Barbara Jones, director of the American Library Association Office for Intellectual Freedom, will address intellectual freedom and its place in the modern world at 8 p.m. Thursday in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union.

The event will about Banned Book Week, which is this week, and Constitution Day that took place Sept. 17. 

Intellectual freedom is “the freedom to access information and express ideas, even if the information and ideas might be considered unorthodox or unpopular,” according to the American Library Association.

This Freedom is the foundation for Banned Book Week — a time to feature books that have become targets of attempted bannings in library collections.

Jones will advocate the importance of people expressing their First Amendment right, especially when it comes to intellectual freedom.

As a firm supporter of the rights of intellectual freedom, Jones served on the Freedom of Access to Information and Freedom of Expression International Federation of Library Associations Standing Committee, serving as Secretary to FAIFE from 2007 to 2009. She was also a member of the American Library Association Intellectual Freedom Committee. She is currently serving on the Intellectual Freedom Privacy Subcommittee.

Jones is also the executive director of the Freedom to Read Foundation and has been involved for 25 years in active engagement on intellectual freedom issues.

The event is cosponsored by the Ames Public Library; Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication; ISU Library; ISU Book Store; and the Committee on Lectures, which is funded by the Government of the Student Body.