NEWS For Immediate Release April 2, 2013

Contact: Deborah Ann Caldwell-Stone

CHICAGO - Are you preparing for Choose Privacy Week? Join ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom and librarians across the country next week for a free webinar to discuss how your library can observe Choose Privacy Week, ALA's annual education and awareness campaign that invites library users into a national conversation about privacy rights in a digital age.

The free, hour-long online webinar will take place on from 1 p.m. - 2 p.m. Central Time on Tuesday, April 9 and will feature four speakers discussing ideas and tools for privacy-related programming and outreach, with an emphasis on sample programs and resources that have proved successful in school, academic and public library environments:

Michael Zimmer, PhD, will discuss how to use short documentaries on privacy and surveillance to increase awareness among patrons and spark conversations on controversial technologies and practices.

Zimmer is an assistant professor in the School of Information Studies and director of the Center for Information Policy Research at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Carolyn Caywood will discuss how librarians can raise awareness of developments that impact privacy in their community by offering civic engagement programs about privacy.

Caywood worked as a youth services librarian and branch manager for Virginia Beach, Va. before retiring in 2010. She is currently a fellow of the Hampton Roads Center for Civic Engagement and serves on the Advisory Committee of the American Library Association’s Center for Civic Life.

Marc Gartler will discuss how Madison Public Library (Wis.) planned and implemented a successful week-long observance for Choose Privacy Week that emphasized preventing identity theft and making informed privacy choices.

Gartler joined the management team at Madison Public Library in 2010 following four years as library director at Harrington College of Design. He previously worked on digital library projects at the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Dr. Deborah Peel will discuss one of privacy's hot topics – patient privacy rights. She will discuss the fight to keep health information private and provide resources for planning programs about protecting our health information both inside and outside of the health care system.

Peel leads Patient Privacy Rights (PPR) and is the voice of the bipartisan Coalition for Patient Privacy, speaking for 10.3 million Americans who expect to control their sensitive health data in electronic systems.

Register for this free webinar via this link to the registration page. The webinar will be recorded and available in the archives. For questions about registration or using the webinar platform, contact Angela Maycock at amaycock@ala.org.

Choose Privacy Week 2013 takes place May 1-7 and asks the critical question, Who's Tracking You? When someone is always watching your every move both online and off, you should have the right to know who's collecting your information and choose how your private data is used.

Sponsored annually by the American Library Association’s (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF), Choose Privacy Week provides individuals with resources to think critically and make more informed choices about their privacy.

For information about Choose Privacy Week 2013, visit privacyrevolution.org or email Deborah Caldwell-Stone at dstone@ala.org.

Posters, buttons, and resources for Choose Privacy Week are available online through the ALA Store.

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