Professor Rebecca A. Mattson presenting at Intellectual Freedom Symposium

UNIVERSITY PARK—Professor Rebecca A. Mattson will present at the American Library Association (ALA) Law for Librarians Intellectual Freedom Symposium, to be held June 26, 2026, in Chicago, Illinois. She and co-author Shay Elbaum, faculty services librarian at Harvard Law Library, will present their work-in-progress, "Safeguarding Libraries: An Analysis of Obscenity and Harmful to Minors Library Defenses and Exemptions."

Their paper examines the legislative history of statutory provisions shielding librarians from criminal liability under state obscenity laws and discusses the recent developments in states seeking to remove these protections. Mattson and Elbaum expect to submit the paper for publication in the fall.

The ALA Intellectual Freedom Symposium is sponsored by the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom. The symposium is part of the Law for Librarians initiative, which seeks to provide training and resources for library professionals experiencing censorship challenges.

Rebecca Mattson is the Director of Operations and Scholarship for the Montague Law Library and a Professor of Legal Research at Penn State Dickinson Law. In her role, she oversees the day-to-day operations of the law library and manages collection development, acquisitions, and digital projects for both Montague Law Library locations. Professor Mattson administers the law school’s institutional repository, Insight @ Dickinson Law, and the Penn State Dickinson Law Legal Research Paper Series, offering enhanced support for faculty scholarship and research. She also serves as the primary library liaison to law school journals, assisting with training, site development, and publication processes. She teaches first-year Legal Research as well as upper-level research courses. Her research interests include legal research pedagogy, legal research competency and assessment, and the preservation of historical legal documents.