INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM

*Library Bill of Rights

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

2. 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.

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

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

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

6. 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 affiliation of individuals or groups requesting their use.

Interpretations

1. Challenged materials that meet the materials selection policy of the library should not be removed under any legal or extra-legal pressure.

2. Expurgation of any parts of books or other library resources is a violation of the Library Bill of Rights because it denies access to the complete work and, therefore, to the entire spectrum of ideas that the work was intended to express.

3. Members of the school community involved in the collection development process employ educational criteria to select resources unfettered by the personal, social, or religious views. Students and educators served by the school library media program have

access to resources and services free of constraints resulting from personal, partisan or doctrinal disapproval. School library media professionals resist efforts by individuals to define what is appropriate for all students or teachers to read, view, or hear.

4. Denying minors access to certain library materials and services available to adults is a violation of the Library Bill of Rights since it is the parents and only the parents who may restrict their children from access to library materials and services.

5. Evaluation of library materials is not to be used as a convenient means to remove materials presumed to be controversial or disapproved of by segments of the community.

6. Restricting access to certain titles and classes of library materials for protection and/or controlled use is a form of censorship.

7. Labeling certain library materials by affixing a prejudicial label to them or segregating by a prejudicial system is a practice that seeks to close paths to knowledge; such practices violate the Library Bill of Rights.

8. Libraries maintaining exhibit and meeting room facilities for outside groups and individuals should develop and publish statements governing their use. These statements can properly define- and restrict eligibility for use as long as the qualifications do not

pertain to the content of a meeting or exhibit or to the beliefs or affiliations of the sponsors, and are applied on an equitable basis.

9. A policy on library-initiated programming should reflect the library’s philosophy regarding free access to information and ideas. Selection of library program topics, speakers, courses, classes, and resource materials should be made by library staff on the basis of the interests and needs of library users and the community.

10. Restricted access to rare and special collections is only for the protection of the materials and must in no way limit access to the information or ideas contained in the materials. Library administration policies on interlibrary loan, library cards, reference services, use

of meeting rooms and exhibit spaces should be examined for conformance to the Library Bill of Rights.

11. Diversity in Collection Development. Librarians have a professional responsibility to be inclusive, not exclusive, in collection development and in the provision of interlibrary loan. Access to all materials legally obtainable should be assured to the user and policies

should not unjustly exclude materials even if offensive to the librarian or the user. Collection development should reflect the philosophy inherent in Article 2 of the Library Bill of Rights. A balanced collection reflects a diversity of materials, not equality of

numbers. Collection development and the selection of materials should be done according to professional standards and established selection and review procedures. Librarians have an obligation to protect library collections from removal of materials

based on personal bias or prejudice, and to select and support the acquisition of materials on all subjects that meet, as closely as possible, the needs and interests of all persons in the community which the library serves. This includes materials that reflect political,

economic, religious, social, minority, and sexual issues. Intellectual freedom, the essence of equitable library services, promotes no causes, furthers no movements, and favors no viewpoints. It only provides for free access to all expressions of ideas through which any and all sides of a question, cause, or movement may be explored.

12. Circulation of Motion Pictures and Video Productions. Unless directly and specifically prohibited by law from circulating certain motion pictures and video productions to minors, librarians should apply the same standards for circulation as are applied to books. Just as “labeling” of books is deemed an attempt to prejudice attitudes, so is the affixing of the MPAA rating codes to motion pictures and video productions.