Library Bill of Rights

The Library Bill of Rights is the American Library Association's statement expressing the rights of library users to intellectual freedom and the expectations the association places on libraries to support those rights.

The Library 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 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."

History

The Library Bill of Rights was adopted by the association in its earliest form in 1939, and has been revised several times since. Its original adoption was introduced with the statement, "Today indications in many parts of the world point to growing intolerance, suppression of free speech, and censorship affecting the rights of minorities and individuals," a reference to the emergence of totalitarian states during that time.^[1] During the Cold War period, the Library Bill of Rights supported opponents of censorship of materials interpreted as communist propaganda. In 1948, the association adopted a major revision of the document, which strengthened it significantly to address the new wave of censorship attempts that marked the beginning of the Red Scare, and was subsequently attacked in newspapers as "leftist," a "red front," and a "Communist organization."^[2] A 1967 revision shortened the document and removed rhetorical flourishes, also removing the qualification "of sound factual authority," which it was felt could have been used to justify censorship; also, "age" was added at that time.^[3] The document was revised again in 1980. In 1996 the inclusion of age, along with background, origin, and views, as an attribute that should not be the basis for denying access to information, was reaffirmed following criticism by community activists who were concerned with protecting children from materials intended for mature audiences.^[4]

References

1. ^ ALA Bulletin. Vol. 33, No. 11 (October 15, 1939).
2. ^ Thomison, Dennis. A History of the American Library Association: 1976-1972. (Chicago: American Library Association, 1978)
3. ^ Two Hundred Years of Young Adult Library Information Services History, a Chronology
4. ^ Library Bill of Rights