BJ McCracken representing school Libraries. I will moderate and create handouts for the session.

An IFC meeting is scheduled on Friday afternoon of the conference.

In the meantime, there are a couple of materials challenges going on that you might like to be aware of. In Missoula Public Schools a parent has objected to a perceived liberal viewpoint in some videos that are used in the curriculum. As far as I know, this isn't taking place in a school library - when I find out more about the situation, I'll let you know. Also, there is currently a challenge in process at a public library to a book about the holocaust: For Those I Loved - by Martin Gray . The challenge is being brought by a community member who belongs to the "National Association of Forensic History" (they have a website) and who claims the book is fraudulent. This is brand new and I'll be able to name the library after the librarian has informed her Library Board.

Stay tuned...

Happy New Year

2009-01-08T18:07:00.002-07:00

Here is the quarterly report that was submitted for the MLA board meeting next week:

MLA Intellectual Freedom Committee
Quarterly Report - January 2009

Current members of the committee: Lauren McMullen, Chair; Bill Talbot VC/Chair elect; Sheila Bonnand; Samantha Hines; Johanna Freivalds; Lois Fitzpatrick; Jim Kammerer; Linette Evanovich; Janette Davie; Sue Jackson & Jim Heckel, ex-officio.

Members continue to communicate and collaborate on the IFC blog: http://mlaif.blogspot.com/ and wiki: http://mlaif.pbwiki.com/ .

IFC members provided support for a challenge to The Joy of Gay Sex at the Lewis and Clark Library. Lois Fitzpatrick and Jim Kammerer attended and spoke in support of retaining the title at Library Board meetings. The committee also submitted a written comment to the Library Board. The challenge was resolved with a decision to retain the book at the L & C Board meeting in October.

Two intellectual freedom-related program proposals have been accepted by the MLA Conference 2009 planning committee: 1) “Freedom of Expression: Resistance and Repression in the Age of Intellectual Property” is a program about free speech and fair use by documentary film makers Kembrew McLeod and Jeremy Smith, and 2) A workshop/meeting panel on current intellectual freedom issues in Montana’s public, school and academic libraries. The session will include a segment from Karen Gonzales’ “Something to Offend Everyone” presentation.

MLA’s Lawyer for Libraries Brian Close presented a session at the MLA Chico Retreat on the impact of an Ohio district court ruling last fall regarding use of library meeting rooms for religious activities.

Sorry I didn't get this completed sooner. If you see anything that I forgot please let me know, there is still time to amend the report. Also, we need to have a letter of nomination and two letters of support for the Pat Williams Intellectual Freedom Award - to the awards committee before the end of the month. I'll try to do a nomination letter before leaving on vacation next week.

Upcoming MLA programs

2008-12-10T10:47:00.003-07:00

It has been ferociously windy over here by Big Timber but otherwise things seem pretty quiet in Montana library land lately. There aren't even too many messages on the listserves these days - folks might be involved with holiday activities. MLA 2009 conference planners have been have been working hard, however, and we've been notified that a couple of IF-related programs have been accepted for the upcoming conference.

Sheila is coordinating a program on "Freedom of Expression" (I think that's the title) with Kembrew McLeod and Jeremy Smith. It's about copyright law and creative expression of ideas - modeled after a program that was presented at ALA conference last summer. McLeod is a Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Iowa. To learn more about what's in store, check out his website: kembrew.com. I think it will be a pretty good program!

Sheila, Karen G, and Lauren will present a program entitled: Up to the Challenges: Intellectual Freedom in Montana Libraries. It will be a panel on IF issues and activities in public, academic, and school libraries. Karen will do the public segment, based on her "Something to Offend Everyone" program. Sheila will do the segment on academic libraries. We haven't got a school librarian lined up, but have a couple of good possibilities in mind. Lauren will do a short segment on the benefits of MLA committee membership, including the IFC. We'll cover a lot in this program, and hopefully have time for questions. Do you think 90 minutes will be enough time? Maybe we can cover some bases with handouts, too.

Let me know if you have any questions or want to help with either of these programs - or anything else.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Challenge Resolution

2008-10-31T15:02:00.001-06:00

As you probably know by now, the challenge to The Joy of Gay Sex was resolved at the Lewis & Clark Library with a decision to retain the book. And last time I looked, the Helena Independent Record online reader survey was coming in at 55% against censorship of the book and 45% for. The margin is close enough to remind us that we must remain vigilant on the issue of Freedom to Read.

I’d like to share a little story about an exchange that occurred one day when I was shopping in Big Timber. This was shortly after the media coverage of the challenge at L&C and just the week before Banned Books Week. I was buying a new pair of pants and a sweater to take on my vacation. As I was ready to leave the store, I reminded the two saleswomen that next week was BBW and “don’t forget to read a banned book.”

