How to Respond to Challenges and Concerns about Library Resources

Informal complaints can occur at any time, and every library should have a process for handling verbal concerns. Library workers and educators who receive expressions of concern should courteously refer them to the person responsible for responding to concerns, who should take the following steps:
Intellectual Freedom Manual, Eleventh Edition. Erin Jones, Editor. Office for Intellectual Freedom, American Library Association.

Introduction

Libraries strengthen communities by supporting literacy and providing access to information and culture. Library workers fulfill this mission by collecting resources spanning the horizon of human thought and experience.

Attempts to limit the freedom to read are attempts to limit whose stories can be told and who gets to tell them. Restrictions on access to books are restrictions on the ideas available for consideration and discussion.

The ALA Code of Ethics directs library workers to "uphold the principles of intellectual freedom and resist all efforts to censor library resources."

Libraries need approved collection development and reconsideration policies. The policies should provide criteria for selecting resources, and procedures for handling challenges to materials. These policies help library workers defend the freedom to read.

Libraries serve community members who have differing needs, interests, and viewpoints. The materials valued by some community members may be considered objectionable by others. A library user may complain when they disapprove of a resource.

Library workers should handle all complaints in the same way. Policy must be followed no matter who raises concerns about the resource. This is true even if the complainant is a staff member, an administrator, or an elected official.

Verbal Concerns and Complaints

Every library needs a process for handling verbal complaints about resources. When someone expresses concerns, politely refer them to the person responsible for responding. When handling complaints:

  • Do not agree with the person or promise to act.
  • Remain calm and respectful.
  • Remember that everyone has the right to question library resources.
  • Listen attentively, ask clarifying questions, and seek to understand their concerns.
  • Determine if they have read the entire work.
  • Ask if there is something they would like the library to do.
  • Offer the complainant help in finding something better suited to their interests.
  • When the concerns are about a resource for children or young adults, affirm that parents have the right to guide their own children's reading and library use, and they must allow other parents that same right.
  • If the complainant requests censorship of the resource, explain that other library users may not share their perspective. Describe how library resources are selected. Share that a library's mission is to provide resources for all members of the community and must collect resources from many points of view to fulfill that mission. Explain that every library user has the First Amendment right to experience the resources they choose and to form their own opinions about them.
  • If the complainant is satisfied, thank them for their interest.
  • If the complainant is not satisfied:
    • Explain the formal reconsideration process and its timeline.
    • State your policy on the resource's availability during the reconsideration process.
    • Provide a copy of the library's collection development policy and a resource reconsideration form.
    • Stress that the form must be fully completed for the library to act.
    • Explain that the reconsideration process begins when a completed form is received and that the form becomes part of the public record.
    • After the conversation, make notes, date them, and retain them for background in case a reconsideration request form is filed. These notes may become public records.
    • Notify your director or principal of the concerns expressed, how concerns were handled, and any actions the complainant said they would take next.

If the complainant becomes belligerent:

  • Enforce your library's user behavior policy.
  • Report harassment to your human resources department.
  • Report threats to the police.

Be aware that some people attempt to subvert the process by taking their concerns directly to the board or another governing body.

For Additional guidance, see the Selection & Reconsideration Policy Toolkit for Public, School, & Academic Libraries.

 

Jones, Erin, ed. Intellectual Freedom Manual. Eleventh Edition. Chicago: ALA Editions. 2026.

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UPDATED 2026