V.  A service philosophy should be promoted that affords equal access to information for all in the academic community with no discrimination on the basis of race, values, gender, sexual orientation, cultural or ethnic background, physical or learning disability, economic status, religious beliefs, or views.

This seems an unnecessary statement in 2003, and yet we have hatred brewing across the planet as well as our own country.  Racism, homophobia, sexism, ageism, religious zeal, bigotry, and snobbery have not disappeared.  For all of our progressiveness, this country (this world) is rife with prejudice.  The US Constitution and Bill of Rights are examples of potential solutions, however, they have not solved the problem.  There is still a need for a dedicated awareness of the problem and an attentiveness to do all that librarians can to grant access to all patrons, regardless of the above mentioned qualities. 

Mill (1859), Rawls (1971), and proponents of natural rights theories (Woodward, 1990) have agreed that people (humans) have the right to information because they are human, alive, thinking – whatever the term.  As Fallis (2003) states, humans are “autonomous rational agents,” therefore, they can think for themselves.  Since humans can think for themselves, they have the right to information, and because of this, denying access to information would conflict with the very nature of humans.