Razor's Edge

Your Mama Said there Would be Days Like This...

Like here in the States, the UK has its share of terrorist threats. Like the librarians in America UK librarians share many of the same codes of ethics. In particular to safe guard the privacy of its patrons. Or in the words of John Pateman, head of libraries in Lincolnshire, UK when asked what he thought of turning over records over to local government and police, he said: “It concerns me. Public libraries are one of the last public spaces where people don’t have to justify themselves” .

I can't think of a better way of phrasing it. Because despite the transformation of the library to a quasi virtual/physical space of information exchange, we tend to think of us providing a harbor in the storms raging in the world around us.

Librarians in the UK are asked not to stuff the shelves with materials that could be useful to a terrorist planning a bombing or other acts of violence. But that sort of policy runs contrary to the open source principles that librarians are trained in. Librarians create opportunities for their patrons to come into a safe and clean environment to explore and learn (certainly not to harbor terrorists or incite or encourage acts of violence) without fear of censorship or invasion of privacy. Most librarians, for example may know that some of their patrons may not be honest people, but its not in their job discription to discriminate. Naturally we want people to be safe, but we want people to be free too, if we can help it.

The Patriot Act here in America has been a challenge to many professional administrators and their staffs. Its intentions are to safe guard the American public against foreign aggression and acts of terrorists, but many have pointed out the extremes violate human rights of privacy. Mr. Bush is not very popular now. We are now on the early stages of a new election and I follow it with great interest. Most certainly the legacy of Bush's war and politics, and economics will be with us for some time. For example in a recent New York times article on the national debt here in the States, written by Larry Rohter and Michael Cooper, the Tax Policy Center in Washington D.C. found that all three candidates will increase the current national debt. (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/us/politics/27fiscal.html

Librarians seem to be forced to walk a razors edge of politics, ethics, and patron rights. The questions are broad and dangerous. A smart librarian keeps their politics out of their work place, however, because they should have nothing to do with how we serve the public. There are librarians who support the efforts of the current administration, and then there are those (like myself) who are disgusted and horrified by Bush's policies.

It would be unrealistic, however, that a November election will radically change the scene. I wish it were other than that. So the best one can do is stand for your beliefs, and live for a better tomorrow.

Any thoughts?

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/57851-anti-terror-threat-to-librarian-role.html