Posted by Jason on Tuesday, Sep 24, 2024
In 1995, the Iowa City Public Library established the annual Carol Spaziani Intellectual Freedom Festival to honor Carol Spaziani’s 27-year career at ICPL and her lifelong commitment to the freedom of ideas. Spaziani believed that the public library's role is to be a resource and a forum for an individual's pursuit and expression of diverse points of view.
The festival is planned by a library committee that monitors current intellectual freedom issues and organizes programs of interest for area residents. This year’s festival will address the numerous recent challenges, book bans, and legislative restrictions affecting libraries, classrooms, and workplaces. Many of the targeted books involve stories and experiences of marginalized populations, such as the LGBTQIA+ community, Black people, Indigenous people, and people of color. ICPL is dedicated to highlighting these issues during the festival, with events and displays kicking off during the American Library Association’s annual Banned Books Week in the last week of September. Celebrate your intellectual freedom and join us at the Library for programs and discussions.
The theme for Banned Books Week 2024 (September 22-28) is "Freed Between the Lines." We can find freedom in the pages of a book — but book bans and censorship threaten that freedom, along with other rights and institutions. During Banned Books Week 2024 and beyond, let’s share our love of the right to read and the freedom found in books. Let’s be Freed Between the Lines!
A full list of the Iowa City Public Library's Intellectual Freedom Festival & Banned Book Week events can be found at icpl.org/iff.
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About the Author
Jason is Adult Services Coordinator. He oversees reference services offered at the Info Desk, Switchboard, Digital Media Lab, Koza Family Teen Center, and Page Station. He coordinates programming opportunities for adults and teens.
Cary J. Griffith’s account of the 2007 Ham Lake fire that, over two weeks, burned 75,000 acres of woodlands in northern Minnesota and into Canada. Griffith opens with the fire raging towards an inhabited area of northwood cabins, a local Deputy tries to persuade a resourceful 76-year-old area resident to follow the mandatory evacuation. The story is told chronologically and from many points of view, Griffith introduces us to a variety of people involved in the fire and it’s plain to see that he was thorough in his search for first hand accounts. Over the following chapters Griffith introduces us to the camper whose fire started the blaze, resort and homeowners in the area, police and fire personnel, as well as scientists that detail the natural and climatic conditions that led to it burning so widely. His descriptions of the area’s natural history help to explain how this fire got out of hand so quickly. Those with a strong connection to the area that “Gunflint Burning” covers and can attest that Griffith was able to capture the sights and sounds that make canoe trips in the Boundary Waters so special. -Jason