Senior college-bound students are eligible to enter this county wide writing competition to win a $100 prize! Entries must be submitted by February 15.
The Intellectual Freedom committee of the Hillsborough School Library Media Specialists (HASLMS) association will collect, read, and score essays written by senior students on the subject "The Importance of Intellectual Freedom" which must be submitted by February 15. The county's winning entry will be awarded $100.00.
The committee will select the best paper based on the following criteria:
The winner will be selected by March 1. The essay will be presented to the Board of Education during the annual School Media Month recognition.
See your school media specialist for an entry form, or contact our committee chair.
As the first library that many children and youth are introduced to on a
continuing basis, the school library media center plays a vital role in promoting
intellectual freedom. A very basic, but important statement is made by the
presence of the center, particularly one that is professionally staffed and
accessible for use by students before, during, and after regular school hours,
and has a broad range of resources from which to choose.
- Diane McAfee Hopkins, Intellectual Freedom Manual, ALA, 1989
The American Library Association affirms that all libraries are forums for information and ideas, and that the following basic policies should guide their services.
I. Books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves. Materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation.
II. Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.
III. Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.
IV. Libraries should cooperate with all persons and groups concerned with resisting abridgment of free expression and free access to ideas.
V. A person's right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views.
VI. Libraries, which make exhibit spaces and meeting rooms available to the public they serve, should make such facilities available on an equitable basis regardless of the beliefs or affiliations of individuals or groups requesting their use.
Adopted June 18, 1948.
Amended February 2, 196 1, and January 23, 1980, inclusion of "age"
reaffirmed January 23, 1996, by the ALA Council.