 W. Winfield, NY |
Supported by the West Winfield Library |
W. Winfield, NY |
Supported by the West Winfield Library |
The Board of Trustees of the West Winfield Library supports
these policy statements of the American Library Association.
Please scroll down, or click on the title of the one you wish to read:
LIBRARY BILL OF RIGHTS
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| 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. |
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| (Note: The entire text of this statement is a 4-page document. We present here only brief excerpts from the introduction and abbreviated versions of the 7 propositions. The full text is available on the ALA website.) | |
| Introduction: The freedom to read is essential to our democracy. It is continuously under attack. Private groups and public authorities in various parts of the country are working to remove books from sale, to censor textbooks, to label "controversial" books, to distribute lists of "objectionable" books or authors, and to purge libraries....We, as citizens devoted to the use of books and as librarians and publishers responsible for disseminating them, wish to assert the public interest in the preservation of the freedom to read. | |
| ....We trust Americans to recognize propaganda, and to reject it. We do not believe they need the help of censors to assist them in this task....We believe that every American community must jealously guard the freedom to publish and to circulate, in order to preserve its own freedom to read.... | |
| The freedom to read is guaranteed by the Constitution. Those with faith in free people will stand firm on these constitutional guarantees of essential rights and will exercise the responsibilities that accompany these rights. | |
| We therefore affirm these propositions: | |
| 1. | It is in the public interest for publishers and librarians to make available the widest diversity of views and expressions, including those which are unorthodox or unpopular with the majority. |
| 2. | Publishers, librarians and booksellers do not need to endorse every idea or presentation contained in the books they make available. It would conflict with the public interest for them to establish their own political, moral or aesthetic views as a standard for determining what books should be published or circulated. |
| 3. | It is contrary to the public interest for publishers or librarians to determine the acceptability of a book on the basis of the personal history or political affiliations of the author. |
| 4. | There is no place in our society for efforts to coerce the taste of others, to confine adults to the reading matter deemed suitable for adolescents, or to inhibit the efforts of writers to achieve artistic expression. |
| 5. | It is not in the public interest to force a reader to accept with any book the prejudgment of a label characterizing the book or author as subversive or dangerous. |
| 6. | It is the responsibility of publishers and librarians, as guardians of the people's freedom to read, to contest encroachments upon that freedom by individuals or groups seeking to impose their own standards or tastes upon the community at large. |
| 7. | It is the responsibility of publishers and librarians to give full meaning to the freedom to read by providing books that enrich the quality and diversity of thought and expression. By the exercise of this affirmative responsibility, they can demonstrate that the answer to a bad book is a good one, the answer to a bad idea is a good one. |
| Conclusion: We state these propositions neither lightly nor as easy generalizations. We here stake out a lofty claim for the value of books. We do so because we believe that they are good, possessed of enormous variety and usefulness, worthy of cherishing and keeping free. We realize that the application of these propositions may mean the dissemination of ideas and manners of expression that are repugnant to many persons. We do not state these propositions in the comfortable belief that what people read is unimportant. We believe rather that what people read is deeply important; that ideas can be dangerous; but that the suppression of ideas is fatal to a democratic society. Freedom itself is a dangerous way of life, but it is ours. | |
A Joint Statement by:
American Library Association & Association of American Publishers.
Adopted June 25, 1953; revised January 28, 1972, and January 16, 1991.
Subsequently endorsed by 19 more national organizations.
Copyright © 2000, American Library Association
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