Register Today**

Join us on Thursday, June 12th at noon for an enlightening panel discussion about intellectual freedom in librarianship. In this honest conversation, librarians, Samatha Lee, Colleen Bailie and Easter DiGangi will share real-world experiences, hard-earned insights, and practical strategies for navigating book challenges, censorship, and the erosion of access. Whether you're facing pressure in your own community or seeking ways to stand in solidarity, this session will inspire, inform, and equip you to uphold the core values of librarianship in a time of rising resistance.

Colleen Bailie has been the Executive Director at the West Haven Library for 9.5 years. Colleen has served on several local boards, such as the WH school governance council, and the West Haven Rotary Club, where she was president in 2020. At the state level, Colleen serves on the Commission of Education Technology, and was president of the CT Library Association in 2021 and remains active with the Legislative committee. She has gone to DC with ALA’s legislative Fly-ins to speak to federal legislators for the past three years and will be serving on the Chapter Relations and Legislative ALA committees in the next year. Currently she is the Intellectual Freedom chair for New England Library Association. Colleen has presented at several conferences, including the CT Library Association and New England Library Association.

Easter DiGangi is an information professional with over 18 years of experience with libraries (academic, public, special), government, and vendors. She is Chair of the Friends of the York County Public Library and a member of the Virginia Library Association (VLA) Intellectual Freedom Committee. In 2011, she was named to the American Library Association Class of Emerging Leaders. Easter was a recipient of the VLA Advocacy Award in 2023 for her work with the Book Resume project which was the model for Unite Against Book Bans Book Resumes. She is a fierce advocate of intellectual freedom who has been featured on Let's Talk, Portsmouth podcast and presented at multiple conferences.

Sam Lee (she/her) serves as co-chair of the CT Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Committee and Head of Reference at the Enfield Public Library. She believes strongly in building community resilience through mutual aid and spending out power and privilege. Her gardening ambitions far outweigh her skills, but thankfully not her family’s patience. Sam would always rather spend her time reading and cooking.

Register Today**

*Must be a NELA member to attend.

**You only need to register once. If you have already previously registered for this series, you do not need to register again.