Dear Council,
In July 2018, the Intellectual Freedom Committee formed a working group that brought multiple voices and a broad range of perspectives together, including representatives from the diversity community, to revise "Meeting Rooms: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights," which was adopted by the ALA Council at the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans. In August, Council voted to rescind the interpretation and reinstate the 1991 version of the interpretation.
Following the vote, work on a revised document continued. In September 2018, the working group asked ALA membership and the library community to provide suggestions on language and resources to include in the revised draft. The working group took these comments and suggestions into consideration to create this latest draft, and worked closely with the IFC to write the attached document.
The Intellectual Freedom Committee voted preliminarily to bring this revised draft of "Meeting Rooms: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights" to ALA Council for feedback, so that the document we bring forward for adoption at the ALA Midwinter Meeting represents a broad consensus of our members. We welcome your comments and suggestions. Please post them on this thread or email directly to me.
I would like to acknowledge and thank the other members of the working group for their diligent and thoughtful work over the past few months.
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Shauntee Burns-Simpson, New York Public Library, Chair of the Committee on Diversity
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Sara Dallas, Southern Adirondack Library System, Chair of the Committee on Professional Ethics
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Martin Garnar, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, Chair of Office for Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services (ODLOS) Advisory Committee
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Ray James, Institutional Survey, member of the Intellectual Freedom Committee
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Emily Knox, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Vice President of the Freedom to Read Foundation and member of the Association of College and Research Libraries Professional Values Committee
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Johana Orellana, North Richland Hills Library, member of the Intellectual Freedom Committee
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Kim Patton, Kansas City, KS Public Library, member of the Intellectual Freedom Committee
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Brooke Sheets, Los Angeles Public Library, Public Library Association liaison to the Intellectual Freedom Committee
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John Spears, Pikes Peak Library District, member of the Intellectual Freedom Committee
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Staff liaisons to the committee are Jody Gray, Director of the Office of Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services, and James LaRue, Director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom.
I would also like to acknowledge the hard work of the entire staff of the Office of Intellectual Freedom for assisting the working group with organizing our weekly meetings, managing the numerous drafts, and all of the other various tasks that are too many to list here.
Sincerely,
Julia Warga, Chair
Intellectual Freedom Committee
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Julia Warga
Chair, Intellectual Freedom Committee
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