Judith F. Krug dies at 69; advocate for librarians battled censorship

[Posteritatis]

Source: Los Angeles Times

Judith F. Krug, a forceful advocate for the right of librarians to stock their shelves without fear of censorship, died of stomach cancer Saturday at a hospital in Evanston, Ill., where she lived. She was 69.

Director of the American Library Assn.'s Office for Intellectual Freedom since it was founded in 1967, Krug started Banned Books Week in 1982 to promote the right to read stories and express opinions without interference from censors.

"She was a force of nature, fiercely determined to make sure that censorship wouldn't triumph in the library or the larger world," said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, deputy director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-judith-krug15-2009apr15,0,520939.story

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Dammit. There needs to be an exception to the whole "mortality" clause for some people.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

1. She's going to be greatly missed.

At least I know she will by me. She was one of the good ones.

[Bozita]

2. She was a key part of Reno v. ACLU in '97.

http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2009/04/foi-advocate-...

APRIL 14, 2009
FOI Advocate Judith Krug Dies

One of the most tenacious fighters for freedom of information and the right to know -- and to read -- has died. Judith Krug, who headed the American Library Association's Office of Intellectual Freedom for more than 40 years, died in Illinois on Saturday at age 69. Her constant pressure to keep libraries and minds free from censorship was felt even at the Supreme Court level, helping lead to the high court's 1997 decision declaring the Internet as a medium that deserves the widest range of First Amendment protection. An obituary of Krug appears here.
D.C. media lawyers and First Amendment advocates who worked with her over the years today mourned her passing.

"Judy was a force of nature," said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Dalglish said that largely because of Krug and the late Jenner & Block attorney Bruce Ennis, who won the 1997 case Reno v. ACLU, "the Internet remains a vibrant, open network of ideas ... She believed that nobody had a right to tell anyone else what they could read, watch, or say." The American Library Association was a lead plaintiff challenging the Communications Decency Act in the 1997 Supreme Court case.

Gene Policinski, vice president and executive director of the First Amendment Center, recalled Krug as a "tough, resilient opponent of those who would attempt to censor voices or ideas they deemed unwelcome."

Media lawyer Kevin Goldberg of Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth in Arlington, Va., said of Krug, "She was unrelenting in her commitment to the First Amendment, and unforgiving to those who dared compromise it. My generation of First Amendment advocates should look to people like Judith when we think about what it means to truly champion a cause."

Posted by Tony Mauro on April 14, 2009 at 02:47 PM in Society and Culture | Permalink


Here's a link to the Chicago Tribune's piece on the passing of Judith Krug:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-hed-krug-14-apr1...

[Bozita]

3. She fought Ashcroft on privacy of library records. - NY Times obit

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/15/us/15krug.html?ref=obituaries

-snip-

As the American Library Association’s official proponent of the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech since the 1960s, Ms. Krug (pronounced kroog) fought the banning of books, including “Huckleberry Finn,” “Mein Kampf,” “Little Black Sambo,” “Catcher in the Rye” and sex manuals. In 1982, she helped found Banned Books Week, an annual event that includes authors reading from prohibited books.

She also fought for the inclusion of literature on library shelves that she herself found offensive, like “The Blue Book” of the ultraconservative John Birch Society. The book is a transcript of a two-day monologue by Robert Welch at the founding meeting of the society in 1958.

“My personal proclivities have nothing to do with how I react as a librarian,” Ms. Krug said in an interview with The New York Times in 1972. “Library service in this country should be based on the concept of intellectual freedom, of providing all pertinent information so a reader can make decisions for himself.”

-snip-

Ms. Krug later became a leader in fighting censorship on the Internet, an issue taken up by libraries because many people with no computers at home use library computers. The question involved not just a limited number of books for a particular library’s shelves, but efforts to keep theoretically unlimited amounts of indecent material from children by means of technological filters.

In 1997, an alliance of civil liberties groups, with Ms. Krug a principal organizer, persuaded the Supreme Court to strike down the indecency provisions of the Communications Decency Act of 1996.

Jerry Berman, founder and chairman of the Center for Democracy & Technology, which promotes free speech on the Internet, said in a statement, “Her legacy rests in the constitutional challenge that secured the free speech rights for the Internet that we exercise today.”

More recently, Ms. Krug fiercely fought a provision in the USA Patriot Act that allows federal investigators to peruse library records of who has read what. Former Attorney General John Ashcroft dismissed protests about the law as “baseless hysteria.”

-snip-

more...

[ThomCat]

4. I hope people watched and paid attention, enough so

that she inspired people to rise up and follow her lead. We need more activists like her. She was definitely courageous to fight some of the battles that were put in her lap.

Librarians are pretty tough people to begin with. It seems to be part of the job. I hope there are a slew of them ready to keep up the fight. :)

:patriot:
Thank you Deborah Caldwell-Stone.

[Vidar]

5. RIP Ms. Krug.

[No Elephants]

6. Thank you, Ms. Krug. Well done. Very well done. Forty years ago, no one would

have assumed that being a librarian would require so much bravery and stamina.

RIP