diff --git a/LICENSE b/LICENSE
index 41ead3f..74fbf2c 100755
--- a/LICENSE
+++ b/LICENSE
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-Copyright (c) 2009-2011, Dean Rather and contributors.
+Copyright (c) 2009-2021, Dean Rather, Adam Stradomski and contributors.
 All rights reserved.
 
 Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 111a35b..18cf07d 100755
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -4,8 +4,9 @@ Fork of Bash Logger designed to incorperate [PSR-3](http://www.php-fig.org/psr/p
 
 ## Contributors
 
-- Dean Rather
 - Fred Palmer
+- Dean Rather
+- Adam Stradomski
 
 ## Using Bash Logger
 
@@ -15,7 +16,7 @@ Fork of Bash Logger designed to incorperate [PSR-3](http://www.php-fig.org/psr/p
 
     #!/bin/bash
     source /path/to/bash-logger.sh
-
+    LOG_LEVEL="INFO"
     INFO "This is a test info log"
 
 ```
@@ -30,8 +31,7 @@ Fork of Bash Logger designed to incorperate [PSR-3](http://www.php-fig.org/psr/p
 
 ### Logging Levels
 
-Bash Logger supports the logging levels described by [RFC 5424](http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5424).
-
+Bash Logger supports the logging levels described by [RFC 5424](http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5424). Logging levels in order of priority: 
 - **DEBUG** Detailed debug information.
 
 - **INFO** Interesting events. Examples: User logs in, SQL logs.
@@ -54,11 +54,16 @@ Bash Logger supports the logging levels described by [RFC 5424](http://tools.iet
 
 - **EMERGENCY** Emergency: system is unusable.
 
+### Log level
+
+- Use the LOG_LEVEL variable to determine the logs to be logged. For example, LOG_LEVEL="INFO" will disable logging of debug level messages. 
+
 ## Handlers
 
 By default:
 - Logs are displayed in colour
 - Logs are written to `~/bash-logger.log`
+- Only logs above level DEBUG will be logged by default. Use LOG_LEVEL="DEBUG" to log all log levels. 
 - **error** level logs and above `exit` with an error code
 
 The colours, logfile, default behavior, and log-level behavior can all be overwritten, see [examples.sh](examples.sh) for examples.
diff --git a/bash-logger.sh b/bash-logger.sh
index acbb129..b09b8ec 100755
--- a/bash-logger.sh
+++ b/bash-logger.sh
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 #--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Bash Logger
-# Copyright (c) Dean Rather
+# Copyright (c) Dean Rather, Adam Stradomski
 # Licensed under the MIT license
 # http://github.com/deanrather/bash-logger
 #--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -20,7 +20,12 @@ export LOG_COLOR_ERROR="\033[1;31m"                 # Red
 export LOG_COLOR_CRITICAL="\033[44m"                # Blue Background
 export LOG_COLOR_ALERT="\033[43m"                   # Yellow Background
 export LOG_COLOR_EMERGENCY="\033[41m"               # Red Background
+export LOG_LEVEL_DEFAULT="INFO"
 export RESET_COLOR="\033[0m"
+declare -A levels=([DEBUG]=0 [INFO]=1 [NOTICE]=2 [WARNING]=3 [ERROR]=4 [CRITICAL]=5 [ALERT]=6 [EMERGENCY]=7 )
+
+# If global LOG_LEVEL is empty, set default log level
+[[ -z $LOG_LEVEL ]] && LOG_LEVEL=$LOG_LEVEL_DEFAULT
 
 #--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Individual Log Functions
@@ -74,6 +79,9 @@ LOG() {
 LOG_HANDLER_DEFAULT() {
     # $1 - level
     # $2 - message
+    [[ ${levels[$1]} ]] || return 1  									## unknown log level for log message
+    [[ ${levels[$LOG_LEVEL]} ]] || LOG_LEVEL=$LOG_LEVEL_DEFAULT			## unknown global log level
+    (( ${levels[$1]} < ${levels[$LOG_LEVEL]} )) && return 2				## log message log level is lower than global log level 
     local formatted_log="$(FORMAT_LOG "$@")"
     LOG_HANDLER_COLORTERM "$1" "$formatted_log"
     LOG_HANDLER_LOGFILE "$1" "$formatted_log"
diff --git a/examples.sh b/examples.sh
index 9bd3865..af5ea90 100755
--- a/examples.sh
+++ b/examples.sh
@@ -1,11 +1,14 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 #--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Bash Logger
-# Copyright (c) Dean Rather
+# Copyright (c) Dean Rather, Adam Stradomski
 # Licensed under the MIT license
 # http://github.com/deanrather/bash-logger
 #--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
+# Log level can be set outside scripts
+export LOG_LEVEL="DEBUG"
+
 # Including the logger functions
 source bash-logger.sh
 
@@ -53,6 +56,18 @@ CRITICAL "Example Critical log"
 ALERT "Example Alert log"
 EMERGENCY "Example Emergency log"
 
+export LOG_LEVEL="NOTICE"
+# Example of all log levels
+echo # newline
+DEBUG "Example Debug log will not be logged"
+INFO "Example Info log will not be logged"
+NOTICE "Example Notice log will be logged"
+WARNING "Example Warning log will be logged"
+ERROR "Example Error log will be logged"
+CRITICAL "Example Critical log will be logged"
+ALERT "Example Alert log will be logged"
+EMERGENCY "Example Emergency log will be logged"
+
 # Overwriting default log behavior (eg. adding another echo)
 echo # newline
 INFO "Adding additional default behavior"
@@ -63,3 +78,4 @@ LOG_HANDLER_DEFAULT() {
     echo "logged to logfile"
 }
 NOTICE "test notice log"
+