LIBR 234
Intellectual Freedom Seminar
Fall 2004

Instructor: Carrie Gardner
sjsu234@aol.com

GREENSHEET

Course Description
Focuses on current intellectual freedom issues and the centrality of intellectual freedom to librarianship.

The Objectives of this course that relate to the SLIS Goals are:

1. Teaching students the major theories, important principles, and current practice in the following areas:
   • The foundations of information services;
   • Information management, including the selection, organization, storage, retrieval, dissemination and utilization of information resources;
   • The principles and practices of management as specifically applied to information environments;
   • Advocacy and leadership for citizen access to information and knowledge resources; and
2. Giving students the opportunity to take elective courses, practicums, and independent studies that prepare them to contribute to the work of the library and information professions.
3. Requiring students to evaluate and utilize relevant research studies from a variety of disciplines in their coursework.

Required Text:

Intellectual Freedom Manual, 6th ed. Chicago: American Library Association.

This is available from amazon.com.

Student Objectives:

At the end of this course, the student will:

1. Understand the idea of patron privacy and be familiar with state privacy laws.
2. Know the role and parts of a patron privacy policy.
3. Understand how the First Amendment and numerous laws relate to Libraries.
4. Know the difference between legal and illegal information.
5. Know the definition of Intellectual Freedom.
6. Understand how Intellectual Freedom influences a library program.
7. Explore the ideas of censorship.
8. Explore the ideas of selection vs. censorship.
9. Know some of the major players who try to influence libraries.
10. Understand the role policy plays in collection development.
11. Know the Librarians Code of Ethics.
12. Understand the purpose of the Library Bill of Rights and it’s Interpretations.
13. Understand the issues surrounding providing Internet access.
14. Know how filter products work and their effect on access to information.
15. Know the purpose and sections of a resource selection policy.
16. Know how to handle a resource challenge.
17. Be aware of banned books week and other promotional materials.

Assignments:

University Recommended Grading Scale
for Graduate Students