Nominations open for 2022 IFRT Gerald Hodges Intellectual Freedom Chapter Relations Award

The Intellectual Freedom Round Table (IFRT) Coalition Building Committee is accepting nominations for the 2022 Gerald Hodges Intellectual Freedom Chapter Relations Award. Do you know of a state chapter or organization that has:

• bravely defended the freedom to read or access to information;
• successfully promoted intellectual freedom issues;
• or demonstrated exemplary coalition-building efforts?

The Gerald Hodges Award recognizes an intellectual freedom-focused organization that has developed a strong multi-year, ongoing program or a single, one-year project that exemplifies support for intellectual freedom, patron confidentiality and anti-censorship efforts. This award consists of a citation and $1,000. Past recipients include the Missouri Library Association (2021) and the Connecticut Library Association Intellectual Freedom Committee (2020).  Learn more about past recipients, programs and projects on the IFRT website.

The award is named after Gerald Hodges, who joined the ALA staff in 1989 as director of membership services and the Chapter Relations Office. Hodges was the associate director of communications and marketing at his death in 2006, but intellectual freedom and chapter relations were still his passions. A charter member of the ALA Legacy Society, he willed a portion of his estate to support ALA’s intellectual freedom efforts. Memorial contributions in recognition of Hodges came from many friends, colleagues and ALA chapters following the establishment of the Gerald Hodges Fund. 

The award is sponsored by the Intellectual Freedom Round Table of the American Library Association (ALA). An online nomination form and printable PDF nomination form are available. The deadline for nominations is January 1, 2022.

Members of the Coalition Building Committee are: Chair Ray James, Jeremy Brett, Isabel Klein, and Jennifer Steele.

The Intellectual Freedom Round Table (IFRT) provides a forum for the discussion of activities, programs and problems in intellectual freedom of libraries and librarians; serves as a channel of communications on intellectual freedom matters; promotes a greater opportunity for involvement among the members of the ALA in defense of intellectual freedom; promotes a greater feeling of responsibility in the implementation of ALA policies on intellectual freedom. @IFRT_ALA