Library Bill of Rights

The council of the American Library Association reaffirms its belief in the following basic policies which should govern the services of all libraries:

As a responsibility of library service, books and other library materials selected should be chosen for values of interest, information and enlightenment of all the people of the community. In no case should library materials be excluded because of the race or nationality or the social, political or religious views of the writer.

Libraries should provide the fullest practicable range of material presenting all points of view concerning the problems and issues of our times, international, national, and local; and books or other readingmatter of sound actual authority should not be proscribed or removed from library shelves because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.

Censorship of books, urged or practiced by volunteer arbiters of morals or political opinion or by organizations that would establish a coercive concept of Americanism, must be challenged by libraries in the maintenance of their responsibility to provide public information and enlightenment through the printed word.

Libraries should enlist the cooperation of allied groups in the fields of science, of education, and of book publishing in resisting all abridgment of the free access to ideas and full freedom of expression that are the tradition and heritage of Americans.

As an institution of education for democratic living, the library should welcome the use of its meeting rooms for socially useful and cultural activities and discussion of current public questions.