Librarian's attitudes toward filtering: The turning tide

[Laura Quilter]

I really don't see that the notion that educating users to be self-aware,
intelligent "consumers," has much to do with being a dumbed-down public
access port.  Frankly, I didn't go into librarianship because I was
excited at the idea that I could "select" or "censor" materials for
patrons.  Now that we have the opportunity to present an unmediated medium
(so to speak) I think we have two great opportunities: 1) to really prove
the value of end-user critical thinking - which has always been important
but could sometimes be ignored by users who relied on someone else to do
their selection for them; 2) to assist in the creation and navigation of
information-search systems and organizational schemas.

The question is: is censorship / selection a core value of librarianship,
and why, and should it remain so?  I agree that censorship / selection are
two terms describing essentially the same function.  I do not agree that
they are a core value of librarianship, but they have been a core SKILL.

I doubt we will find any more consensus on this issue than we can find
consensus on what is "true, meaningful selection."  

Mr. Burt, you are guilty of collapsing and malforming your opponent's
arguments into sentiments unrecognizable to them.  "Defending porn in
children's rooms," for example.  Nor do I recall that any pro-filter-ware
people have been called cybernazis or thought-police.  Censor, yes.  It's
an accurate term and not everyone takes offense at it.

"Our selection rights," indeed.  What an interesting concept.

On Sat, 26 Apr 1997, Burt, David wrote:

> It's definitely worth noting that every time the filtering debate comes
> up on this list, more and more librarians express pro-filtering
> sentiments.  Librarians I know in "Real Life" are increasingly willing
> to openly support the idea of true, meaningful selection of Internet
> resources, and are rejecting the stuporous "everything on the net or
> nothing" false dichotomy, which turns librarian's selection role into
> that of a dumbed-down public access port, and standing up to the moral
> arrogance and professional stupidity of defending porn in children's
> rooms.
> 
> I  applaud  every librarian who has had the courage to brave being
> called a thought policeman, cybernotsi, censor, collaborator, etc. among
> other nice things the anti-filtering extremists have called us on this
> list,  and stand up for their selection rights, and most of all, for
> common sense.
> 
> Let's keep up the fight, we're winning.
> 
>  ***********************************************************
>           David Burt, Information Technology Librarian 
>           The Lake Oswego Public Library 
>           706 Fourth Street, Lake Oswego, OR 97034
>           URL:          http://www.ci.oswego.or.us/library/library.htm
>           Phone:     (503) 635-0392 
>           Fax:           (503) 635-4171 
>           E-mail:      dburt at ci.oswego.or.us
>                  
> 

Laura M. Quilter   /   lauramd at uic.edu
Electronic Services Librarian
University of Illinois at Chicago
http://www.uic.edu/~lauramd/

"If I can't dance, I don't want to be 
in your revolution."  -- Emma Goldman