Practicing Intellectual Freedom in Libraries, Paperback

Practicing Intellectual Freedom in Libraries is helpful for a wide range of people, from those only starting to learn about intellectual freedom to those more well-versed in the subject. For novices, it offers a solid introduction to intellectual freedom, grounded theoretically and empirically; for more experienced scholars and librarians, it provides a uniquely comprehensive analysis of intellectual freedom.

Intellectual freedom is important for librarians because it is a foundation of the profession and is truly central to librarianship in the United States. Situating intellectual freedom within freedom of speech theories, this book explains the legal and theoretical foundations for contemporary understandings of intellectual freedom within library science. Additionally, it depicts the importance of community to implementing intellectual freedom and exemplifies this importance in a discussion of actual library practices. Real-world scenarios provide a timely look at intellectual freedom in context, discussing internet filtering, collection development and weeding, meeting rooms and exhibit spaces, programming, and fake news and misinformation.

Shannon M. Oltmann is assistant professor in the School of Information Science at the University of Kentucky. Her research interests include censorship, intellectual freedom, information policy, public libraries, privacy, and qualitative research methods.