I think Further up Further in was Re: Black pages

[Elisabeth Roche]

If our role is to be librarians, and eagerly (a given, right?) try to find
information for the pursuing and perusing public, then we have no choice. 

If by some abberation of the forces of the universe, in the United States we
have found ourselves in a posture of civil disobedience, then at least our
consciences are clear. (was that the correct conscience? I sure hope so:-))

We can follow through on this civil disobedience or we can work around the
problem and we will all do what we think is the correct thing to do, being
professional information scientists, let's not lose sight of this truth
while others try to take this away from us.

Whatever each of us decides to do we still stand together in a fight against
censorship and restriction of books and learning and information for all the
people of the US who come from a tradition of our original colonial
forebears commitments to access to information.(see Benjamin Franklin - smile)

[I wore my "I Read Banned Books button" all day and the grocery checker said
"You read banned books?" Well, that got the attention of everyone!" )We got
into a discussion right there in the line at the store. It was great.

Everyone around were bringing up books on the banned list (they were all
correct, amazing what the "normal real people" we are all part of know isn't
it:?]

It turned into quite a fun "I read Banned Books" episode at the grocery
store... 

Be ready and use it I say!:-)))  I did say, "look at my website, you could
read banned books there", 

The checker said really, "give me your url!!!!

So, talk about it and make it happen!!"

Elisabeth Roche ace at opus1.com
http://www.opus1.com/~ace
serendipity RULES!



At 09:45 AM 2/12/96 -0800, Chuck Munson wrote:
>Joe Schallan wrote:
> 
>> Carlos,
>> 
>> Thanks for hitting on what I think is the hard part of all this
>> uproar.  Personally and professionally, I am opposed to
>> censorship.  It is a slippery slope and you don't want to
>> start down it.  I think web access ought to be wide open,
>> with the responsibility for use placed with the user.
>> 
>> But as a city employee I also took a pledge not to
>> politicize anything I do in my role as a public servant.
>> The opposition to the Exon provision is high-minded
>> and worthy of support, but no matter how worthy, it
>> is still a political matter.
>> 
>
>Joe, I believe that that pledge seriously conflicts with your duties 
>as a librarian. Please understand that all I have to say is not 
>directed at you personally. I agree with another poster to web4lib 
>that by "not taking a political position" you are still being 
>political. From what I have seen in the library press (letters from 
>librarians supporting censorship of LesBiGay materials) many 
>librarians haven't discovered this. Librarianship is a political 
>profession: one cannot stand idly by when another is being censored, 
>no matter what their views.
>
>> If library patrons ask me for my views on censorship,
>> I will tell them, and I will note that those views are my
>> own but are widely shared within the profession.  But
>> my web site is considered an official communication
>> with citizens by both my director and my city administration.
>> It must remain apolitical.
>
>What a gutless director and city administration! What currently 
>disgusts me about the library profession is the inability of library 
>professionals to take political stands on issues that would have 
>seemed normal 10, 20 years ago. Are we going to let the forces of 
>censorship and defunding beat us back that badly?
>
>> 
>> I think it is fine for .com and .org and .edu sites (where
>> the "orgs" and the "edus" are private ones) to make
>> any statement they wish.
>> 
>> Thanks for your comments.
>> 
>> Joe
>
>Some of us .edu sites would like to make statements that are really 
>not that controversial, but are hogtied by buck-passing.
>
>> 
>> PS.  I think there is a tendency in our profession, which seems
>> dominated by political liberals, to act as though it knows
>> what's better for the citizens it serves than they do.
>> That attitude invites interference in the library's mission, as
>> the recent controversy involving a group called Family
>> Friendly Libraries shows.  We need to simultaneously uphold
>> freedom of thought and be respectful of citizens' concerns.
>> No one said it would always be easy.
>> 
>
>I think that most of our "citizens" support freedom of speech, but 
>that some librarians these days buckle in to a small minority of 
>censors in fear of being seen as political. I know that there are 
>many librarians who are fighting censorship, but let us make 
>fighting censorship to be as common to librarianship as checking out 
>books.
>
>Chuck0 Munson
>Systems Librarian
>Somewhere in Maryland
>