Events Policy Statement
Approved November 2007
The primary mission of the University Libraries is to be central to the University community's discovery, communication, and use of knowledge by providing materials, information, and other services to support instruction, research and scholarship, and public service.
The goal of the Libraries Outreach department is to keep the University community, Libraries personnel, and general public informed of Libraries materials, services, opportunities, and policies and to position the Libraries as an integral intellectual and cultural resource on the campus through its, exhibits, art shows, events, and communications.
The University Libraries adheres to the Laws of the Regents, campus policies and procedures, and a number of documents published by the American Library Association (ALA), including the ALA Code of Ethics, Library Bill of Rights, Freedom to Read Statement, and the Association of College and Research Libraries' Intellectual Freedom Principles for Academic Libraries.
The Libraries Outreach department coordinates general events in Norlin and maintains events policies and procedures. Every effort is made to ensure that events sponsored by the Libraries are appropriate to an academic setting as a forum to enlighten and spark discussion, and to highlight the activities of the faculty, staff, or students of the University of Colorado at Boulder. The development of events sponsored or co-sponsored by the Libraries is the responsibility of Libraries personnel and final say on participants and forums for events is the responsibility of the Libraries Outreach office and/or Libraries administration.
The Outreach department accepts event suggestions from and partnerships with Libraries staff; CU faculty, staff, and students; and the general public. Priorities are the Libraries, the campus, the community. The University Libraries also acts as a neutral forum or site for events. In accordance with the Laws of the Regents, event space in the University Libraries may be provided for the free and safe expression of ideas in support of one of the core goals of the University, “learning through discovery.”
Presenters are placed "under no control or authority save the control and authority of rational methods by which truth is established." and may "communicate the results" of their research through presentations. In the spirit of the principles of academic freedom and free expression, the Libraries places no blanket restrictions upon opinions expressed in Libraries events. Nevertheless, "academic freedom does not give either faculty or students the right to disregard the standards of conduct" outlined in the Laws of the Regents. Topics will not be addressed if they are deemed to be willfully injurious to persons, disruptive of Libraries activities, or to interfere in any manner with the private rights of citizens. (Quotes are taken from the Laws of the Regents)
As a forum for the free exchange of ideas, the Outreach office welcomes comments and responses from events attendees. The Outreach librarian, Deborah Fink, may be reached at 303-492-8302, or deborah.fink@colorado.edu.
