Read the latest news about FTRF and the First Amendment in Libraries and engage with thoughtful opinions from leaders in our community on The FTRF Blog.
Yesterday marked the 20th anniversary of Frank Zappa's death from cancer at the age of 52. The Freedom to Read Foundation and ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom were, at the time, designated by his family as among the organizations to receive contributions made in his memory.
In addition to being a legendary and influential musician, Zappa was known throughout his career as a free speech activist. His efforts against the Parents Music Resource Center (spearheaded by Al and Tipper Gore) remain legendary. Following his death, Zappa was named to the Freedom to Read Foundation Roll of Honor. Check out our page honoring his legacy at www.ftrf.org/?ROHZappa.
The Freedom to Read Foundation yesterday joined with several other library, education, and free speech organizations in filing anamicusbrief with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals inArce v. Huppenthal, a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Arizona Revised Statute § 15-112(A). The brief argues that the statute, which led to the disbanding of Tucson’s Mexican American Studies (MAS) program, violates Arizona students’ First Amendment rights to receive information and is unconstitutionally overbroad.
Actually, we missed it by a day! The Freedom to Read Foundation turned 44 on Wednesday, November 20. Over the years, thousand of librarians, attorneys, free speech activists, library trustees, authors, libraries, colleges, publishers, and other individuals and organizations have helped support our unique and powerful work of defending YOUR right to access information in libraries and beyond.
We have defended librarians facing challenges—some that were career-threatening, helped established important legal precedent, and educated untold numbers about the importance of libraries and access to information to our system of self-governance.
Today, we are a thriving organization with a multitude of cases, programs, and initiatives to continue the visionary work started four and a half decades ago.
Encouraging your friends to join. If you are logged in to your member profile, you'll see the "Refer a Friend" link in the top right corner of this page. If not, you can visit our Member Get a Member page.
Encouraging your library, institution of higher learning, workplace, or community organization to join as an organization.
The most recent issue of the Freedom to Read Foundation News is now available online for current members & newsletter subscribers. The current issue of our quarterly publication is available free for 2013 members and those who have joined or renewed for 2014. To access the current issue, you must be logged in to your member profile using your username or the email address associated with your account.
(Back issues, from 1991 to June 2013, are available to members and non-members.)
Our fall issue has articles on FTRF's work on high-profile issues of privacy and surveillance, a report from this past summer's "CIPA: Ten Years Later" conference, and a retrospective of FTRF's history with Kurt Vonnegut and the many challenges to Slaughterhouse-Five.
If you're not a current member of the Freedom to Read Foundation, or would like to renew your membership, now is the perfect time! Visit our membership page for more.
Nominations for the 2014 FTRF Board of Trustees election are now open. To suggest someone for the election ballot (including yourself), email or mail the FTRF office; the Nominating Committee will make the final determination of the candidate slate.
Nominees must be 2014 members of the Freedom to Read Foundation and be able to attend two in-person meetings each year. For more information, check out our official announcement.
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Yesterday marked the 20th anniversary of Frank Zappa's death from cancer at the age of 52. The Freedom to Read Foundation and ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom were, at the time, designated by his family as among the organizations to receive contributions made in his memory. 
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