Standing Up for Ideas This Fall: Carol Spaziani Intellectual Freedom Festival

Join us this fall for ICPL’s annual Carol Spaziani Intellectual Freedom Festival. Established in 1995, the festival honors Carol's 26-year career at ICPL and her lifelong commitment to the freedom of ideas. In Iowa, this has been a difficult year for library workers and all other intellectual freedom advocates. They fought tirelessly to inform and dissuade those who introduced legislation or policies attacking civil liberties, including our freedom to read, learn, and communicate.

We’ve seen challenges and protests of library events and exhibits, a record number of school district and public library book challenges and bans, as well as widespread legislative restrictions impacting what may be taught or shared in libraries, school classrooms, and workplaces. The work of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom documents these censorship attempts, and reveals that the vast majority of targeted books involve the stories and lived experiences of America’s traditionally marginalized populations, books “written by or about members of the LGBTQIA+ community or by and about Black people, Indigenous people, and people of color.”

The Iowa City Public Library will continue to shine a light on these topics and more at this year’s festival, featuring events and displays coinciding with the American Library Association’s annual Banned Books Week: Let Freedom Read during the first week of October. Learn more at icpl.org/iff.