Confessions of a Mad Librarian

Sunday, June 27

Ethics In Action
ALA-ETHICS
1:30 pm - 3:30 pm, ROSE Ballroom C
Ethical Dilemmas: Selling Books and Supporting Candidates in Your Library. These issues and their complex nuances will be brought to life in a series of vignettes, presented by the Committee, followed by a thought-provoking discussion with audience members.

Tiny Trackers: The Use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology by Libraries and Booksellers
ALA-IFC, ALA-OITP
1:30 pm - 3:30 pm, ROSE Salon 9/10
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is an item-tagging technology capable of identifying every product on earth. According to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (PRC), if used improperly, RFID "has the potential to jeopardize consumer privacy, reduce or eliminate purchasing anonymity, and threaten civil liberties." A panel of experts from a variety of areas related to or affected by this new technology will explain the benefits and drawbacks of RFID use.
Speakers: Douglas Karp, Sr. director and general manager, ID Products Group, Checkpoint Systems, Inc. (Thorofare, NJ); Donald S. Leslie, Library Industry Market Manager, 3M (St. Paul, MN); James Lichtenberg, president, Lightspeed, LLC (New York, NY); Karen L. Saunders, Assistant City Librarian, Santa Clara City Library (CA); Lee Tien, Senior First Amendment Attorney, Electronic Frontier Foundation (San Francisco, CA)

Monday, June 28

IFC Issues Briefing Session and Open Hearing: Media Diversity, Communities and FCC Deregulation
ALA-IFC
8:00 am - 10:00 am, Orlando Convention Center, 206 C
Please join us for a briefing session on the intellectual freedom hot topics at this conference and to participate in an open hearing on Media Diversity, Communities and FCC Deregulation.

From Many Voices to Few: Media Consolidation and Intellectual Freedom
ALA-IFC, ALA-COL
10:30 am - 12:00 pm, , Orlando Convention Center, 311 A-C
As never before, freedom of expression and diversity of opinion - essential to democracy and intellectual freedom - are threatened by the rapid consolidation of media. Learn from a panel of experts what libraries can do to provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues to their communities now that big media are getting bigger and presumably less diverse.
Speakers: Dr. Mark Cooper, Director of Research, Consumer Federation of America (Washington, D.C.); Lucy A. Dalglish, executive director, The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (Arlington, VA)

Censorship of the Written Word: Still Alive and Kickin'
ALA-IFC, AAP, ABFFE
1:30 pm - 3:30 pm, Orlando Convention Center, 308 A/B
Robie Harris, author of It's Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing up, Sex, and Sexual Health and It's So Amazing! A Book About Eggs, Sperm, Birth, Babies, and Families, and Jerilynn Williams, director, Montgomery County Library System (Conroe, Texas) and recipient of the 2003 PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award for successfully defending Harris' books, will discuss the ever present attempts to censor the written word. Learn how librarians and local grassroots movements can deal effectively with challenges.
Speakers: Robie H. Harris, author, Cambridge, MA; Jerilyn Williams, director, Montgomery County Library System (Conroe, Texas)