LFI 2025

Library Freedom Institute

Library Freedom Institute (LFI) is a training program for library workers focused on privacy, intellectual freedom, and critical technology. We teach librarians the skills necessary to support information democracy in the 21st Century; from educating community members, to installing privacy software, to influencing local policy.

General course information and resources

• [NEED LINK] Lecture video links]
• Code of Conduct
• Discord: A discussion platform that cohort members get invited to when LFI begins.
• Zoom video conference room: A private Zoom room that cohort members get the address to when LFI begins.

Schedule and curriculum

Schedule overview

Week	Date and time	Topic	Lecturer
1	Week of May 5th, time and date TBD	Introduction to this course and each other
2	Week of May 12th, time and date TBD	What is information democracy? And what are the problems we face? Threats to speech and privacy in libraries (and their origins) and threat modeling
3	Week of May 19th, time and date TBD	What are we fighting for? Messaging and talking points
4	Week of May 26th, time and date TBD	Policies and practices (or off week for memorial day)
5	Week of June 2nd, time and date TBD	Vendor issues
6	Week of June 9th, time and date TBD	TBD
7	Week of June 16th, time and date TBD	Technology for liberation, or at least just better passwords
8	Week of June 23rd, time and date TBD	Technology practices and strategies, second week
9	Week of June 30th, time and date TBD	Off for July 4th week
10	Week of July 7th	Privacy audits and resisting data for data's sake, new data-driven business models, and making information democracy into a sustainable long term practice
11	Week of July 14th, time and date TBD	Who benefits from surveillance and censorship? Tech billionaires and others we are up against
12	July 25 - 27	In-person weekend, Philadelphia, PA
13	Week of July 28th	Off week following in-person weekend
14	Week of August 4th, time and date TBD	Did we miss anything? Policing, artificial intelligence, social media, reproductive health and privacy, anti-doxxing, immigrant threat models? We may need this week if we end up skipping memorial day week
15	Week of August 11th, time and date TBD	Closing week and final presentations

In-person weekend subjects

• Powermapping
• Teaching and training others (staff and patrons)
• Building coalitions for support
• Final project work