FTRF and United for Libraries Offer Webinar for Trustees

United for Libraries and the Freedom to Read Foundation are co-sponsoring a webinar:

Law and the Right to Read: What Your Trustees Need to Know

June 5, 2024, 1 p.m. central / 2 p.m. eastern

FTRF members attend for FREE

Trustees have a special role in upholding the right to read.  Many elected and appointed trustees seek out their role because of their love of the library or their local school district, but they may not understand why it is critical to uphold the First Amendment right to access information for their fellow community members or students.

In this session, trustees will learn the basics of intellectual freedom related to their role, and how First Amendment rights are related to policies and access in our public and public-school libraries.  They will be given the tools needed to support staff and patrons’ rights, including their own, and tackle challenges that arise in their community.

Learning Objectives:

• An understanding of publicly funded libraries’ responsibilities to protect the right to read and access the library under the First and Fourteenth Amendment.

• An understanding of proposed laws, ordinances, and administrative rules intended to censor materials or restrict library workers’ ability to provide information to their community.

• Strategies for effective advocacy to preserve the right to read, including networking with local and statewide groups.

• Resources through the American Library Association, United for Libraries, and the Freedom to Read Foundation that help fight censorship.

Presenters

Deborah Caldwell-Stone is Director of ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom and Executive Director of the Freedom to Read Foundation. For over twenty years she has worked closely with library professionals and library trustees on a wide range of intellectual freedom issues related to library service in the United States. She has served on the faculty of the ALA-sponsored Lawyers for Libraries and Law for Librarians workshops and is a contributor to the 10th edition of the Intellectual Freedom Manual. She has contributed articles on law, policy, and intellectual freedom to American Libraries and other publications.

Theresa Chmara is an attorney in Washington, DC. She also is the General Counsel of the Freedom to Read Foundation. She is the author of Privacy and Confidentiality Issues: A Guide for Libraries and their Lawyers (ALA 2009). She has been a First Amendment lawyer for over thirty years and is a frequent speaker on intellectual freedom issues in libraries.  She is a contributing author for the Intellectual Freedom Manual published by the Office of Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association. She also served as an instructor for the Lawyers for Libraries training seminars and an instructor for the American Library Association First Amendment and Library Services E-Course.

Pricing and Participation

Registration is free for Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF) Members

• Free registration is for FTRF members and is non-transferable.

• Refer to the email you received from FTRF for the coupon code.

• To register:

• Go to this address, https://elearning.ala.org/local/catalog/view/product.php?productid=1180 and click the registration button.

• Enter the coupon code or contact us at ftrf@ftrf.org to receive a code, then include it in the appropriate box on the shopping cart page.

• Purchase registration.

• Return here to the ALA eLearning site to locate your signup code. Click on the drop-down menu below your name in the upper right corner of your screen. Select the option for "Signup Codes" and locate your signup code for this course.

Redeem your signup code to be registered in the course and receive your Zoom link via email.

To learn more and to register, visit this page. https://elearning.ala.org/local/catalog/view/product.php?productid=1180

Contact
If you have a question or need to make arrangements for additional assistance or accessibility, please contact Jillian Wentworth (jwentworth@ala.org).