At which point one of them said: “Now that you mention it…Hmm, do you really think the public library in Helena should have The Joy of Gay Sex??!!” Immediately I started putting on my MLA-IFC hat but before I had a chance to say anything, the other saleswoman said: “Well, why shouldn’t they have it?” An excellent dialogue followed, during which I was able to insert some comments about library principles of free access to information and not telling others what they can or can’t read. But mostly they worked it out themselves; with the outcome that I think both would have voted to retain the item! Bless their Big Timber hearts…

Quarterly Report

2008-10-08T11:34:00.001-06:00

MLA Intellectual Freedom Committee
October 2008

Current members of the committee: Lauren McMullen, Chair; Bill Talbot VC/Chair elect; Sheila Bonnand; Samantha Hines; Johanna Freivalds; Lois Fitzpatrick; Jim Kammerer; Linette Evanovich; Janette Davie; Sue Jackson & Jim Heckel, ex-officio.

Members continue to communicate and collaborate on the IFC blog: http://mlaif.blogspot.com/ and wiki: http://mlaif.pbwiki.com/ .

IFC members continue to follow and provide support for the challenge to The Joy of Gay Sex at the Lewis and Clark Library. Lois Fitzpatrick and Jim Kammerer attended and spoke in support of retaining the title at Library Board meetings. The committee also submitted a written comment to the Library Board. A decision in the challenge is expected before the end of this month.

Two intellectual freedom program proposals have been submitted to the MLA Conference 2009 planning committee: “Freedom of Expression: Resistance and Repression in the Age of Intellectual Property” is a program about free speech and fair use by documentary film makers Kembrew McLeod and Jeremy Smith. Our other proposal is for an update/panel program on IF happenings in Montana which includes a segment from Karen Gonzales’ “Something to Offend Everyone” presentation.

MLA’s Lawyer for Libraries Brian Close will provide an update at the MLA Chico Retreat about the impact of an Ohio district court ruling regarding the use of a library meeting room for religious activities.

Challenging Season

2008-09-25T11:42:00.002-06:00

The challenge to The Joy of Gay Sex continues at Lewis and Clark Library. Lois F attended and commented at a Board meeting early in the challenge. Jim K attended and commented in favor of retaining the title at the September 16 public meeting. The Helena Independent Record reported on the meeting: http://www.helenair.com/articles/2008/09/17/top/60lo_080917_book.txt (there is lots of discussion by readers!)
I submitted a written comment to the L & C Board on behalf of the MLA IFC and added your names if I heard back from you; that's Sheila, Johanna, Jim, Jim, and Janette. It sounds as though this challenge will be resolved favorably; I spoke with an L & C Library board member at the Fall Workshops who said that comments from the community were heavily in favor of retaining the book. A decision on the challenge will be made on October 21.

Meanwhile, some IF proposals have been submitted for MLA conference 2009. Sheila submitted a proposal for a program on "Freedom of Expression: Resistance and Repression in the Age of Intellectual Property". It features "media prankster" Kembrew McLeod and Jeremy Smith, who produced a film of that title. It sounds pretty interesting! Karen G submitted a proposal for her program on "Something to Offend Everyone" and Lauren & Sheila submitted a proposal for an IF update/panel. The conference planning committee asked if the latter two sessions could be combined so we'll try that.

If any of you are going to Chico, we'll be getting an update from MLA Lawyer for Libraries Brian Close on the impact of a recent district court ruling in Ohio regarding the use of a library meeting room for religious activities. Also, the Chico Retreat is followed by an MLA Board meeting where I will present the IFC quarterly report. If you have anything you'd like to see included in the report please let me know by October 6.

Thanks everyone, and Happy Banned Books Week!

Book Challenge in Helena

2008-08-19T10:15:00.002-06:00

I'm sure you have heard about the Challenge to "The Joy of Gay Sex" at Lewis & Clark Library. It has been in the works for a while - Judy told me about it last April at conference. The library managed to get a levy passed while the challege was in its early, quiet stage. Here's a link to the editorial in the Helena Independent Record that stirred the pot last week: http://www.helenair.com/articles/2008/08/17/opinions/readers_alley/cohen_080817.txt
Don't forget to read the comments, too.

I sent Judy an InfoTrac marked items folder of reports on the outcome of an Idaho challenge of the same title last year. I'll put together some book reviews for her, too (though she may already have these from the last challenge!). If you have anything you think would help the folks at L & C, send it their way.

