Wheat and Chaff: Carl Roden, Abe Korman, and the Definitions of Intellectual Freedom in the Chicago Public Library

Abstract

The root of current intellectual freedom policy extends deeper into the past than the Des Moines (Iowa) Public Library policy. The board of directors of the Chicago Public Library authorized the first intellectual freedom policy in April 1936 in response to challenges from Polish and Russian communities about the collection developed by the Chicago Public Library Foreign Language Department. Abram Korman, the chair of the department, was an activist librarian who challenged the more traditional positions of his chief administrator, Carl B. Roden. Their conflicting strategies became the seedbed for a transformation of the mission of public librarianship, and their personal relationship reflected the changes emerging within the practice itself.

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