Highlights from the 2004 American Library Association Annual Meeting

摘要

The 2004 annual conference of the American Library Association (ALA) held in Orlando, Florida June 24-30 coincided with the 50th anniversary of the landmark desegregation decision Brown v. Board of Education which continues to influence the way Americans look at access to knowledge and information. This theme resonated throughout the conference as Carla Hayden, president of ALA planned the conference, keynote speakers and reminded us that in 2004 with a national election looming ahead that this was a special time for information professionals to take a pulse about critical issues such as intellectual freedom, access to information, and the progress we have made through history in the USA to promote literacy, lifelong learning and access to library collections and services regardless of age, ethnicity, physical abilities, income, language, location or type of library.