Access to Digital Resources and Services: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights

The library’s key mission is to provide everyone with access to information. They do this no matter the content or format. Today, this mission also includes providing access to digital resources and services.

Libraries are critical in connecting people to digital resources and services, such as computers and the internet. Libraries must follow the Library Bill of Rights when offering these resources. They should prioritize intellectual freedom and equity, ensuring that technology expands access rather than restricting it.

Libraries should stay up to date on digital creation, distribution, retrieval, and archiving issues. When reviewing these issues, they should consider:

• users’ First Amendment rights;
• users’ rights to privacy;
• the core values of librarianship;
• the Library Bill of Rights;
• the American Library Association's (ALA) Code of Ethics; and
• the library’s collection policies.

These reviews should guide policy updates to ensure access to digital information. Many people don’t have access to, or the skills needed to use or create digital resources. Libraries must provide spaces where people can access, use, or create digital information without barriers. These barriers may include:

• physical;  
• mental;  
• economic;  
• educational; or
• political challenges.

Providing access doesn’t mean the library agrees with the content. Libraries should resist the censorship of digital resources and services. This includes attempts by individuals, governments, and private entities to censor or limit access.

Libraries should carefully plan how to provide access to digital resources, services, tools, equipment, and networks. These decisions should follow the principles of intellectual freedom and equity, while reflecting the library’s:

• mission;  
• goals;  
• objectives;  
• cooperative agreements; and
• community needs. 

Libraries should review all policies, procedures, and regulations to ensure they don’t violate users’ rights. All digital access policies should follow the guidelines set by the ALA.¹

Users have a right to express, receive, create, or participate in constitutionally protected speech. Their access to digital resources and services cannot be blocked for exercising this right. If access is limited for other reasons, users must receive due process. This includes formal notice and an option to appeal. These rights extend to minors as well as adults.²

Libraries should use technology to expand digital access, not restrict it. Digital information that users find, use, or create is constitutionally protected unless a court rules otherwise. Users also have the right to be free of unreasonable limitations set by:

• libraries;  
• library workers;
• system administrators;
• vendors; and
• network service providers.

Library contracts, agreements, and licenses must respect users’ rights. Libraries should provide training and support to help users find, evaluate, use, and create digital information.

Libraries should protect users’ rights to privacy and confidentiality, as stated in Article VII of the Library Bill of Rights.³ This right applies to all users, regardless of their abilities, origin, age, background, or views.

To uphold these rights, libraries should maintain secure systems and networks. When offering digital resources, libraries should ensure third-party vendors protect users’ privacy. Many online services collect, store, use, and share user data without their knowledge. Libraries should educate users about these risks and advocate for stronger privacy protections from vendors.

The digital world offers many opportunities for people to participate in our information society. However, serious barriers, often called the “digital divide,” prevent access for many. These barriers include a lack of:

• infrastructure for internet connectivity;
• tools (hardware or software);
• skills;  
• knowledge; or
• means of accessing digital resources.⁴

Libraries should address the digital divide and work to reduce it when providing access to digital resources in their communities. 

All digital resources and services from the library should be equitably accessible to everyone. The ALA doesn’t support publicly funded libraries charging fees for access.⁵

Libraries should create digital access policies that follow ALA’s guidelines. When new digital resources are added, libraries must provide equitable training opportunities to users and staff. This training should include privacy and security issues to help users navigate these resources safely. 

Libraries should provide access to all types of information that meet the community’s needs and interests. They do this regardless of a user’s age or the content of the material.

To preserve cultural information and prevent its loss, libraries may need to expand their collection policies. These polices should ensure digital information is selected and preserved in the appropriate formats. Libraries also have a duty to provide access to government information in digital formats.

Connecting users to global information, services, and networks is different from adding materials to the library’s collection. Some digital information may not meet the library’s collection policy. As such, each user must decide what is right for their needs.

Libraries should not deny or limit access to digital resources simply because they are considered controversial. Access should not be limited based on staff members’ personal beliefs or fear of conflict. Resources should not be restricted just because they are seen as lacking value.

Parents and legal guardians should guide their own children in using digital resources if they have concerns.

Publicly funded libraries must legally provide access to constitutionally protected information. However, laws or governing bodies require some libraries to use internet filters or technology to block access to this information. This practice goes against the Library Bill of Rights.⁶ Libraries that use these tools must set them at the least restrictive level. This ensures they do not block protected information needlessly.

Adults have the right to access all constitutionally protected information. They can ask for filters or tools to be disabled promptly and confidentially. Minors also have the right to access this information. At a minimum, they can ask for access to wrongly blocked information. Those requests should also be handled quickly and confidentially. To protect user privacy, records of these requests should not contain personally identifiable information. Libraries have a duty to inform users about their rights and provide clear ways for users to exercise those rights.⁷

Digital resources and services greatly expand the amount of information available to users. Libraries should treat these resources the same as non-digital ones and follow the principles of the Library Bill of Rights. This ensures equitable access, no matter the content or platform. 

For information about choosing and using an online service, including questions about how to better understand how vendors should properly collect, store, use, share, and retain personal data, please see the ALA’s “Privacy Guidelines,”⁸ which includes more specific information in the “Library Privacy Guidelines for Vendors” document.⁹

1. “Guidelines for Library Policies,” approved June 28, 1994, by the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee; amended January 19, 2005; March 29, 2014, under the previous name “Guidelines for the Development and Implementation of Policies, Regulations, and Procedures Affecting Access to Library Resources, Services and Facilities”; amended June 24, 2019.

2. Tinker v. Des Moines Indep. Cmty. Sch. Dist., 393 U.S. 503 (1969); Bd. of Educ., Island Trees Union Free Sch. Dist. No. 26 v. Pico, 457 U.S. 853 (1982); Am. Amusement Mach. Ass’n v. Teri Kendrick, 244 F.3d 954 (7th Cir. 2001); cert.denied, 534 U.S. 994 (2001).

3. “Privacy: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights,” Adopted June 19, 2002, by the ALA Council; amended July 1, 2014; June 24, 2019; and June 29, 2025.

4. Martin Hilbert, “The End Justifies the Definition: The Manifold Outlooks on the Digital Divide and Their Practical Usefulness for Policy-Making,” Telecommunications Policy 35, no. 8 (2011): 715−36, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.telpol.2011.06.012.

5. “Economic Barriers to Library Access: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights,” adopted June 30, 1993, by the ALA Council; amended June 25, 2019 under the previous name “Economic Barriers to Information Access”; and June 29, 2025.

6. “Internet Filtering: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights,” adopted June 30, 2015, by the ALA Council; amended June 29, 2025.

7. “If some libraries do not have the capacity to unblock specific Web sites or to disable the filter or if it is shown that an adult user’s election to view constitutionally protected internet material is burdened in some other substantial way, that would be the subject for an as-applied challenge, not the facial challenge made in this case.” United States, et al. v. Am. Library Ass’n, 539 U.S. 194 (2003) (Justice Kennedy, concurring).

8. “Library Privacy Guidelines: Overview and Listing,” https://www.ala.org/advocacy/privacy/guidelines.

9. “Library Privacy Guidelines for Vendors,” approved June 29, 2015 by the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee under previous title "Library Privacy Guidelines for E-book Lending and Digital Content Vendors"; revised January 26, 2020.

Adopted January 24, 1996 by the ALA Council; amended January 19, 2005; July 15, 2009 under previous name "Access to Digital Information, Services, and Networks"; June 25, 2019; and May 29, 2025.