The ALA 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 in 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 the 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.
VII. 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.
Adopted: June 19, 1939, by the ALA Council
Amended: October 14, 1944
Amended: June 18, 1948
Amended: February 2, 1961
Amended: June 28, 1967
Amended: January 23, 1980;
Amended: January 23, 1996, inclusion of “age”
Amended: January 23, 1996
Reaffirmed: Divide County Library Board January 24, 2023
Reaffirmed: Divide County Library Board March 27, 2025
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