Intellectual Freedom and the American Library Association (ALA): Historical Overview [ELIS Classic]

One of the major initiatives of the American Library Association has been to promote intellectual freedom in society. The author of this entry was one of the driving forces of this effort over many years. Though, as Krug noted, intellectual freedom has been understood in many different ways, a simplified definition can be taken as the right to freedom of thought, expression, and access to informational materials of any kind. In this entry, Krug described the long, rich history of librarians’ efforts to oppose censorship and assure intellectual freedom for library users.—ELIS Classic, from 2003