Intellectual freedom is this idea that everyone has the right to believe what they want, and to have access to other people's ideas and knowledge and the ability to share information.

James LaRue has been a library director in Colorado for many years and his book is about the intellectual freedom challenges that face librarians. The first chapter is all about the history of the 1st amendment. As a grad student, I guess it's good for me to know this history but the chapter was a little boring. The 2nd chapter, though, was really interesting. LaRue details his experience with people/groups who object to (challenge) a book or DVD at his library. These challenges mostly have to do with religion or sex.

What I learned is that libraries have a responsibility to keep a wide range of knowledge and information accessible to everyone, to "publicly present the intellectual resourcesof our culture;" not to take sides but equally represent everyone. To the Mormons who challenged a bigoted anti-Mormon DVD, LaRue suggested they present some titles of pro-Mormon DVDs and literature that the library could buy. They did so and the library purchased these.

In the next chapters LaRue gives guidelines for how librarians should respond to challenges and also suggestions for how they can be more involved with their community. He urges librarians to be informed about as much they can, especially on organizations that are challenging the library. That's why he went to fundamentalist meetings. He also made a point to introduce himself to school administrators, politicians and the like.

LaRue's tone is respectful and level-headed. He is easy to understand and seems passionate about his work. His advice for how to run a successful library seems sound, with his refrain always "intellectual freedom for all".