ALA Freedom to Read Act
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 or limit access to reading materials, to
censor content in schools, to label "controversial" views, to distribute lists of "objectionable" books or
authors, and to purge libraries. These actions apparently rise from a view that our national tradition of
free expression is no longer valid; that censorship and suppression are needed to counter threats to safety
or national security, as well as to avoid the subversion of politics and the corruption of morals. We, as
individuals devoted to reading and as librarians and publishers responsible for disseminating ideas, wish to
assert the public interest in the preservation of the freedom to read.
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.