Please note that from August 1 until the new website is launched, we are unable to make any changes to the Office for Intellectual Freedom web pages. We appreciate your patience and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
Welcome to the Office for Intellectual Freedom
Established December 1, 1967, the Office for Intellectual Freedom is charged with implementing ALA policies concerning the concept of intellectual freedom as embodied in the Library Bill of Rights, the Association’s basic policy on free access to libraries and library materials. The goal of the office is to educate librarians and the general public about the nature and importance of intellectual freedom in libraries.
"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.
Links to non-ALA resources and sites have been provided because they 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 in these resources or on these sites; and furthermore, ALA and OIF do not endorse any commercial products that may be advertised or available in these resources or on these sites.
Intellectual Freedom