2008-08-12T16:37:00.002-06:00

Well I spoke too soon when I dissed the IFC privacy program at ALA. When I found the blip tv recording of the full session I realized I missed the best two speakers - Dan Roth of Wired, and Beth Givens of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. You can check out their short presentations at: http://blip.tv/file/1082285

Proposals are due for MLA conference 2009 programs on September 11. That's right around the corner. Karen G may submit a proposal to present her program on "Something to Offend Everyone". I'll contact Bill and Johanna to see if they are still interested in putting together a program about Children's right to access library materials (or something along that line). Please speak up if you have any other program proposal ideas for the conference. Sheila, we should start thinking about a program for Chico Retreat and see if Brian Close is available. Since we aren't offering a program at MEA this fall, I'd like to take a program on IF in school libraries to the MLA School Library Media Division retreat in Billings this winter. If you think you might like to participate in that, please keep it in mind and we'll talk about it later. I'll have to check with the MLA Board president to see if we got our budget request for the year - which might help make some of these things happen.

I hope you're enjoying the summer. Keep in touch

Intellectual Freedom at ALA

2008-07-10T15:44:00.005-06:00

I had the wonderful opportunity to attend ALA conference 2008 in Anaheim, California a couple of weeks ago. There were more than 20,000 librarians there! I have never been to such a large conference. I was able to attend an interesting variety of sessions from among the great number offered, including three intellectual freedom based events:

Privacy: is it time for a revolution? (ALA-IFC)

Intellectual Freedom: a core value (AASL)

IFC/FTRF issues briefing

The Privacy presentation was really crowded and in spite of featuring "celebrity" authors and librarians I didn't bring too much away. The AASL program was a panel discussion, not unlike our panel at MLA last spring. It reminded me of how important it is for us to work more closely with school librarians -- with so many intellectual freedom challenges originating in schools, they need us!

Here's a photo of the panel - it's not an exciting photo, but I purposely took it so I'd have a visual element to add to this blog!

At the IFC/FTRF briefing, chairpersons of both organizations discussed the year's cases and outcomes; some of them I had read about and others were news to me. The impulse to censorship is alive and well...

The MLA Board retreat is coming up August 4,5 & 6 at Boulder Hot Springs. I am unable to attend the retreat this year, so I've asked Bill if he can take my place. At this annual meeting MLA divisions, committees, and interest groups present their annual reports and budgets for the current year. If Bill can't make the meeting, I'll send the the two items and a letter of explanation in support of the budget request.

Its not too early to think about MLA programs - proposals are due September 11. I'll get together with Johanna and Bill soon to talk about a possible program on children's rights/access to library services (the idea came up at our spring meeting).

Last, but by no means least, let's welcome our new member (drum roll, please.....) Janette Davie, director at the Garfield County Library in Jordan. Janette says she may not be able to travel this year, but she's excited to help in every other way. It's great to have you join us Janette!

A New Year Coming

2008-06-13T16:26:00.003-06:00

As we approach the end of the fiscal year, we can look forward to welcoming a new member to the committee. Karen's term is finished at the end of June and she is unable to serve another. Janette Davie - Director of the Garfield County Library (Jordan) - will take her position on the committee. Some of you met Janette at our committee meeting at conference in April. Lois' term is also up this year, and she has agreed to serve another term. Montana librarians are fortunate to have such a stellar group of people on this MLA committee: Sheila, Jim, Johanna, Linette, Samantha, Bill, Lois, Janette, and our ex-officio members for life Sue and Jim (I'll have to check with them...)

Next month I'll write up my year end report to be presented at the MLA Board retreat in August. I am unable to attend the retreat but our soon-to-be Vice Chair/Chair Elect Bill T may be able to attend to present the report and budget request for next year. I've submitted a budget request in the amount of $1200 which includes appropriations for a few supplies, but mostly for presenter expenses and committe member travel. I haven't done a budget for this committee before (Karen did it last year) and I did my best to anticipate the resources we'll need based on conversations with committee members and experience with expenditures on this year's budget. When we get an approved budget, I'll make it available on the wiki.

In other news, the challenge to World War II at the Warren Elementary School (Helena) has been resolved and the book is retained. Lois F testified at the public hearing. I haven't heard anything on the outcome of the other Helena challenge - at the Lewis and Clark Public Library (The Joy of Gay Sex).

We didn't get a program proposal in for the MEA-MFT conference. I contacted the MLA School Library Media Divison to see if they were interested in co-sponsoring a session on managing materials challenges in schools, but didn't get a response. Maybe with a little more lead time, we can get a program together for MEA next year.

Well it looks like summer might finally be here. We were sure thankful for the rainy May, and now we're ready for a some warmer weather. There's lots of snow in the mountains so we're expecting big water.

If you run into any IF news on your turf, please keep us posted. Have a great summer!

Intellectual Freedom Committee Conference Report

2008-05-04T09:18:00.003-06:00

April has been a very busy month for me and I have been on the road a lot. I'm sorry for the delay in getting this conference and committee meeting information out to you!

