Deborah Caldwell-Stone, Director of the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom, Named Recipient of the 2021 Intellectual Freedom Award
July 1, 2021
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The 2021 Illinois Library Association Intellectual Freedom Award is awarded to Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom and the Executive Director of the Freedom to Read Foundation. The award, presented by the ILA Intellectual Freedom Committee, recognizes an individual or group for outstanding contributions in defending intellectual freedom or the advancement of these principles. The award is sponsored by the Intellectual Freedom Fund and was established in 2007 in honor of Robert P. Doyle.
The Illinois Library Association is committed to the advocacy and defense of intellectual freedom. The freedom of all citizens to have access to reading materials that entertain and educate, and to speak and to read freely as guaranteed by the First Amendment. In receiving this award, the Intellectual Freedom committee recognizes the many years of Ms. Caldwell-Stone’s unflagging devotion to these principles.
For the past two decades, she has worked closely with libraries, librarians, and trustees to address a wide range of intellectual freedom issues, including book bans, internet censorship, meeting room policies, and the privacy of library users' records.
In addition to directing the work of the Office for Intellectual Freedom, she advises ALA's Intellectual Freedom Committee and its Privacy Subcommittee on law and policy concerns and has served on the faculty of the ALA-sponsored Lawyers for Libraries and Law for Librarians workshops. She has also taught the ALA e-course, “Privacy, Libraries, Patrons, and the Law.” She is a former appellate litigator. She graduated with honors from the Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology.
The ILA Intellectual Freedom Award will be presented at an awards ceremony during the 2021 Illinois Library Association Annual Conference. The conference will take place October 12-14, 2021. Release For further information, contact the Illinois Library Association.
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