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This Fall the Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF) is working with Professors at and the to offer intellectual freedom courses for current library and information science (LIS) students.

Professor Carrie Gardner will lead a 3-credit, asynchronous Intellectual Freedom Seminar through the SJSU iSchool between August 21 and December 10, 2018. Dr. Gardner has taught intellectual freedom (IF) courses since 2002 and her course explores topics ranging from the legal foundation of the First Amendment to IF history, policies, ethics, and privacy, and the ways these topics intersect in our libraries.

For over twenty years Dr. Gardner has been the Principal Consultant at Clairmaxine, a consulting firm that focuses on educating librarians, educators, members of the media, and the public about intellectual freedom, intellectual property and privacy. She has presented over 250 seminars, workshops, and keynote addresses both nationally and internationally. She has written numerous peer reviewed articles and book chapters on intellectual freedom and privacy.

There are still openings available in the class. Interested students can contact SJSU iSchool online or by calling (408) 924-2490 for more information and reference course 234.

iSchool at Illinois Professor Emily Knox will offer a 2-credit synchronous online course, IS 546, Intellectual Freedom and Censorship. Her course approaches intellectual freedom as an ethical issue based in interpretations of the First Amendment of the United States and the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. It meets on Tuesdays, 4:00-6:30 p.m., August 18 – October 19, 2018.

Dr. Emily Knox is an Assistant Professor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests include information access, intellectual freedom and censorship, information ethics, information policy, and the intersection of print culture and reading practices. She recently edited Trigger Warnings: History, Theory, Context, published by Rowman & Littlefield in June 2017. Her book, Book Banning in 21st Century America, was published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2015. It is the first monograph in the Beta Phi Mu Scholars’ Series.

There are still openings for this class as well and students can contact Karla Lucht, klucht@illinois.edu or visit ; Each course combines FTRF’s resources and speakers with the expertise that Gardner and Knox bring to their field. The Freedom to Read Foundation is excited to help future librarians understand issues of intellectual freedom, privacy, and censorship, and learn ways to navigate instances of these issues as LIS professionals.

For more information on other FTRF news and initiatives, visit FTRF.org or email ftrf@ala.org.