ArLA 2024 Annual Conference

The American Library Association (ALA) has tapped Kent Oliver as senior policy fellow for the Public Policy and Advocacy office to strengthen the association’s involvement in policy discussions related to First Amendment freedoms and intellectual property.
Kent Oliver mentors, coordinates and partners with members of the ALA Policy Corps to advance ALA’s advocacy on fighting book bans and to strengthen ALA’s Unite Against Book Bans campaign. Additionally, he will work with senior staff of ALA’s PPA Office, OIF, CMO and other units to speak out against book banning and censorship. Oliver recently retired after a decade as director of Nashville Public Library, where he launched the nationally recognized I Read Banned Books campaign. A three-time president of the Freedom to Read Foundation, Oliver is a nationally and internationally known speaker on library issues and challenges, including literacy and the freedom to read. His writings on intellectual freedom and defense of the First Amendment have appeared in publications such as Forbes and The Tennessean. Prior to his tenure at Nashville Public Library, Oliver also managed libraries in Kansas, Missouri and Ohio, where he was awarded the Ohio Bar Association’s Liberty Bell Award for Defense of the First Amendment. Oliver hails from Topeka, Kansas, and has an MLIS from Emporia State University