AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

Office for Intellectual Freedom

MissionEstablished December 1, 1967,

the Office for Intellectual Freedom is charged with

implementing ALA policies concerning the concept of

intellectual freedom as embodied in the

Library Bill of Rights, the Association’s basic policy on free access to libraries and

library materials.

Responsibilites

The goal of the office is to educate librarians and

the general public about the nature and

importance of intellectual freedom in libraries.

ALA Bill of Rights

The American Library Association affirms that all libraries are forums for information and ideas, and that the following basic policies should

guide their services.

I. Books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves. Materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation.

II. Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.

III. Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.

IV. Libraries should cooperate with all persons and groups concerned with resisting abridgment of free expression and free access to ideas.

V. A person’s right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views.

VI. Libraries that make exhibit spaces and meeting rooms available to the public they serve should make such facilities available on an equitable basis, regardless of the beliefs or affiliations of individuals or groups requesting their use.

Adopted June 19, 1939, by the ALA Council; amended October 14, 1944; June 18, 1948; February 2, 1961; June 27, 1967; January 23, 1980; inclusion of “age” reaffirmed January 23, 1996.

Initiatives and Projects

Privacy Revolution Banned Books Week Lawyers for Libraries

Law for Librarians Conference Programs

Online Learning

Censorship in the Schools

"Intellectual Freedom is the right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction. It provides for free access to all expressions of ideas through which any and all sides of a question, cause or movement may be explored. Intellectual freedom encompasses the freedom to hold, receive and disseminate ideas."— Intellectual Freedom and Censorship Q & A

"Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us."—Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas,"  The One Un-American Act." Nieman Reports , vol. 7, no. 1 (Jan. 1953): p. 20.

“The Fourteenth Amendment, as now applied to the States, protects the citizen against the State itself and all of its creatures—Boards of Education not excepted. These have, of course, important, delicate, and highly discretionary functions, but none that they may not perform within the limits of the Bill of Rights. That they are educating the young for citizenship is reason for scrupulous protection of Constitutional freedoms of the individual, if we are not to strangle the free mind at its source and teach youth to discount important principles of our government as mere platitudes.” — Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson,  West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943)

“It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate....In our system, students may not be regarded as closed-circuit recipients of only that which the State chooses to communicate.”—Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas, in  Tinker v. Des Moines Community School District

Academic Freedom

"Institutions of higher education are conducted for the common good and not to further the interest of either the individual teacher or the institution as a whole. The common good depends upon the free search for truth and its free exposition." — 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure,  American Association of University Professors

"Librarians are entitled to the protection of academic freedom as set forth in the American Association of University Professors 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure." — Guidelines for Academic Status for College and University Librarians,  Association of College & Research Libraries

ALA Code of Ethics

The principles of this Code are expressed in broad statements to guide ethical decision making. These statements provide a framework; they

cannot and do not dictate conduct to cover particular situations.

We provide the highest level of service to all library users through appropriate and usefully organized resources; equitable service policies; equitable access; and accurate, unbiased, and courteous responses to all requests.

We uphold the principles of intellectual freedom and resist all efforts to censor library resources. We protect each library user's right to privacy and confidentiality with respect to information

sought or received and resources consulted, borrowed, acquired or transmitted. We respect intellectual property rights and advocate balance between the interests of

information users and rights holders. We treat co-workers and other colleagues with respect, fairness, and good faith, and advocate

conditions of employment that safeguard the rights and welfare of all employees of our institutions.

We do not advance private interests at the expense of library users, colleagues, or our employing institutions.

We distinguish between our personal convictions and professional duties and do not allow our personal beliefs to interfere with fair representation of the aims of our institutions or the provision of access to their information resources.

We strive for excellence in the profession by maintaining and enhancing our own knowledge and skills, by encouraging the professional development of co-workers, and by fostering the aspirations of potential members of the profession.

Privacy and Confidentiality

“The right to be left alone—the most comprehensive of rights, and the right most valued by a free people.”—Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, Olmstead v. U.S., 277 U.S. 438 (1928)

See  Privacy and Confidentiality policies, statements, and guidelines of the American Library Association; see also Privacy Tool Kit and  Privacy Audit.  See also Guidelines for Developing a Library Privacy Policy.  See also Gotham City Public Library Model Staff Directive 1.5 and Gotham City Public Library Model Policy 1.1.

Why Privacy and Confidentiality are Important

Privacy is essential to the exercise of free speech, free thought, and free association (see Privacy: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights and Questions and Answers on Privacy and Confidentiality; and George Christian Urges Congress to Reconsider Parts of the USA PATRIOT Act).

As Bruce Schneier notes in The Eternal Value of Privacy: For if we are observed in all matters, we are constantly under

threat of correction, judgment, criticism, even plagiarism of our own uniqueness. We become children, fettered under watchful eyes, constantly fearful that—either now or in the uncertain future—patterns we leave behind will be brought back to implicate us, by whatever authority has now become focused upon our once-private and innocent acts. We lose our individuality, because everything we do is observable and recordable.

ALA Intellectual Freedom Website

http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/intfreedom/index.cfm