This past December, representatives from the MLA Board spoke with representatives from the CFLA Board to address concerns about the lack of consultation regarding the CFLA Intellectual Freedom Statements. After stating concerns, a verbal agreement in principle was made by the meeting attendees that greater consultation should be undertaken. A tentative and high-level plan was discussed whereby CFLA and MLA would jointly consult with MLA members. Meeting attendees agreed to bring this high-level plan back to their respective Boards to obtain commitment on next steps.
Following our organizations’ Board meetings in December and January, CFLA has provided the following response:
“The CFLA board understands that there are divergent opinions on the topic of intellectual freedom in libraries, especially as it relates to the goal of supporting social justice and inclusion. We thank MLA for their commitment to engaging in a consultation process with their members to inform future directions, but feel that at this point CFLA does not have the capacity to develop a consultation process with the robustness and attention it deserves, so this issue is being deferred until after a new Board takes office in February. We are also committed to facilitating a National Forum on this topic, as was planned for the canceled MLA conference in 2020, but this event continues to be deferred due to the pandemic.”
– Todd Kyle, Chair, CFLA
The MLA Board will continue to engage CFLA on this matter, and will keep our membership informed of new developments as they arise.