ALA has announced that they have chosen Barbara M. Jones to be the new head of the Office for Intellectual Freedom, replacing the long-serving Judith Krug, who passed away in April.
The ALA Press Release quotes Jones describing the present day context of intellectual freedom in her letter of application:
Twenty-first century IF issues are evolving quickly from those of the twentieth, due to the following: globalization of intellectual freedom issues; technology and privacy concerns; and an increasingly contentious civic discourse as witnessed in the recent health care Town Meetings…New intellectual freedom issues will need to be articulated in terms of our unchanging IF ideals – to the ALA membership, the general public, and to the organizations with which ALA collaborates.
I am very happy to see the new head of the OIF taking a broader view of Intellectual Freedom. It looks to me like the search committee made a very good choice. It will be very interesting to see what role the new OIF plays in things.
