University Libraries

Banned Books Week (BBW): Celebrating the Freedom to Read is observed during the last week of September each year. Observed since 1982, this annual ALA event reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted. BBW celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them. After all, intellectual freedom can exist only where the freedom to express oneself and the freedom to choose what opinions and viewpoints to consume are both met. As the Intellectual Freedom Manual (ALA, 7th edition) states:

Intellectual freedom can exist only where two essential conditions are met: first, that all individuals have the right to hold any belief on any subject and to convey their ideas in any form they deem appropriate; and second, that society makes an equal commitment to the right of unrestricted access to information and ideas regardless of the communication medium used, the content of the work, and the viewpoints of both the author and receiver of information. Freedom to express oneself through a chosen mode of communication, including the Internet, becomes virtually meaningless if access to that information is not protected. Intellectual freedom implies a circle, and that circle is broken if either freedom of expression or access to ideas is stifled.

Although they were the targets of attempted bannings, most of the books featured during BBW were not banned, thanks to the efforts of librarians to maintain them in their collections. Imagine how many more books might be challenged—and possibly banned or restricted—if librarians, teachers, and booksellers across the country did not use Banned Books Week each year to teach the importance of our First Amendment rights and the power of literature, and to draw attention to the danger that exists when restraints are imposed on the availability of information in a free society.

Banned Books Week is sponsored by the American Booksellers Association; American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression; the American Library Association; American Society of Journalists and Authors; Association of American Publishers; and the National Association of College Stores.  It is endorsed by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.

For more information on banned books, check the American Library Association website.

The Writing Center offers a satellite location in the Main Library on Sunday nights from 7:00-9:00, room 2058 on the 2nd floor.

The service is open to all University of Iowa students, faculty, and staff.  Writing Center tutors will help with any step in the writing process. 

An appointment is necessary, and can be reserved through the online scheduler at the Writing Center website: www.uiowa.edu/~writingc.

Librarians in our nation’s 123,000 libraries make a difference in the lives of millions of people every day.  If a librarian has made a difference in your life, now is the chance to tell your story.

The Carnegie Corporation of New York/New York Times I Love My Librarian Award encourages library users to recognize the accomplishments of librarians in public, school, college, community college and university libraries for their efforts to improve the lives of people in their community.

Nominations will be open from August 17 to October 9.  

Up to 10 librarians in public, school and college, community college and university libraries will be selected to win $5,000 and will be honored at a ceremony and reception in New York at TheTimesCenter, hosted by The New York Times. In addition, a plaque will be given to each award winner’s library. Winners will be announced in November 2009.

Each nominee must be a librarian with a master’s degree from a program accredited by the ALA in library and information studies or a master’s degree with a specialty in school library media from an educational unit accredited by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education.  Nominees must be currently working in the United States in a public library, a library at an accredited two- or four-year college or university or at an accredited K-12 school.

For more information and to nominate a librarian, visit www.ilovelibraries.org/ilovemylibrarian.

The award is supported by Carnegie Corporation of New York and The New York Times.  It is administered by The American Library Association (ALA), the oldest and largest library association in the world, and The Campaign for America’s Libraries, ALA’s public awareness campaign about the value of libraries and librarians.

LISSO (Library and Information Science Student Organization), Pirate Radio, and the Iowa City Public Library (ICPL) invite you to the Intellectual Freedom Festival from Sept. 25 – Oct. 7!  All events will be held at the Iowa City Public Library at 123 S. Linn St. in Meeting Room A.

Fri. Sept. 25, 7:00 p.m.  “Bloody Cartoons: Freedom of expression and the clash of cultures.”

“Bloody Cartoons” is a documentary about how and why 12 drawings in a Danish provincial paper could whirl a small country into a confrontation with Muslims all over the world. He asks whether respect for Islam combined with the heated response to the cartoons is now leading us towards self-censorship. How tolerant should we be, he wonders, of the intolerant. And what limits should there be, if any, to freedom of speech in a democracy.

Wed. Sept. 30, noon  “Public Libraries, Budget Cuts and Intellectual Freedom: a conversation about the state of Iowa Libraries.”

A panel with: Nick Shimmin – Director, West Branch Public Library; Jennie Garner – Assistant Director, North Liberty Public Library; Susan Craig – Director, Iowa City Public Library; Mike Jorgensen – Adult Services Librarian, Coralville Public Library; Jason Paulious – Young Adult Librarian, Iowa City Public Library; Mike Wright – Head of Acquisitions and Copy Cataloging, University of Iowa Libraries.

Wed. Oct. 7, noon “Intellectual Freedom Remix, feat. Tack-Fu, the Chaircrusher, Pirate Radio and Kembrew McLeod:  What Producing, Sampling, Remixing and Broadcasting have to teach us about copyright and the freedom to create.”

Music, film, books and other media have become imminently shareable with the advent of internet broadband communications.  Some artists see this as a threat to their rights under copyright law.  Meanwhile, a counter-movement of artists argues that strict copyright and broadcasting laws stifle intellectual freedom and creativity.

Tack-Fu and the Chaircrusher are local hip-hop producers who live by their own set of rules for sampling other musicians’ work to create new and innovative music.

Pirate Radio is a local independent radio station that broadcasts music, talk, poetry, radio drama (an original is currently in production), and even weekly bedtime stories from Iowa City.

Kembrew McLeod is a Professor of Communications at the University of Iowa. He has copyrighted the phrase “Freedom of Expression” as a statement about the chilling effects of current copyright laws in the U.S.

As public concern about Pandemic H1N1 and the upcoming flu season continues to grow, the medical and nursing editors from EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO) respond by offering the latest evidence-based flu-related information available for free.

This free flu information resource is located at www.ebscohost.com/flu and will provide continually updated, evidence-based clinical information from DynaMed™ and Nursing Reference Center™, EBSCO’s clinical and nursing point-of-care databases, along with patient education information in 17 languages from Patient Education Reference Center™. Please visit this site often and feel free to share, post, and email this link to your colleagues, patrons, family and friends. 

Learn about EBSCO’s editorial processes for systematically identifying, evaluating and selecting evidence.