Barbara Jones, Ex-Director at Wesleyan, Named Head of ALA OIF and FTRF

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Successor to Krug says unchanging ideals must be applied to new issues

Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 12/02/2009

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Second person in both positions
Long history in IF advocacy
International experience

Barbara M. Jones, the recently retired library director at Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, and a longtime library leader and intellectual freedom advocate, has been named the second-ever director of the American Library Association (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) and executive director, Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF).

In both cases, she succeeds the founding director, ALA legend Judith Krug, who died in April, and was the subject of numerous tributes. She goes to work on December 14, 2009.

The evolving landscape
As noted in a press release, Jones, in her letter of application, wrote: "Twenty-first century IF issues are evolving quickly from those of the twentieth, due to the following: globalization of intellectual freedom issues; technology and privacy concerns; and an increasingly contentious civic discourse as witnessed in the recent health care Town Meetings...New intellectual freedom issues will need to be articulated in terms of our unchanging IF ideals—to the ALA membership, the general public, and to the organizations with which ALA collaborates."

IF experience
Jones, currently FTRF Treasurer, served on the FAIFE (Freedom of Access to Information and Freedom of Expression) IFLA Standing Committee, the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee, and numerous other IF-related committees. She has worked as an FAIFE trainer and expert advisor internationally.

She is the author of Libraries, Access, and Intellectual Freedom and Protecting Intellectual Freedom in Your Academic Library (both, ALA Editions), among other books. In 2007, she was named winner of the Robert B. Downs Intellectual Freedom Award from the University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science. At the FTRF's 30th anniversary gala in 1999, Jones was named to the FTRF Honor Roll.

Background
Before her stint at Wesleyan, from 2003 to 2009, Jones held library directorships at Union College, the University of Northern Iowa, and the Fashion Institute of Technology (SUNY), as well as administrative positions at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), Minnesota Historical Society, New York University, and Teachers College Library, Columbia University.

Along with an MLS, an M.A.T. in English, and an M.A. in History, Archival Management, and Historical Editing, Jones holds a Ph.D. in U.S. Legal History.

In a note to Wesleyan earlier this year, Jones said that "retirement" was a misnomer, "since I will be spending part of 2009 offering workshops on the important issue of freedom of expression in the Philippines and Nigeria." She describes herself elsewhere as an international library consultant. (Photo from Shining Hope for Communities.)