Wednesday, October 21 at 12 p.m. ET
Virtual – Zoom
Event Description: The Inclusive Excellence Committee within the School of Information Sciences at Wayne State University invites all LIS students, scholars, and professionals to attend a virtual conversation between two scholars active in the study and advocacy for intellectual freedom. During this session, Jones and Dr. Oltmann will share their extensive background in this work and will address topics such as book bans, generative artificial intelligence, and the ongoing fight to protect freedom of information and ideas without censorship. See the event page here.
About our speakers:
Lesliediana Jones is the Director of the Neef Law Library and Assistant Professor (Teaching) in the Wayne State University Law School. She received her JD from the Wayne State University Law School and her master’s degree in library science from the Wayne State University School of Information Science. Jones has held several other library positions previously, including assistant director of public service at the Harvard University Law School Library and head of document services at the George Washington University Law School. Jones is the 2025-2026 president of the Freedom to Read Foundation, an organization that participates in litigation for freedom of speech and the press. She does advocacy work in the field of intellectual freedom and First Amendment rights as it pertains to libraries.
Shannon M. Oltmann is the Associate Dean and Director of the School of Information Sciences at Wayne State University, where she is also a full Professor. Previously, Oltmann was an Associate Professor and Program Coordinator in the School of Information Science at the University of Kentucky. Oltmann’s research interests include intellectual freedom, censorship, information precarity, and qualitative research methods. She wrote the book Practicing Intellectual Freedom in Libraries and edited The Fight Against Book Bans: Perspectives from the Field; her work has been funded by the American Library Association and the Institute of Museum & Library Services and has been widely published. She studies the implementation of and resistance to censorship in libraries and other spaces. Another stream of work investigates information precarity, a lack of information and resources brought about by systemic marginalization. Oltmann has spoken to a wide variety of groups, organizations, and media outlets about intellectual freedom. She is on the Board of Directors for the Association for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T) and is an Associate Editor for Library Quarterly. She obtained her Ph.D. from Indiana University.
If you have questions, please contact Amber Harrison, Inclusion and Belonging Coordinator for the WSU School of Information Sciences at aharrison@wayne.edu.