MLA Conference 2008 was a rich experience for intellectual freedom fighters this year. Keynote speakers George Christian and Peter Chase (of the Connecticut 4) presented an excellent keynote address about their experiences in John Doe vs. Gonzales and they presented two workshop sessions on the topic of developing privacy policies for the library. I attended the workshop session presented on Thursday – it was very good, well attended and there were lots of valuable Q & A. Thank you to Jim K and Jim H for facilitating these sessions on behalf of the IFC. At the Friday awards luncheon Diane Thompson was presented with the Pat Williams Intellectual Freedom Award.

It was a pleasure having George Christian attend our IFC meeting on Thursday, and we had two interested visitors at the meeting, too – public librarians from Jordan and Colstrip. It was a good opportunity for some of us to get acquainted, as we discussed the IFC-related events of the current year and talked about activities for the coming year.

Here’s what we’ve got going:

Committee membership: Lois and Karen’s terms are up in June. Karen will not serve another term. We’ll contact Lois to see if she can/wants to serve another term. We will contact ex-officio members Jim Heckel and Sue Jackson to see if they wish to continue in that capacity. I will continue as chairperson for another year, and Bill Talbot will be vice chair/chair elect. If we need to fill out our committee membership roster for next year, we will contact the librarians who expressed their interest at the meeting.

Activities for next year:

ASLD/PLD Chico Retreat – we would like to have our Lawyer for Libraries Brian Close do a presentation. Sheila will work with Brian to develop a session. Sheila, let me know if you would like me to help with that.

Banned Books Week - there weren’t any ideas thrown out for that. We have plenty of time – BBW is September 27 – October 4, 2008. As the time approaches, we can always shoot out some messages to wired directing our Montana librarians to the ALA resources for BBW.

Conference 2009 – Bill and Johanna are going to research the possibility of developing a session proposal relating to children’s rights to access library services (sounds interesting!)

At the meeting we also had an opportunity for some general discussion on some of our issues, and we ran out of time pretty quickly.

Also at conference, the Saturday panel discussion on surviving book challenges was excellent and very well received. Each of the school librarians on the panel had a different kind of experience to relate and the public librarian presented an interesting review of the many types, sources and outcomes of challenges in his experience. As I signed CE Forms at the door, several attendees said we need to have this discussion again. I’ll see if SLMD chair Teresa Marchant is interested in doing a similar type of panel at MEA-MFT this fall. Many materials challenges in schools originate from within – from teachers or administrators – so a good topic might be something that highlights the importance of having IF policies in school libraries that are clearly understood by everyone at school; discussion can be focused on managing challenges that come from outside of the school. If you are interested in helping out with a panel discussion, let me know.

In other news, Judy Hart of Lewis & Clark Library (Helena) mentioned that they had a challenge to the new edition of The Joy of Gay Sex. The same individual challenged an earlier edition a few years ago. The book was retained last time, and she expects the same outcome this time around. Meanwhile, I found it interesting to hear from Karen about the upcoming “Out at the Library” programs at Missoula Public Library – programming highlighting GLBT (gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgender) issues and culture. I think that these two events taken together illustrate some of the diversity in the Montana library community! According to a Missoula Public Library trustee I spoke with at the Tamarack Federation last week the “Out” programs were incredibly well attended - exceeding all expectations – and there were no negative reactions from the community.

Now that April is over, I hope to get into the swing of posting to the blog more often. As always, if you have anything to add to the report - please feel free to do it here on the blog.

Enjoy the nice spring days - and pray for rain for us on the east side of the divide...

Quarterly Report April 2008

2008-04-01T13:06:00.002-06:00

Nomination materials for the Pat Williams Intellectual Freedom Award were submitted to the MLA awards committee.

Committee members continued posting to the IFC blog http://mlaif.blogspot.com/ and adding resources to the wiki http://mlaif.pbwiki.com/ .

IFC activities for MLA Conference 2008 are ready to go: committee members will facilitate two workshop sessions on National Security Letters (NSLs) in libraries presented by visiting Connecticut librarians Peter Chase and George Christian and Bozeman attorney Brian Close. Karen Gonzales will present the Pat Williams Intellectual Freedom Award at the awards luncheon. Lauren McMullen will co-moderate a panel discussion on surviving book challenges. The four member panel includes Suzanne Goodman, Diane Thompson, Bill Cochran, and IFC member Johanna Freivalds. A resources handout has been prepared for the panel discussion session. At conference, the committee is scheduled to meet on Thursday at 4:30pm.

A challenge to the book World War II by Ivor Matanle (1989) was reported at Warren Elementary School in Helena. The challenge is from a parent who objected to “disturbing images” in the book. Suzi Watne is managing the challenge and will report when it is resolved.

