The deadline for the 2021 Gerald Hodges Award has been extended to February 26, 2021. The Intellectual Freedom Round Table (IFRT) Coalition Building Committee encourages all qualified organizations to continue to submit nominations until the new deadline. Applicants are welcome to contact the committee or the Office of Intellectual Freedom (OIF) with questions concerning the nomination process.
The Gerald Hodges Award recognizes an intellectual freedom-focused organization that has developed a strong multi-year, ongoing program or a single, one-year project that exemplifies support for intellectual freedom, patron confidentiality and anti-censorship efforts. This award consists of a citation and $1,000. Past recipients include the Connecticut Library Association Intellectual Freedom Committee (2020) and the Utah Library Association (2019). Learn more about past recipients, programs and projects on the IFRT website.
The award is named after Gerald Hodges, who joined the ALA staff in 1989 as director of Membership Services and the Chapter Relations Office. Hodges was the associate director of Communications and Marketing at his death in 2006, but intellectual freedom and chapter relations were still his passions. A charter member of the ALA Legacy Society, he willed a portion of his estate to support ALA's intellectual freedom efforts. Memorial contributions in recognition of Hodges came from many friends, colleagues and ALA chapters following the establishment of the Gerald Hodges Fund.
The award is sponsored by the Intellectual Freedom Round Table of the American Library Association (ALA). An online nomination form and printable PDF nomination form are available.
Members of the Coalition Building Committee are: Chair Shane Roopnarine, University of Central Florida Libraries; Jeremy Brett, Texas A & M University Cushing Memorial Library; Ray James; Isabel Klein, Cuyahoga County Public Library; Amanda Vazquez, Dubuque County Library.
The Intellectual Freedom Round Table (IFRT) provides a forum for the discussion of activities, programs and problems in intellectual freedom of libraries and librarians; serves as a channel of communications on intellectual freedom matters; promotes a greater opportunity for involvement among the members of the ALA in defense of intellectual freedom; promotes a greater feeling of responsibility in the implementation of ALA policies on intellectual freedom. @IFRT_ALA
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Shane Roopnarine
Subject Librarian
University of Central Florida Libraries
He/Him/His
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