First Amendment Advocate. She was a librarian who was to become a modern day "Don Quixote", battling opponents from all points of the political and religious compass in behalf of the absolute freedom of expression. Over her career, she was to defend such differing volumes as "Little Black Sambo", "The Catcher in the Rye", sex manuals, and "Mein Kampf". Raised in Pittsburgh, she earned a degree from the University of Pittsburgh, and a master's in library science from the University of Chicago, where she worked prior to joining the American Library Association as a research analyst. In 1967, she became director of the association's Office for Intellectual Freedom, and, in 1969, executive director of the Freedom to Read Foundation, which raises money for First Amendment court cases. One early fight, concerning the banning of a sex education book at the Oak Lawn Library, in Illinois, was settled by the compromise of only lending it to adults; a frequent, widespread bone of contention remains "Huckleberry Finn". In 1982, she founded Banned Books Week, an annual reading by authors from forbidden literature. Though Krug always had her supporters, she had detractors as well, who accused her of attempting to subvert "the democratic will". Perhaps her greatest contribution was her 1997 leadership of the Supreme Court challenge to the Communications Decency Act of 1996; her successful battle was to result in the absolute intellectual freedom of the Internet. In later years she was called upon to protect access to Madonna's 1992 "Sex" (which she called "sleazy trash"), and the "Harry Potter" novels (against charges of "witchcraft"), and to protest provisions of the USA Patriot Act that permit federal inspection of library records. Krug died of gastric cancer. Of her work and philosophy she said: "My personal proclivities have nothing to do with how I react as a librarian. Library service in this country should be based on the concept of intellectual freedom, of providing all pertinent information so a reader can make decisions for himself".
First Amendment Advocate. She was a librarian who was to become a modern day "Don Quixote", battling opponents from all points of the political and religious compass in behalf of the absolute freedom of expression. Over her career, she was to defend such differing volumes as "Little Black Sambo", "The Catcher in the Rye", sex manuals, and "Mein Kampf". Raised in Pittsburgh, she earned a degree from the University of Pittsburgh, and a master's in library science from the University of Chicago, where she worked prior to joining the American Library Association as a research analyst. In 1967, she became director of the association's Office for Intellectual Freedom, and, in 1969, executive director of the Freedom to Read Foundation, which raises money for First Amendment court cases. One early fight, concerning the banning of a sex education book at the Oak Lawn Library, in Illinois, was settled by the compromise of only lending it to adults; a frequent, widespread bone of contention remains "Huckleberry Finn". In 1982, she founded Banned Books Week, an annual reading by authors from forbidden literature. Though Krug always had her supporters, she had detractors as well, who accused her of attempting to subvert "the democratic will". Perhaps her greatest contribution was her 1997 leadership of the Supreme Court challenge to the Communications Decency Act of 1996; her successful battle was to result in the absolute intellectual freedom of the Internet. In later years she was called upon to protect access to Madonna's 1992 "Sex" (which she called "sleazy trash"), and the "Harry Potter" novels (against charges of "witchcraft"), and to protest provisions of the USA Patriot Act that permit federal inspection of library records. Krug died of gastric cancer. Of her work and philosophy she said: "My personal proclivities have nothing to do with how I react as a librarian. Library service in this country should be based on the concept of intellectual freedom, of providing all pertinent information so a reader can make decisions for himself".
Bio by: Bob Hufford
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