Current member roster: Sheila Bonnand 6/30/10; Lois Fitzpatrick 6/30/08; Johanna Freivalds 6/30/10; Karen Gonzales 6/30/08; Jim Heckel ex-officio; Samantha Schmechl Hines 6/30/09; Linette Ivanovitch 6/30/10; Sue Jackson ex-officio; James Kammerer 6/30/10; Lauren McMullen, chair 6/30/09; William Talbot 6/30/09

Catching Up

2008-03-31T06:38:00.003-06:00

March is the busiest time of the year for me because we are lambing at home - it's my third shift job, you might say. Anyway that partly explains why I haven't blogged very much and I'm sorry for the gap in posting here. During the month I emailed committee members about a materials challenge at the Warren Elementary School in Helena. The book being challenged is World War II by Ivor Matanle (1989). It's an over-sized book with lots of photographs and illustrations. The objection from a parent has to do with "disturbing images". Suzi Watne is managing the challenge and will keep us informed of the outcome.

Meanwhile, we're ready for an exciting MLA conference, coming right up. Jim and Jim are going to facilitate workshop sessions presented by keynote speakers George Christian and Peter Chase, with Bozeman attornery Brian Close. The workshop is about National Security Letters (NSLs) in the library.

Karen will present the Intellectual Freedom Award at the awards luncheon and she will also host the group who is taking our keynote speakers to dinner on Thursday evening. Johanna is on the panel for a Saturday morning session on book challenges. Other members of that panel include Suzanne Goodman, Diane Thompson and Bill Cochran. Teresa Marchant will co-moderate the session with me. Based on very helpful suggestions from panelists, I created a handout which I will link on our wiki.

If you are available, please attend our committee meeting on Thursday at 4:30pm (before dinner with Peter and George). It would be good for us to meet one another in person! I would like to discuss possibilities for upcoming projects & events, including Banned Books Week and the MLA Chico Retreat. I'll make sure you get an agenda ahead of conference.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Conference plans and professional reading

2008-02-12T15:24:00.000-07:00

There is some news to report about our panel discussion at MLA Conference 2008 "How to Survive a Book Challenge...". The panel will take place on Saturday April 12, from 10:15-11:45am. Three school librarians have agreed to participate so far: Suzanne Goodman, Diane Thompson and Johanna Freivalds. I am still looking for a 4th person and would like to find a public librarian who will be able to address the issue for any public librarians who may be in the audience. In the meantime, Jodi Teeple stepped down from SLMD and Teresa Marchant has taken her place as co-moderator for the session. Teresa also expressed interest in taking a panel discussion like this to MEA later this year.

I've been doing more reading and want to let you know about these titles available from the MSL professional collection:

What Every Librarian Should Know about Electronic Privacy by Jeanette Woodward. It's about a lot more than identity theft; there's protecting children, government surveillance, RFID (scary!), Patriot Act, and more. The author also includes plans and suggestions for educating library patrons about wise use of public computers. Suzanne Reymer and I discussed doing a workshop on this sometime soon.

Censorship and Selection: Issues and Answers for Schools by Henry Reichman. This is a good all around resource for crafting a selection policy and facing challenges to intellectual freedom in schools.

Defending Access With Confidence

2008-01-11T17:18:00.000-07:00

I checked out another IF resource from my library to read over the holdiays. Defending Access With Confidence: a Practical Workshop on Intellectual Freedom by Catherine Lord is a publication of the Public Library Association. It's a complete workshop in a binder - it has everything you need to put on a day-long workshop on Intellectual Freedom at a library. I especially like the exercises where you find solutions to various scenarios - I sure got better at that after reading through all the workshop materials! Maybe sometime in the future it would be cool to take this workshop to some libraries around the state...

Looking Forward to Conference 2008

2008-01-10T18:58:00.000-07:00

The theme of MLA Conference 2008 is “Libraries, Montanan’s Voice for Freedom” and IFC members have many opportunities to be engaged in conference activities:

Jim H and Jim K will each facilitate workshops being presented by Keynote speakers George Christian and Peter Chase (of the “Connecticut 4”) and our own lawyer for libraries Brian Close. The workshops will be presented on Thursday and Friday afternoons – I haven’t seen a title or description of the sessions yet.

The IFC meeting is set for 4:30-5:30 on Thursday, and it will be followed by dinner with Peter and George at one of the dine-around-Great Falls restaurants.

Karen will present the Pat Williams Intellectual Freedom award at the luncheon on Friday (we are still gathering supporting materials for nominee Diane Thompson).

On Saturday morning, Johanna will be part of a panel discussion on “How to survive a book challenge” which is being co-sponsored by this committee and the SLMD.

I can’t think of anything else right now, but if I’ve left anything out, or you would like to volunteer to do something, let me know.

Thanks everyone for your involvement!

MLA Board Endorses Resolution

2008-01-09T10:32:00.000-07:00

I'm happy to report that the MLA Board endorsed the ALA Resoution on the Use and Abuse of National Security Letters at its January 8 meeting. Finally!

