Dear RMRT Board and Members,
I am unable to attend the October 13th RMRT executive board meeting. The following is my Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF) report. It is also attached to this thread.
Litigation:
FTRF is a partner in important litigation that is working its way through the court system. The Llano County (Texas) case, which is focused on protecting the right to read in a county library, is one such case to follow. You can find a summary of the case on the FTRF website: https://www.ftrf.org/page/Litigation
The FTRF Education Committee is working with the FTRF office staff and legal counsel to create more reader-friendly components to be added to the website regarding "Litigation and the Courts." I hope to have more to report in my next time.
The Judith F. Krug Banned Books Week Grants:
The 2025 grants were awarded to:
Tom C. Clark High School, San Antonio, TX
Indigenous Idaho Alliance, Boise, ID
George M. Jones Memorial Library, Lynchburg, VA
University of Buffalo Libraries, Buffalo, NY
University of Delaware Libraries, Museums and Press, Newark, DE
The FTRF Education Committee updated the BBW webpage to include images and summaries of previous grant winners. The 2025 winners will be added in the next few weeks. https://www.ftrf.org/page/Krug_BBW.
FTRF Judith F. Krug Education Committee:
I serve on and represent you on the FTRF Krug Education Committee, as well as on several of its subcommittees. We have been conducting informal surveys to assess librarians understanding of the First Amendment in order to guide our proposals to present issues related to First Amendment rights at ALA division conferences.
The first one titled "Allies and Accomplices for Students' First Amendment Rights" will be presented by Dorcas Hand, Carl Harvey, April Dawkins, and me at the AASL conference on October 17, 2025 in St. Louis, Missouri. The First Amendment Poster and six smaller posters will be featured (https://www.ftrf.org/page/firstamendment). A PLA presentation and one to support United for Libraries are in the works.
First Amendment Advocacy:
The newly revived RMRT Advocacy creates all kinds of exciting possibilities for retired librarians. If you are looking for a way to continue to advocate for the freedom to read as an individual, I recommend submitting letters to the editor or op-eds to your local newspaper in support of intellectual freedom. I offer my Arizona Daily Star op-ed published 10/7/25 as an example "Libraries, librarians, and Banned Book Week® 2025" (https://tucson.com/opinion/column/article_3f42a615-03bc-4a32-ab43-edf4728f0ea5.html). Please forgive the reversal of "Most" and "100" in my piece.
If you are not yet a personal member of the FTRF, I invite you to join the foundation at this critical time in our nation's history (https://www.ftrf.org/general/register_member_type.asp?).
Thank you for the privilege of representing the RMRT and for giving me the space to share and motivation to continue this important work.
Sincerely,
Judi Moreillon, FTRF Liaison
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Judi Moreillon, M.L.S., Ph.D.
Literacies and Libraries Author and Consultant
She/Her/Hers
info@storytrail.com
http://storytrail.com
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