Intellectual Freedom
“The Libraries of America are and must ever remain the home of the free, inquiring minds. To them, our citizens – of all ages and races, of all creeds and political persuasions – must ever be able to turn with clear confidences that there they can freely seek the whole truth, unwarped by fashion and uncompromised by expediency.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Letter to the American Library Association
Annual Conference – Los Angeles, 1953
Intellectual freedom is the right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction. It provides for free access to all expressions of ideas through which any and all sides of a question, cause or movement may be explored. Intellectual freedom encompasses the freedom to hold, receive and disseminate ideas.(1)
If there is a motto for the importance and place of intellectual freedom in the United States, Benjamin Franklin stated it eloquently and permanently over two hundred years ago: “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” The world of libraries holds the key to the access side of the First Amendment. It is never enough for people to have a right to free speech—they also must have the right to hear it, read it, and share it.
The Office for Intellectual Freedom of the American Library
Association is the best source in the world to see the big
picture for Intellectual Freedom—the news, the law and challenges
to the law, the inside story, and the advocacy advice to groups as well
as individuals.
http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/
The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression
is the bookseller's voice in the fight against censorship. Founded by
the American Booksellers Association in 1990, ABFFE’s mission is
to promote and protect the free exchange of ideas, particularly those contained
in books, by opposing restrictions on the freedom of speech; issuing
statements on significant free expression controversies; participating
in legal cases involving First Amendment rights; collaborating with
other groups with an interest in free speech; and providing education
about the importance of free expression to booksellers, other members
of the book industry, politicians, the press and the public.
http://www.abffe.org/
Banned Books Week is the wonderful annual effort by
the Office for Intellectual Freedom to track challenges to books in
libraries and schools and to celebrate all the wonderful books that
have faced banishment somewhere in the United States.
http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bannedbooksweek.htm
Electronic Frontier Foundation. If America's founding
fathers had anticipated the digital frontier, there would be a clause
in the Constitution protecting your rights online, as well. Instead,
a modern group of freedom fighters was necessary to extend the original
vision into the digital world. That's where the Electronic Frontier
Foundation comes in.
http://www.eff.org
The Freedom to Read Foundation. The First Amendment
to the United States Constitution guarantees all individuals the right
to express their ideas without governmental interference, and to read
and listen to the ideas of others. The Freedom to Read Foundation was
established to promote and defend this right; to foster libraries and
institutions wherein every individual’s First Amendment freedoms
are fulfilled; and to support the right of libraries to include in their
collections and make available any work which they may legally acquire.
http://www.ftrf.org/
kidSPEAK: Where Kids Speak Up for Free Speech! In
November 1999, the superintendent of schools in Zeeland, Michigan, banned
classroom readings from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books. The
first protest of the superintendent’s ban came not from free speech
advocates but from fourth graders who wrote letters to the superintendent
asking him to restore Harry Potter to the classroom. They were not the
only angry kids. Harry Potter books were being challenged in school
districts all over the country, and many kids were learning for the
first time about the danger of censorship. They were outraged that someone
would try to ban books that they loved, and they actively defended them.
They organized clubs to support Harry Potter, circulated petitions among
their friends and on the Internet, wrote letters to the editor and spoke
at school board meetings. kidSPEAK, an advocacy group for free speech
comprised of children, was born out of that movement to save Harry Potter
in the schools.
http://www.kidspeakonline.org/
The National Center for Science Education (NCSE) defends the
teaching of evolution in public schools. We are a nationally-recognized clearinghouse for information and advice to keep evolution in the science classroom and "scientific creationism" out. NCSE is
the only national organization to specialize in this issue.
http://www.ncseweb.org/
For a huge list of First Amendment Advocates and Resources,
see the Office for Intellectual Freedom web site:
http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/firstamendment/advocates/advocates.htm.
The book Speaking Out!: Voices in Celebration of Intellectual Freedom, is a striking text that is worthy of your time.
(1) From the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom.