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Policies

Intellectual Freedom

  • We believe in having books that reflect a diversity of views and expressions.
  • We allow access to library materials – regardless of age or grade.
  • We serve all students and staff.
  • We encourage curiosity!
  • We believe that the freedom to access ideas is essential to our democracy.
  • We believe in our students' right to choose their own library materials.

Freedom to Read Statement created by using wording and ideas from the ALA's "Freedom to Read Statement" and Mona Kerby's "School Library First Principles." 

  

Privacy Statement


The circulation records for students and staff are confidential. This confidentiality protects the intellectual freedom of the library patron. Library records will not be made available to state, federal, or local government authorities except if a proper legal process, such as subpoena, has been followed.

The ideas for this privacy statement have been taken from the ALA’s Intellectual Freedom Manual’s “Policy on Confidentiality of Library Records” available at this link: http://www.ifmanual.org/confidentialitypolicy

 

Ethical Use of Information

School libraries teach students to “take responsibility for their own actions related to the ethical use of information” by: citing sources, complying with copyright laws, and avoiding plagiarism. School libraries also “promote intellectual freedom” by “recognizing the role of information in a democratic society and by promoting freedom of access to ideas” (MCPS).

The ideas and the direct quotes for this policy statement on the Ethical Use of Information came from MCPS’s School Library Media Learner Outcomes.

 

Copyright

 School libraries seek to teach students and staff about copyright. “Libraries are leaders in trying to maintain a balance of power between copyright holders and users” (ALA). Users must respect the rights of the authors to earn a living from their creative works. But it is also equally important for students and staff to learn about and to utilize fair use of copyrighted material. “Fair use allows for the use of copyrighted works for the purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, scholarship, or research” (ALA).

The ideas for this statement on copyright and the quotes in the statement come from the ALA’s statement on copyright, which can be found at this link: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/copyright/