Basics

First Amendment

Statements and Policies

Intellectual Freedom Toolkits

Challenge Support

Intellectual Freedom Issues

Below are links to intellectual freedom issues. See also ALA Intellectual Freedom Statements and Policies.

"Intellectual Freedom is the right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction. It provides for free access to all expressions of ideas through which any and all sides of a question, cause or movement may be explored. Intellectual freedom encompasses the freedom to hold, receive and disseminate ideas."—Intellectual Freedom and Censorship Q & A

"Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us."—Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas," The One Un-American Act," Nieman Reports, vol. 7, no. 1 (Jan. 1953): p. 20.

"[F]reedom of expression and the free flow of information, to which it is closely linked, are the essential conditions of the emergence of knowledge societies."—Towards Knowledge Societies," United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Report.

Links to non-ALA sites have been provided because these sites may have information of interest. Neither the American Library Association nor the Office for Intellectual Freedom necessarily endorses the views expressed or the facts presented on these sites; and furthermore, ALA and OIF do not endorse any commercial products that may be advertised or available on these sites.