Internet Use Policy, Guidelines and Considerations for Developing a Public Library, from the Office for Intellectual Freedom Go Directly to Guidelines and Considerations for Developing a Public Library Internet Use Policy American Library Association PDF Version of the Guidelines and Considerations for Developing a Public Library Internet Use Policy Click on the button to the left to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader required to view and print this and other PDF files available on the OIF Web site. Intellectual Freedom's Meaning and Scope Libraries are a major information source in our society for access to the larger world of human expression. For some, they are the only available access point.
Libraries connect individuals with the ideas, information, and images they seek.
Libraries that raise barriers to access damage their credibility with their users. By providing information across the spectrum of human interests, and making them available and accessible to anyone who wants them, libraries allow individuals to exercise their First Amendment right to seek and receive all types of expression, from all points of view. Materials in any given library cover the spectrum of human experience and thought, even those that some people may consider false, offensive, or dangerous. A very small fraction of those sexually explicit materials is actual obscenity or child pornography, which are not constitutionally protected. The rest, like the overwhelming majority of materials on the Internet , is protected by the First Amendment.