INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM

A. The foundation of Intellectual Freedom: The first amendment

• First Amendment of the Bill of Rights to the United States Constitution - ALA's web page on this basic freedom provided in the U.S. Constitution.

• First Amendment Center - Featuring comprehensive research coverage of key First Amendment issues and topics, daily First Amendment news, a unique First Amendment Library and guest analyses by respected legal specialists

B. Policy Statements on Intellectual Freedom

• American Association of School Librarians (AASL)

• American Library Association (ALA)

  • Libraries: An American Value

• Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT)

• National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)

C. Instructional Materials Policies - school district policy

• RCW28A.320.230 - Checklist for Washington State Instructional Materials Selection Policies

• Sample School District Instructional Materials Policies

  • Bellingham

  • Kent

• Request for the reevaluation of instructional materials - a sample form from ALA for materials challenges
  

D. Dealing with Parent Concerns about library resources

• American Library Association. Dealing with Challenges to Books and Other Library Materials

• Handling parent concerns, by Doug Hamilton of WLMA.

• AASL's Book and Material Challenges webpage includes these excellent resources:

  • Coping with Challenges: Kids and Libraries: What You Should Know

  • Coping with Challenges: Strategies and Tips for Dealing with Challenges to Library Materials.

E. Censorship database & Allies

• Reporting a Challenge - Use the form on this page to report a challenge to ALA
  

• Allies for Intellectual Freedom

• Access Northwest at WSU conducted a Survey of Challenged and Banned Books in Washington School Libraies and Classrooms.  This 2005 report contains many statistics and under reported information about schools and requests to ban materials.

F. Other Intellectual Freedom links

• Banned Books On-line - Books suppressed or censored by legal authorities.

• ALA Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-1999.