I'm sure my titles will get more creative as the semester goes on, but I'm still mulling a lot of information over. I feel as though I understand Intellectual Freedom as a concept (at least at a very basic level and the importance it has to LIS) but I'm looking forward to growing and being challenged (no pun intended) in my beliefs. I know that in my future I will not deal with intellectual freedom issues in the way a public librarian will as I have no desire to enter public librarianship. (I have a great deal of respect for those who do enter it; I do not feel as though I have the patience to be successful in that environment.) I do feel strongly about banned books and do not believe that a book should be banned. However, when it comes to security issues (i.e. national security), I may not always agree. I am really excited to hear other points of view and for me to be questioned.
As I said in class, I’m probably most interested in the areas where intellectual freedom and academic freedom converge, and I also have an (albeit nerdy) interest in the Middle East. On the agenda in the coming weeks are projects to help us focus on how IF is important to a democracy. Both of these concepts are not very prevalent in most Middle East nations and one thing I hope to think about, at least here in my blog, is the role intellectual freedom can play or how IF can work in other forms of government.
