Research Guides: Intellectual Freedom: Guiding Documents from the American Library Association

The American Library Association (ALA) is the largest professional library association in the world. This body provides professional development opportunities for library workers, advocates for libraries at the federal level, accredits master’s programs in library and information studies (the terminal degree for librarians), and sets guidelines and standards for the profession.

Library Bill of Rights

One of ALA’s foundational documents is the Library Bill of Rights (https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill). This document identifies seven guiding principles for library collections and services [bolded emphasis is my own]:

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.
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.
Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.
Libraries should cooperate with all persons and groups concerned with resisting abridgment of free expression and free access to ideas.
A person’s right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views.
Libraries which 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.
All people, regardless of origin, age, background, or views, possess a right to privacy and confidentiality in their library use. Libraries should advocate for, educate about, and protect people’s privacy, safeguarding all library use data, including personally identifiable information.

Interpretations of the Library Bill of Rights

Library workers have a professional and ethical obligation to uphold the principles outlined in the Library Bill of Rights. ALA’s Intellectual Freedom Committee has published multiple interpretations of the Library Bill of Rights to address specific challenges to its tenets, including:

Access to Library Resources and Services for Minors: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights
Affirms parents’ rights to parent their own children, while also affirming minors’ First Amendment rights; states that “Equitable access to all library resources and services should not be abridged based on chronological age, apparent maturity, educational level, literacy skills, legal status, or through restrictive scheduling and use policies.”
Access to Library Resources and Services Regardless of Sex, Gender Identity, Gender Expression, or Sexual Orientation: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights
States that “The American Library Association stringently and unequivocally maintains that libraries and librarians have an obligation to resist efforts that systematically exclude materials dealing with any subject matter, including sex, gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation”
Access to Resources and Services in the School Library: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights
States that school librarians have a responsibility to act as leaders in “promoting the principles of intellectual freedom within the school by providing resources and services that create and sustain an atmosphere of free inquiry.” Affirms that materials in school libraries not only offer curricular support, but are also essential in supporting students’ “intellectual growth, personal development, individual interests, and recreational needs of students.”
Challenged Resources: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights
Affirms that individuals have the constitutional right to express their opinions about library resources and services; advises libraries to develop “open, transparent” procedures for addressing challenges that “conform to all applicable open meeting and public records laws.” o While challenges are a protected right, libraries should stand firm in adhering to their collection development policy: “Resources that meet the criteria for selection and inclusion within the collection as outlined in the institution's collections policy should not be removed. Procedures to review challenges to library resources should not be used to suppress constitutionally protected expression.”
Diverse Collections: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights
States that librarians have a responsibility to “select, maintain, and support access to content on subjects by diverse authors and creators that meets—as closely as possible—the needs, interests, and abilities of all the people the library serves. This means acquiring materials to address popular demand and direct community input, as well as addressing collection gaps and unexpressed information needs. Library workers have a professional and ethical responsibility to be proactively inclusive in collection development and in the provision of interlibrary loan where offered.”
Equity, Diversity, Inclusion: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights
States that libraries have an obligation to challenge censorship through fostering inclusive collections, spaces, and services; “Libraries should respectfully consider community objections and complaints, but should not allow controversy alone to dictate policy”
Minors and Online Activity: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights
Like the statement on Access to Library Services and Resources for Minors, this document affirms that parents have the right to guide their child’s – and only their child’s – online activity. Advises that rather than prohibiting students access to the internet, librarians, parents, and other educators teach children about online safety and evaluating information: “Instances of inappropriate use of social media and online applications should be addressed as individual-behavior issues, not as justification for restricting or banning access to such tools. While other safety threats exist beyond schools’ and libraries’ physical space, these threats should not be a reason for limiting access for minors. Library workers, educators, and administrators have a responsibility to educate themselves about safety threats while continuing to advocate for the intellectual freedom of minors.”
Politics in American Libraries: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights
States that a diverse, balanced collection “need not and cannot contain an equal number of resources representing every possible viewpoint on every issue. A balanced collection should include the variety of views that surround any given issue.” Affirms the importance of open dialogue to our democracy: “The robust exchange of ideas and opinions is fundamental to a healthy democracy. Providing free, unfettered access to those ideas and opinions is an essential characteristic of American libraries. Therefore, libraries should encourage political discourse as part of civic engagement in forums designated for that purpose. Libraries should not ignore or avoid political discourse for fear of causing offense or provoking controversy.”
Privacy: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights
Affirms individuals’ right to privacy when utilizing library materials and services, “including, but not limited to, reference questions and interviews, circulation records, digital transactions and queries, as well as records regarding the use of library resources, services, programs, or facilities.” In order to protect individual users’ privacy, ALA recommends that libraries should maintain a privacy policy that includes a prohibition against collecting any nonessential data about user activity; if outside entities request confidential data that the library does collect, the library should consult with legal counsel before sharing that data.
Rating Systems: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights
States that rating systems that attempt to categorize library materials as appropriate or inappropriate for a given population abridge individuals’ right to access library materials, and may infringe upon their First Amendment rights.
Restricted Access to Library Materials: An interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights
States that physical or virtual barriers to access (such as a “restricted shelf”) violate individuals’ intellectual freedom, and may infringe upon their First Amendment rights.

Intellectual Freedom

IDEA Events

Head of Research Education

Library Bill of Rights

Interpretations of the Library Bill of Rights