Brief Description: Audiovisual Materials from the Office of Intellectual Freedom contains Freedom in America (1977), two filmstrips, two audio cassettes and a discussion guide on freedom of expression under the First Amendment and the Library Bill of Rights, 12 magnetic audio tapes from a colloquium on school and school library censorship and litigation (1981), videocassettes from the 1980s-2000s on constitutional rights and censorship, an audio tape of the session "Pornography on the Internet: A New Reality" from the American Association of Law Librarians Annual Meeting (2001), videocassettes on media training and censorship featuring Karen Schneider (1998), Anne Kaplan (1998), and Judith Krug (2003-2004), a slide presentation with audio cassette, "It Can Happen Here", from the Kings County Library (1975), slides from the "Freedom in America" slide show (1977), a film reel of an episode of WCAU-TV's "Camera at Large" series on book censorship (c. 1961), and film reels and videocassettes of the ALA Film The Speaker (1977).

Record Series Number: 6/3/13

Created by: Office for Intellectual Freedom

Volume: 7.6 Cubic Feet

Acquired: 10/25/91; 9/10/2009; 7/26/2010

Arrangement: Chronological

Biographical Note for Office for Intellectual Freedom :

In December 1967, the Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) was established to provide ALA with a permanent headquarters to coordinate the association's intellectual freedom activities and to provide continuity for the total program (1). The OIF's major concern is to educate librarians and the general public on the importance of intellectual freedom as it relates to the individual, the institution, and the functioning of our society, thereby allowing the Intellectual Freedom Committee (IFC) to concentrate on developing policy (2). The goal of the OIF is to encourage and protect the librarian's commitment to the principles of intellectual freedom, both in pursuit of professional responsibilities and in personal life (3).

Serving as the administrative arm of the IFC, the OIF is responsible for the implementation of ALA policies on intellectual freedom, as set forth in the Library Bill of Rights and its supporting documents. Its functions include:

1. Distribution of materials and information, including advice and consultation to librarians concerning potential or actual confrontations with censorship problems, and administration of the Program in Support of the Library Bill of Rights; (4)

2. Preparing regular and special publication, including the Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom, a monthly column in American Libraries, the OIF Memorandum, The Intellectual Freedom Manual, The Freedom to Read Foundation News, and an annual bibliography, Librarians, Censorship, and Intellectual Freedom;

3. Maintaining the permanent and traveling OIF exhibits; (5)

4. Supervising liason with the Freedom to Read Foundation, the LeRoy C. Merritt Humanitarian Fund, serving as liaison to the IFC, coordinating activities of state intellectual freedom committees, and cooperating with organizations whose purposes are related to intellectual freedom; (6)

5. Administering the Emergency Employment Network, a network of libraries which offers interim employment to librarians who suffer loss of employment due to intellectual freedom policies (7).

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Languages of Materials

Finding Aid Revisions: 12/2/2022 - updated with [Digitized] materials