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Judith Krug, champion of Freedom to Read, has died

by sernabad

Judith Krug, tireless defender of our freedom to read, unstoppable advocate of the First Amendment, founder of Banned Books Week, and the Director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom for 42 years, died April 11, 2009. She had been battling stomach cancer.

Since the 1960s, Ms. Krug has been a passionate voice against the banning of books in libraries and schools. Some of the banned books that first fueled her crusade were The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Catcher in the Rye.

From that initial interest grew Banned Books Week, first launched in 1982, which has become an annual national event, spawning programs, readings of banned books by notable authors, and lots of media coverage.

Always ahead of her time, Ms. Krug led the charge against censorship of the Internet in public libraries, and in one of her most high-profile roles, she helped secure a significant victory against Provision 215 of the US Patriot Act which challenged the right of libraries and bookstores to protect the reading interests of their clientele.

Ms. Krug, who was just 69, died three days before the beginning of the 2009 National Library Week.

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