2007 Final Quarter Report

2008-01-02T09:13:00.000-07:00

Committee activities and news about Intellectual Freedom issues in Montana libraries for the last quarter of 2007:

In November, Bozeman attorney Brian Close attended ALA Lawyers for Libraries training on behalf of MLA, sponsored by this committee. Brian is available to consult with Montana librarians and trustees on intellectual freedom issues from a legal perspective. An announcement to this effect and contact information has been added to the resource page on the MLA IFC wiki: http://mlaif.pbwiki.com/Resources . During the final quarter of 2007, Brian consulted with West Yellowstone Public Library and Livingston-Park County Public Library. Brian will also be working with two ‘Connecticut 4’ librarians to present a workshop about USA PATRIOT Act implications for libraries at MLA Conference 2008.

Also in November, a challenge to Joyce Carol Oates’ book Sexy was successfully resolved at Jefferson High School in Boulder. Effective policy and librarian Diane Thompson’s smart management of the challenge had the result that Sexy was retained in the school library collection.

Jim Heckel continued to post breaking intellectual freedom news from around the US to the wired-MT list serve.

Planning is underway for a panel discussion at MLA Conference 2008 on coping with book challenges. The session is being co-sponsored by this committee and the School Library Media Division.

A list of Montana challenged books was added to the IFC wiki: http://mlaif.pbwiki.com/Montana+Challenged+Books . The page received many visitors in the wake of the Sexy challenge.

Nominations for the 2008 Intellectual Freedom Award have been received.

Submitted by Lauren McMullen 1/2/08

Winter Wonderland

2007-12-01T12:34:00.000-07:00

It has been very lovely to have the snow, cold and no wind for the past week. We shoveled off a rink on the creek and had excellent ice skating for a couple of days, which really put me in the spirit of the season. It is supposed to get warmer and windy next week - that will probably be the end of the ice for a while.

Last week we had good news from Diane Thompson about the resolution of the challenge to Joyce Carol Oates' book Sexy at Jefferson High School. It sounds like Diane has had previous experience in this area and that she and her team managed the challenge very well. I'll contact her about being on our panel at MLA if Jodi T hasn't already done so. I haven't heard from Jodi yet on whether she has any public librarians lined up for the panel. I think it would be desirable to have both public and school libraries represented there. Do any of you know of public librarians who have experienced challenges and would be good on a panel?

I want to share with you a nice example of a state library assoication intellectual freedom committee website: Colorado Association of Libraries Intellectual Freedom Committee . There is a quick link to the handbook , which is pretty good. Some other state associations have online manuals, but this one I like best so far. As you can probably guess, I wouldn't mind working on something like this.

I have enjoyed looking at the articles that Jim H posts links for on Wired. Many of the online papers invite comments from readers and it is interesting and rewarding to read those comments because they are almost always on the side of intellectual freedom and opposed to censorship. Hmm...by allowing comments from readers, does that mean newspapers are being socialized?

Holiday Time

2007-11-23T12:11:00.000-07:00

We had a nice blanket of snow for Thanksgiving here in Big Timber. The snow is very welcome to give us some much needed moisture, and especially so after the terrifying wildfire in Melville last week. We’re hoping the wind won’t blow it all away too soon!

Everyone will be busy thinking about Christmas now, but we have some intellectual freedom business to keep in mind:

We are anxious to hear from Diane Thompson after her November 27 Board meeting regarding the challenge to Sexy, by Joyce Carol Oates, at Jefferson High School. Thanks to Linette and Jim for helping Diane respond to the challenge.

Brian Close has returned from the ALA Lawyers for Libraries Institute which he attended on behalf of this committee. He is available as a presenter to share what he learned. Should we think about arranging some events or talks in libraries? There is $700 in our budget for presenter expenses. Let us know if you have any ideas.

Please continue to add resources to the Resources page on the wiki. I’d like to include links to print publications that are available on interlibrary loan, since I just read a good one – The New Inquisition: Understanding and Managing Intellectual Freedom Challenges by James LaRue. This book is very useful not only because it provides detailed step-by-step guidelines for coping with challenges (including copies of necessary forms and sample letters) but also because so much of the book is spent on understanding challenges. It's really worth reading about how the author’s well developed sense of tolerance and appreciation for diversity allowed him to meet and disarm would-be censors, creating win-win situations without compromising library principles. I wish I had a little more of this understanding years ago when I came under attack from some Focus on the Family folks during my first year of library work! If you can recommend other titles for the resource shelf, please add them to the page or let me know and I’ll add them.

The MLA Board has not yet acted on the endorsement of the ALA Resolution on the Use and Abuse of NSLs. Nationally, the momentum among library associations on this issue has slowed down – during October two more states climbed on board leaving 14 states, including Montana, out in the cold. If the MLA Board doesn’t act via e-mail this month, we’ll make sure it gets on the agenda for the January 8 meeting. Meanwhile, NSL’s are coming under increasing scrutiny in the courts.

