LibGuides: Privacy Online: Home

Library Core Values of Privacy

(Photo taken from South Dakota State Library)

The American Library Association (ALA) affirms a person's right to privacy in the library in Article VII of the Library Bill of Rights:

"All people, regardless of origin, age, background, or views, possess a right to privacy and confidentiality in their library use. Libraries should advocate for, educate about, and protect people’s privacy, safeguarding all library use data, including personally identifiable information."

This LibGuide was created to provide resources that libraries and staff can use to help uphold the privacy of their users.

Literature on Privacy in the Library

Privacy: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights
A more in-depth look at user privacy and confidentiality as outlined in Article VII of the Library Bill of Rights.
Library Bill of Rights
American Library Association's statement expressing the rights of library users to intellectual freedom and the expectations the association places on libraries to support those rights.
Code of Ethics
The Code of Ethics is the document that translates the values of intellectual freedom that define the profession of librarianship into broad principles that may be used by individual members of that profession as well as by others employed in a library as a framework for dealing with situations involving ethical conflicts