Nominations Open for Downs Intellectual Freedom Award
The School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign seeks nominations for the 2024 Robert B. Downs Intellectual Freedom Award.
Given annually since 1969, the award acknowledges individuals or groups who have furthered the cause of intellectual freedom, particularly as it impacts libraries and information centers and the dissemination of ideas. Granted to those who have resisted censorship or efforts to abridge the freedom of individuals to read or view materials of their choice or to hear or express ideas, the award may be in recognition of a particular action or a long-term interest in and dedication to the cause of intellectual freedom.
The deadline for nominations is March 15, 2025.
The Downs Award was established by the iSchool’s faculty to honor Dean Emeritus Robert Bingham Downs, a champion of intellectual freedom, on his 25th anniversary as director of the school.
During the height of the McCarthy era, Downs led an effort against what he called “the current wave of anti-intellectualism, manifesting itself in attacks on books, on freedom of speech, freedom of inquiry, freedom to teach and all those rights we have long held to be guaranteed by the 1st Amendment.” His strong public statements against censorship, made while president of American Library Association from 1952-53, led to President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s 1953 “Don’t Join the Bookburners” speech.
Recent winners of the Downs Award include:
- 2023: Missouri Library Association Intellectual Freedom Committee for its education and advocacy work;
- 2022: New College of Florida faculty, librarians, student reporters of The Catalyst, and the Defend New College and Save New College student and alumni organizations for their efforts to support academic freedom;
- 2021: #FReadom Fighters (Texas) and the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom (2021) staff for their contributions in the defense of intellectual freedom;
- 2020: Amy Dodson, director, Douglas County Public Library, Nevada for supporting the value and necessity of equity, diversity, and inclusion as a part of her library’s mission and service; and
- 2019: The Education Justice Project, for its defense of the First Amendment rights of incarcerated individuals.
The award is cosponsored by Sage, the parent of Social Science Space. Sage provides an honorarium to the Downs Award recipient and, with the iSchool, co-hosts the reception held in honor of the recipient. The reception and award ceremony will take place in June at the American Library Association Annual Conference in Philadelphia.
Letters of nomination and documentation about the nominee should be emailed by March 15 to Emily Knox, chair of the Award Committee, knox@illinois.edu, with a copy to ischool-dean@illinois.edu.
