Intellectual Freedom : Get Started

Since it was established in 1967, ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) has championed the rights of library users to seek and receive information on all subjects from all points of view without restriction and without having the subject of one's interest examined or scrutinized by others. The new edition of the Intellectual Freedom Manual is more than just an invaluable compendium of guiding principles and policies. It's also an indispensable resource for day-to-day guidance on maintaining free and equal access to information for all people. Fortifying and emboldening professionals and students from across the library spectrum, this manual includes 34 ALA policy statements and documents, 17 new or updated for this edition, addressing patron behavior, internet use, copyright, exhibits, use of meeting spaces, and other common concerns At-a-glance lists summarizing key issues such as access, challenges and censorship, access by minors to controversial materials, and advocacy Explanations of legal points in clear, easy-to-understand language, alongside case citations Numerous checklists to help readers stay organized A glossary and selected bibliographyThis must-have tool will help librarians ensure that institutions of all kinds remain beacons of intellectual freedom.

The existing reference literature on intellectual freedom tends to focus on topics such as government censorship of books, the internet, and political speech. This has also been the focus of intellectual freedom scholars among professional librarians in the United States and Canada. There has been a shift in recent years, and intellectual freedom is now being looked at from a wider range of theoretical perspectives and in connection with a wider range of cultural topics. The Handbook of Intellectual Freedom is a reference work that captures this recent growth in the field. It provides a grounding in the philosophical, historical, and legal development of the concept of intellectual freedom by providing current thinking on a wide range of intellectual freedom concepts, cases, and controversies. 21 invited articles focus on topics including threats to intellectual freedom, academic freedom, the arts, the Internet, censorship along with connections to contemporary social issues and institutions, and historical and cultural theories.