Freedom to Think: From Banned Books to Self-Censorship

What happens when information isn’t censored—but quietly shaped?

Banned Books Week highlights free expression and access to information, but what if the blockage of expression goes beyond the censorship of books? What if many new technologies we have hinged ourselves onto for information and knowledge actually prevent ourselves and future selves from flourishing? Join us for a fascinating presentation and discussion with information professional Anita Coleman about freedom of intelligence. From the discussion, you will learn about:

Freedom of intelligence

How freedom of intelligence relates to learning, ethics, and regulation

How to build belonging, confidence, and connectedness in a shifting information landscape

How to find and best utilize your information search style

Acquiring better practices and knowledge in the wake of AI misinformation

How technology can inhibit instead of help

Note: Anita Coleman will be presenting virtually, but the program will be held in-person.

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For more information, contact 703-228-3352 or email [email protected].

This program supports the Library's recognition of Banned Books Week

About the Presenter:

Research focus: I study the ethical, socio-cultural, and historical dimensions of knowledge organization and human information behavior at their intersections with technology and democracy. My current research develops adaptive infophilia, a theory of human information engagement applied across four domains: AI and information ethics (freedom of intelligence and infrastructure literacy as the successors to intellectual freedom and information literacy); information behaviors (wellbeing, flourishing, bright patterns with infophilic information styles); knowledge organization (LIS research taxonomies); and open infrastructure (bibliographic recovery and the LIS Historical Commons).

Biography: Dr. Coleman was named a 2007 Mover and Shaker by Library Journal for her pioneering work with dLIST (Digital Library for Information Science and Technology), the first open access repository for LIS. She was recognized by ALA and the Library of Congress for her 2005 Cataloging and Metadata Education prototype. Her Anti-racism Digital Library and International Anti-racism Thesaurus (2015) were web archived by the Library of Congress in 2020. A designer and builder across three decades, Coleman is now developing adaptive infophilia for flourishing with AI, through public scholarship, peer-reviewed research, and tools for teaching, research, and practice. Her doctoral dissertation — on the design of a hypermedia journal requiring tools for document conversion, question answering, and fifteen other categories of information work — anticipated what we now call agentic AI: systems that navigate knowledge responsively rather than delivering fixed outputs.

Additional context: Information Matters author page | Wikipedia

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Community event in Arlington, VA 22201.