Hopefully, an MLA IFC web or wiki page will be publicly available in January. At the present time, the member roster has live e-mail links for everyone, which encourages site users to contact you directly. If any of you are not comfortable with this, we can remove the link or provide a different way of contacting you if you prefer.

Happy Holidays!

Sexy challenge

2007-11-08T09:37:00.000-07:00

(I received this from Diane Thompson- JH)

Thank you for the reviews, I had all of them except the "The
Bulletin". I have contacted ALA and talked to Deborah. She said Sexy
was not in their database, but it is now. :-)

I am not worried about the challenge. I've done this before with the
"Rolling Stone" magazine, which we still have in our library. We have
policies in place, including the ALA Library Bill of Rights and it's
interpretation for school libraries. Personally I think the teacher
got mad because she was the only one offended by the language. She
took the book away from the student and I made her give it back.

Our next meeting is November 27th at 4:00. I will email wired-mt and
let everyone know what happens.

MLA conference info

2007-10-30T09:19:00.000-06:00

I just wanted to add, for those of you who may not know, that we are bringing George Christian and Peter Chase to MLA in April. George and Peter are two of the four Connecticut librarians ("John Does") who were issued a Patriot Act NSL letter and placed under a gag order. This was fought for over a year by ACLU and the FBI ended up dropping the gag provision in the case and its request for library records. Since then, the four have committed to sharing their experience with other librarians. George and Peter will deliver the conference's keynote address and will also present a workshop (offered at two different times during conference) for us.

By the way, MSU-GF Campus Library = Sheila Bonnand (my blogger account was already in place).

One-Armed Intellectual Freedom Fighter

2007-10-25T11:46:00.000-06:00

Sounds kind of romantic, doesn't it? Well I won't be one armed for long. Next Tuesday I should be rid of the cast on my wrist - I'm really looking forward to that!

I presented the IFC quarterly report at the MLA board meeting October 15. Here is some news from the meeting and other things going on:

The committee working on the new MLA webpage will make its presentation at the next board meeting in January. In the meantime I've continued to add content to our wiki including a list of Montana challenged books. This list came from Sue Jackson and only includes items that were reported to the state library so it may not be complete. http://mlaif.pbwiki.com/Montana+Challenged+Books If you know of some items that need to be added please feel free to add them yourself or pass the information along to me and I'll add it. We may want to change the page formatting or create a more attractive page for this at some time - I'm anxious to see what kind of tools we'll get to work with on the new MLA webpage.

Unfortunately the MLA board was unable to act upon another item of IFC-related business - endorsement of the ALA Resolution on the Use and Abuse of National Security Letters - because by the time this came up several members had left and there wasn't a quorum. The MLA board will act on the resolution via e-mail soon, and I'll let you know when our library association joins the other 36 library associations around the country who have already taken this important action.

Our proposal for a program at MLA conference 2008 was accepted. The program is titled “How to survive a book challenge (and be ready the next time the censor shows up)” - a panel discussion which we will sponsor jointly with the School Library Media Division. Karen has offered to help with this since she has experience with panel discussions , and I would appreciate hearing from any of you who have ideas to share or would like to participate.

Considering the theme of conference 2008 "Libraries: Montanans' Voice for Freedom", there aren't many programs specifically speaking to the issue. If there is still time to plan a Significant Tiding or an auxilliary program, would anyone be interested in getting together to do something?

IFC Quarterly Report

2007-10-09T14:09:00.000-06:00

Intellectual Freedom Committee
Report October 2007

Coordinated arrangements for Brian Close to attend the Lawyers for Libraries Institute in Denver (November).

Karen Gonzales presented a Banned Books Week program for the public at Missoula Public Library in October.

Karen will present a Banned Books program at MEA/MFT titled “Something to Offend Everyone”. The program is Oct. 18, 2007 in Belgrade.

Submitted updated IF Committee members list and IF award information for the MLA handbook.

Obtained a list of books challenged in Montana provided by State Library.

IFC member Jim Heckel wrote an op-ed piece about the USA PATRIOT Act and libraries which appeared in the August 6, 2007 issue of the Great Falls Tribune.

Jim also provided updated information to the wired-Montana listserv about IF issues in libraries nationwide.

Created MLA Intellectual Freedom Committee blog and wiki to facilitate communication and collaboration between committee members.

Supported activities of MLA conference exhibitors guidelines task force.

Submitted program proposal for IFC panel discussion at MLA Conference 2008.

Update to Billings challenge: Red Sky at Morning The appeal committee met and retained the book. They upheld the decision, but included language about parents and children being able to choose from a list of alternate books if they don’t want to read the recommended books.

IFC donated multiple copies of banned books to MLA groups. They can be used for MLA sanctioned events for door prizes. Three sets of banned books were distributed as door prizes at the 2007 MSL Fall Workshops. One set of books will be made into a Banned Books Kit that can be checked out from the partner libraries. The kit will be housed at Missoula Public Library.

