Did you know that ALA's Freedom to Read statement is 70 years old? (It was first adopted June 25, 1953.) This statement states that the freedom to read is essential to our democracy and guaranteed by our constitution.
"Freedom keeps open the path of novel and creative solutions, and enables change to come by choice. Every silencing of a heresy, every enforcement of an orthodoxy, diminishes the toughness and resilience of our society and leaves it the less able to deal with controversy and difference.
… The freedom to read and write is almost the only means for making generally available ideas or manners of expression that can initially command only a small audience.
… We believe that every American community must jealously guard the freedom to publish and to circulate, in order to preserve its own freedom to read. We believe that publishers and librarians have a profound responsibility to give validity to that freedom to read by making it possible for readers to choose freely from a variety of offerings."
