Main Page/Regional hubs/Midwest/IowaCity

LFP regional hub events: Iowa City

Intro

• A space for LFP members and our invited community to meet, learn organizing skills, share about library work, and be in community together.
• Friday, September 8, 5:30-8 pm, and Saturday, September 9, 10 am to 6 pm, Shambaugh Auditorium in the Main Library of the University of Iowa, Iowa City.

Please read and abide by our community documents

Community Agreements

• W.A.I.T. – Why Am I Talking?
• Recognize Power & Privilege
• E.L.M.O. - Enough Let's Move On
• Make Space, Take Space
• Confidentiality
• Provide Grace and Be Forgiving
• Yes/and; Both/and
• Self Care and Community Care
• Oops/Ouch Accountability
• Jargon Giraffe/Say Your Acronyms
• Write Bigger/Speak Up/Deaf Applause
• One Mic, One Speaker

Venue

Shambaugh Auditorium at the Main Library of the University of Iowa. Inside the library at 125 West Washington Street.

Food

On Friday night, we'll have dinner catered at the venue (Mediterranean food, with veg options). On Saturday, we will have catered breakfast and coffee in the morning, and water all day. We recommend bringing a reusable water bottle. Lunch will be up to participants.

Some local recommendations for lunch:

Bluebird Diner: 8 min walk, Classic diner food, 7AM-9PM on Saturdays.

Marco’s Grilled Cheese: 8 min walk, 11AM-2:30PM on Saturdays.

Oasis Falafel: 7 min walk, Middle Eastern food, 11AM-8PM on Saturdays, Recommended!

Coffee Emporium: 8 min walk, 8AM-6PM on Saturdays.

Tru Coffee: 6 min walk, Coffee and some snacks, 8AM-2PM on Saturdays.

What to bring

Wear comfortable, casual clothing. Bring proof of a negative covid test, a mask, and additional covid tests if you wish. Bring something to take notes. The venue has wifi. Bring any swag that you want to share with other attendees - eg zines, union buttons, fun stuff from your library.

Transit and parking

Parking lots all over campus. Rates should be about $12.50 for all of Saturday.

Covid protocols

We are requiring negative tests from all participants upon arrival, and will have some extra tests available. We will open windows in the venue, weather permitting. We will be encouraging, but not requiring masks, and will have masks available. Our meeting space may not make much physical distancing possible. If you are not comfortable in this type of space, we'd love to welcome you to one of our many virtual trainings - contact info@libraryfreedom.org for more information.

Agenda draft

Most of the time together will be fairly open-ended with ample time for discussion. We may do a couple of lecture-style presentations on Friday evening, and we may also do an agenda setting activity where we prompt people to share what they want to discuss. The basic framework of the agenda will come together soon and we'll share with all RSVPs; in the meantime, you can take a look at the agenda from our meeting in Philly: https://libraryfreedom.wiki/html/public_html/index.php/Main_Page/Regional_hubs/Mid_Atlantic/Philly

Agenda suggestions to incorporate

• Lots of time for community connection
• Navigating burnout
• Unions
• Reference for incarcerated people
• Support for Midwestern states with abortion restrictions or more book challenges
• Privacy group convo - things you’re doing, what you want to do, what you want to know about
• Training library staff
• Community outreach
• Using digital resources for patron engagement
• Privacy issues
• What is LFP and how it can help me (us) in supporting and providing services to our community
• Training opportunities for how to disrupt organized attacks on libraries around censorship
• Conversation about what LFP is and how it can be utilized
• Defending our profession's ability to make materials decisions
• Intellectual freedom topics
• Power-Mapping on privacy and access would be helpful for me personally
• Building power in the Midwest
• IF attacks on MO/KS libraries + other Midwest libraries
• Discussions of DEI, book bans, the current stance of politicians and politicians that are running
• Information about the job market for librarians and what states/regions are best to be a librarian in politically
• Moving beyond reacting and contributing to the "book banning" conversation and into an intentional community dialog about intellectual freedom
• Effective advocacy strategies for more inclusive hiring practices and requirements for library jobs
• Project management information and ideas
• The implications of AI in privacy, intellectual freedom, and especially academic integrity
• General training and introduction to data privacy and how librarians can help protect patron privacy better
• User privacy, intellectual freedom, 1st amendment rights
• Current library trends
• Workshopping or hearing from how colleagues are working to diversify their collections (discuss realistic expectations, time frames, etc.), * Cooperative collecting and cataloging
• Dealing with whatever consequences may stem from the State Library of Iowa having the potential to become a political organization after its recent restructuring/if state funding becomes tied to things like content censorship in similar ways to how our public school libraries are having to deal with right now/what we should be preparing for
• Censorship and book bans and how they are impacting public libraries and if this issue is related to censorship at all and in what ways and to what extent
• A workshop on protecting our data