The Massachusetts Library System is working with the American Library Association to provide a 5-webinar series designed to help you navigate issues concerning intellectual freedom.  

Intellectual freedom challenges and attacks have taken an immense toll on library workers’ physical and mental health and institutional morale. Librarians in all settings must protect themselves and their jobs. Expert advocates  will offer strategies for handling harassment such as doxing, social media attacks, and job threats, as well as ways to ensure self-care.

Presenter:

Betsy Gomez is a program officer for ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, coordinator for Unite Against Book Bans and the Banned Books Week Coalition, and former coalition and editorial director for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, an advocacy organization dedicated to the First Amendment rights of the comics community. Gomez edited and designed the award-winning publication CBLDF Presents: She Changed Comics, which profiles more than 60 groundbreaking women who expanded the expressive possibilities of the comics medium. With more than a decade of professional experience defending intellectual freedom, Gomez also has an extensive background in educational publishing as a content developer and editor for several companies, including Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Pearson Education. 

Registrants will receive an email with login information 3 hours before the session. If you do not receive the login information, please check your spam folder (sometimes these automated emails can get caught by filters) or contact Sarah Donnelly.