Websites
American Library Association
The ALA Mission: Empowering and advocating for libraries and library workers to ensure equitable access to information for all. The ALA operates on 5 core values: Access, Equity, Intellectual Freedom & Privacy, Public Good, and Sustainability.
Access: Access provides opportunities for everyone in the community to obtain library resources and services with minimal disruption. Library workers create systems that ensure members of their community can freely access the information they need for learning, growth, and empowerment regardless of technology, format, or delivery methods.
Equity: Library workers play a crucial role in fostering equity by actively working to dismantle barriers and create spaces that are accessible, welcoming, and beneficial for all. This is accomplished by recognizing and addressing systemic barriers, biases, and inequalities to create inclusive library environments where everyone can benefit from the library’s offerings and services.
Intellectual Freedom & Privacy: Intellectual freedom empowers people to think for themselves and to make informed decisions while respecting each individual’s dignity and independence. Library workers encourage people to cultivate curiosity and form ideas by questioning the world and accessing information from diverse viewpoints and formats without restrictions or censorship. The right to privacy is a crucial safeguard to this freedom, ensuring everyone has the right to develop their thoughts and opinions free of surveillance.
Public Good: Public good is working to improve society and protect the rights to education, literacy, and intellectual freedom. Libraries are an essential public good and are fundamental institutions in democratic societies. Library workers provide the highest service levels to create informed, connected, educated, and empowered communities.
Sustainability: Sustainability means making choices that are good for the environment, make sense economically, and treat everyone equitably. Sustainable choices preserve physical and digital resources and keep services useful now and into the future. By supporting climate resiliency, library workers create thriving communities and care for our common good for a better tomorrow.
Unite Against Book Bans
With more than 200 partner organizations and tens of thousands of individual supporters, Unite Against Book Bans connects, equips, and mobilizes the public to advocate in their communities for the right to read and to defeat attempts at every level of government to censor reading material. Unite represents the overwhelming majority of Americans that believe in the freedom to read. Our coalition members are readers, parents, students, educators, librarians and library workers, authors, publishers, community and advocacy organizations, businesses and workers, nonprofits, faith groups, elected officials, civic leaders, and other concerned people who stand ready to oppose censorship.
PEN America
PEN America (originally short for Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists, and Novelists) was founded 100 years ago New York City. PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible. PEN America’s programs defend writers, artists, and journalists and protect free expression worldwide. This work includes research and reports on topical issues; advocacy on free expression challenges; campaigns on policy issues and on behalf of individual writers and journalists under threat; year-round festivals and events; literary awards; fellowships; and more.
This Book is Banned
This Book is Banned was established in 2019, and it’s mission* is simple: “is Book is Banned is dedicated to advancing literacy and free expression by celebrating books that have been challenged, restricted, or outright banned. … We provide a wide range of resources for readers and advocates of banned books. These include fundamentals on how to read for more than plot, lists of banned books, in-depth readings of books that have been challenged or banned, as well as discussion guides for these books. … This Book is Banned is about books and how we read them. It’s about providing the tools and context you need to gain a deeper understanding of the world others write about. … But it’s also about books that have been banned. If a book has been banished from a school curriculum, access has been restricted in a library, or it’s been targeted in a bookstore, we’re going to bring it out of the shadows and give it the in-depth reading it was denied in the past…the thoughtful reading we have a right to. Because art may be subjective, but our ability to see it shouldn’t be.”
*Mission excerpted from a much larger text. Clicking “mission” above will take you directly to the full text.
Marshall University Libraries
Marshall University does not ban books! The information is provided to let people know what has been banned/challenged elsewhere. Banned Books Week (BBW) celebrates the freedom to choose and the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular, stressing the importance of ensuring the availability of those viewpoints to all who wish to read them. It is sponsored by the American Booksellers Association, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the American Library Association (ALA), the Association of American Publishers, the American Society of Journalists and Authors and the National Association of College Stores. It is endorsed by the Library of Congress’ Center for the Book. Material for this page was obtained from the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom and ALA’s Journal of Intellectual Freedom and Privacy: Vol. 6-1, 6-2, 6-3 & 6-4.
