ACRL Chapters Council

Dear Chapter Leaders,

Please see the following message on behalf of the ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom:

The next SIFnet meeting is Thursday, June 9, 2022 2:00 PM CT. Register in advance for this meeting. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. 

The ALA State Intellectual Freedom Network (SIFnet) is a group of passionate and dedicated volunteers committed to sharing ideas and troubleshooting issues. The group is coordinated by the Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF). The network is composed mostly of intellectual freedom committee chairs from all the states, but for some states that don't have active committees, the network representative might be the ALA chapter councilor, the state librarian, or an IF advocate. We encourage library workers of all types to participate in SIFnet. There are many states that have representatives from multiple state level organizations.

Participating is not a huge time commitment. We

• Meet quarterly at a virtual "State of the States" meeting
• Have an orientation video for communication between ALA and SIFnet participants. It's only 14 minutes.
• Encourage subscribe to the Intellectual Freedom Newswhich is published every Friday on the IF Blog and sent to your email inbox.
• Communicate via a private ALA Connect group which stores our documents recordings and conversations.

The benefits of the network are manifold

• Interaction with professionals who share the same passion in intellectual freedom and privacy issues
• Committee chairs often share similar levels of responsibility and roles
• Creative ideas for engaging committees and association members which also grows the chapter engagement
• Access to experts in the field
• Access to colleagues who have experience in challenges and navigating IF situations
• Exposure to a variety of free resources to share with others
• Direct connection to challenges being reported from your state
• Firsthand updates and news from ALA and OIF

If you are already hearing great things from your state's IF advocates and leaders, thank you for supporting them and intellectual freedom. If you'd like to add a participant to the network, ask them to add their name with this form and OIF staff will follow up.

Report Censorship Toolkit  - Last but not least, please encourage your members and colleagues in your state to report all challenges. The toolkit includes graphics, sample social media, a sample email, graphics, and a blog post "Should I Report Censorship?"  Please encourage your states to direct reports to ALA.

The next SIFnet meeting is Thursday, June 9, 2022 2:00 PM CT. Register in advance for this meeting. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. I will send out a reminder to participants in the beginning of June.

Thank you for your passionate attention to intellectual freedom. Please direct any questions to Kristin Pekoll.

Kristin Pekoll, CAE

Assistant Director, ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom

225 N Michigan Ave, Suite 1300, Chicago, IL 60601

(312) 280-4221