Librarian's Code of Ethics

A. Librarians must provide the highest level of service through an appropriate and usefully organized collection, fair and equitable circulation and service policies, and skillful, accurate, unbiased, and courteous responses to all requests for assistance.

B. Librarians must resist all efforts by groups or individuals to censor library materials.

C. Librarians must protect each user’s right to privacy with respect to information sought or received, and materials consulted, borrowed, or acquired. Librarians must adhere to the principles of due process and equality of opportunity in peer relationships and personnel actions.

D. Librarians must adhere to the principles of due process and equality of opportunity in peer relationships and personnel actions.

E. Librarians must distinguish clearly in their actions and statements between their personal philosophies and attitudes of those of an institution or professional body.

F. Librarians must avoid situations in which personal interest might be served or financial benefits gained at the expense of library users, colleagues, or the employing institution.

Bill of Rights

The council of the American Library Association re-affirms its beliefs in the following basic policies which should govern the services of all libraries.

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

2. There should be the fullest practicable provision of material presenting all points of view concerning the problems and issues of our times, international, national, and local: and books or other reading matter of sound factual authority should not be prescribed or removed from the library shelves because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.

3. 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 maintenance of their responsibility to provide public information and enlightenment through the printed word.

4. 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.

5. 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. Such meeting places should be available on equal terms to all groups in the community regardless of the beliefs and affiliations of their members.

6. The rights of the individual to the use of a library should not be denied or abridged because of his/her race, religion, national origins or political views