The Southern Gulf Islands Libraries follow the Canadian Library Association Statement on Internet Access:
Approved by Executive Council ~ November 8, 1997; Revised February 2000
This statement is intended to be considered in tandem with both the CLA Statement on Intellectual Freedom (1985) and the CLA Statement on Information and Telecommunication Access Principles (1994). The principles enunciated in those statements apply to issues of intellectual freedom and public access to the Internet in libraries and provide guidance in this area.
In addition, CLA encourages libraries:
- To offer Internet access with the fewest possible restrictions,
- To familiarize themselves, their governing bodies and their communities with the legal issues surrounding the provision of Internet access and to integrate such legal reference points into their access policies,
- To incorporate Internet use principles into overall policies on access to library resources, including time, place, and manner restrictions on Internet use, and user behaviour policies and to publicize these policies widely and post them prominently in library facilities and on electronic media,
- To safeguard the long-standing relationship of trust between libraries and children, their parents and guardians, in developing Internet use policies and practices, acknowledging the rights and responsibilities of parents and guardians,
- To create library web pages consistent with resource priorities that point to appropriately reviewed sites both for general use and for use by children,
- To educate their publics about intellectual freedom principles and the shared responsibility of public and school libraries, parents, and guardians in facilitating access to resources in various forms of media, including the Internet, and
- To assume active leadership in community awareness of, and dialogue on, the issues inherent in the informed use of this essential, yet non-selective and unregulated medium in libraries.