Current member roster: Sheila Bonnand 6/30/10; Lois Fitzpatrick 6/30/08; Johanna Freivalds 6/30/10; Karen Gonzales 6/30/08; Jim Heckel ex-officio; Samantha Schmechl Hines 6/30/09; Linette Ivanovitch 6/30/10; Sue Jackson ex-officio; James Kammerer 6/30/10; Lauren McMullen, chair 6/30/09; William Talbot 6/30/09

A Legitimate Excuse

2007-09-25T12:48:00.000-06:00

Some of you may know that I broke my right wrist and have only the use of my left hand, so I haven't been doing much writing lately - I will try to catch up on this blog as soon as I get my right hand back. In the meantime, there are a few things going on:

I submitted a proposal for a meeting of this committee at MLA 2008. Samantha talked with Jodi Teeple who wanted to put together a panel at MLA 2008 on dealing with book challenges - so our committee may take part in that.

Karen and others have suggested that we put on the agenda for the October MLA board meeting an endorsement of the ALA Resolution on the Use and Abuse of National Security Letters . Many other state library associations have already endorsed the resolution. Thanks to Jim Heckel for keeping everyone up to date on this and other IF issues through his frequent contributions to the wired-mt listserve.

Brian Close is preparing to attend the Lawyers for Libraries seminar in Denver (November), sposored by us. He will also be a presenter at MSL-sponsored Library Board trainings in Missoula and Billings this fall.

I have been wondering if anyone has heard of any book challenges in our state lately? When making my quarterly report next month I should include this information. So where is the Montana Intellectual Freedom Hotline?

A few updates

2007-09-06T10:48:00.000-06:00

Last week I talked with a member of the MLA website task force. They will meet this month to hammer out a new format for the MLA site. They plan to use a type of wiki, so that MLA members can contribute updated content. The IF committee will have it's own page, and if we have our content ready, the site should be operable after the next MLA Board meeting - the middle of October.

We have a couple of good suggestions for web page content in addition to the basics outlined in the last post. Johanna suggested including a help feature that provides step-by-step guidance for those facing book challenges and direction to specific resources that would be useful. Sue suggested providing access to collection development resources that will help librarians create collections representing all points of view. I think it would be great to have RSS of breaking IF news delivered right to the page from some of the sources we hear from on the listserve.

I still haven't heard from any of you who are interested in having a committee meeting at MLA conference 2008. Shall I go ahead and schedule one anyway? And remember, if we want to have a program at MLA, the proposal must be submitted by September 21. The conference planning committee is pretty short on proposals to date. Does anyone have any ideas?

Greetings Intellectual Freedom Fighters

2007-08-16T09:35:00.000-06:00

Karen Gonzales and I attended the MLA board retreat July 30-August 1 where I assumed the duties of chair of this committee. Thank you for the privilege! We have several new members, check out the membership list. If any of your information is not accurate, let me know or you can modify the information yourself – the wiki password is uncensored.

When Karen passed the hat to me she said all I had to do is monitor events and write quarterly reports and that she would help me, but we already have a few other action items to address:

1. Do we want to have a face to face meeting at MLA Conference 2008? If so, I will need to complete a program proposal in order to get a room. MLA can be pretty hectic, but I would like to meet if anyone else wants to. The deadline for proposals is September 21, so please let me know soon.

2. Do we want to present an IF program at MLA Conference 2008? There is money in our budget to pay expenses for a presenter. Deadline for proposals is September 21.

3. Pam Henley and others are working on the MLA website and it sounds like maybe the IF committee can have its own page. What content would you like to see on an IF page – committee member roster, MT banned books list, resources…?

4. In November, the MLA-IF Committee is sending Brian Close to the Lawyers for Libraries training institute in Denver. Karen has been involved with setting this up so she can probably tell us more about it as the time approaches.

5. We have some banned books to give out as door prizes at the MSL Fall Workshops. Does this committee want to do anything else for Banned Books Week September 29-October 6?

6. Following the 2007 conference, the MLA President received a letter from a librarian who was concerned about a National Guard sponsored booth in the exhibitor’s area that was perceived as military advertising and recruiting. The librarian questioned whether MLA has a policy regarding non-profit organization participation at our conference and whether we “allow non-profit organizations that espouse political/philosophical values that are at odds with library values?” A task force was appointed to research and present proposed exhibitor guidelines to the MLA Board at its October meeting. Members of the task force are: Lauren McMullen, Jim Kammerer, Linda Bloomquist, Peggy Smith, Debbi Kramer.

That’s probably enough for now! (Karen, did I forget anything important?) If any of you have further questions, comments, or would like to help with some of these activities, contact me by e-mail or by posting to this blog.