"When Ginny Moore Kruse became Director of the CCBC in 1976, she quickly realized that the library had a wealth of information on hand that would be helpful to librarians and teachers facing book challenges. Working with individuals from UW-Madison School of Library and Information Studies and the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, she developed the CCBC Intellectual Freedom (IF) Information Services, which officially began in 1977.

Since 1977, the CCBC IF Services have provided information over 2,000 times to Wisconsin librarians and teachers. Ginny Moore Kruse and the CCBC have received multiple statewide and national awards for the service, including

Wisconsin SIRS Intellectual Freedom Award (Wisconsin Association of School Librarians)

National SIRS Intellectual Freedom Award (American Association of School Librarians)

John Phillip Imroth Memorial Award (American Library Association)

SLATE Intellectual Freedom Award (National Council of Teachers of English)

Lee Burress Intellectual Freedom Award (Wisconsin Council of Teachers of English)."

(Taken from the CCBC's Intellectual Freedom Services History page)

This free service for Wisconsin teachers and librarians (either in schools or those who deal with children and young adults and/or children and young adult materials in a library) includes copies of reviews of the challenged material, awards and distinctions for the challenge material (if available), related information, and referrals. There is no other service like it available.

Sources:

CCBC's Intellectual Freedom Services About page (http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/freedom/ifServices.asp) and History page (http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/freedom/history.asp)

The librarians (and my own work experience within the IF Services) at CCBC.

Written by Lia V.