In furtherance of our core value of intellectual freedom, and in the face of increasingly radical bans on books, ideas, and scholarship, the Association is glad to renew our endorsement of the Freedom to Read Statement on its 70th anniversary.
As this statement asserts, reading is among our greatest freedoms and “essential to the extended discussion that serious thought requires, and to the accumulation of knowledge and ideas.”
We join with the American Library Association, the Association of American Publishers, the American Booksellers Association, and the Authors Guild in affirming 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 the readers to choose freely from a variety of offerings.”
Read the full statement here.