It has been a little over a month since the Peace Rally held in Oakland. Both of your trusty editors attended and marched. In the aftermath of the rally and the increasing tensions with Iraq, it occurred to us to look into the response of ALA to the ongoing hostilities.
We, your editors, are opposed to a war in Iraq. However, our views do not represent those of anyone else, including the department, the school, the university, etc. If you would like to express your views on the subject, email Bibliofile. We will run an article with the responses next month.
Policy Manual
In its policy manual, the American Library Association does deal with the issues of war, conflict solving, and the role of government in times of uncertainty. You may view the entire policy manual online at http://www.ala.org/alaorg/policymanual/. An overview of the policy manual highlighted the following policies. Additional policies will be found below:
1.1 Introduction (2nd paragraph)
ALA recognizes its broad social responsibilities. The broad social responsibilities of the American Library Association are defined in terms of the contribution that librarianship can make in ameliorating or solving the critical problems of society; support for efforts to help inform and educate the people of the United States on these problems and to encourage them to examine the many views on and the facts regarding each problem; and the willingness of ALA to take a position on current critical issues with the relationship to libraries and library service set forth in the position statement.
50.10 Disarmament and Conflict Solving Information in Libraries
Libraries should make available and readily accessible information on possibilities for disarmament and alternative ways of solving conflicts.
50.11 Nuclear Freeze, the Arms Race and National Security
The American Library Association supports the concept of a nuclear freeze on the development and deployment of nuclear weapons. It urges libraries to establish balanced up-to-date collections of library materials on national security in the nuclear age, on nuclear arms, and the movements for disarmament and a nuclear moratorium. The Association furthermore urges libraries to stimulate public interest in these issues and make information available about various courses of action concerned individuals may take.
52.4 Confidentiality of Library Records
The ethical responsibilities of librarians, as well as statutes in most
states and the District of Columbia, protect the privacy of library users.
Confidentiality extends to "information sought or received, and materials
consulted, borrowed, acquired," and includes database search records, reference
interviews, circulation records, interlibrary loan records, and other personally
identifiable uses of library materials, facilities, or services.
The American Library Association recognizes that law enforcement agencies
and officers may occasionally believe that library records contain information
which may be helpful to the investigation of criminal activity. If there
is a reasonable basis to believe such records are necessary to the progress
of an investigation or prosecution, the American judicial system provides
the mechanism for seeking release of such confidential records: the issuance
of a court order, following a showing of good cause based on specific facts,
by a court of competent jurisdiction.
The American Library Association strongly recommends that the responsible
officers of each library, cooperative system, and consortium in the United
States:
1) Formally adopt a policy which specifically recognizes its circulation
records and other records identifying the names of library users with specific
materials to be confidential.
2) Advise all librarians and library employees that such records shall
not be made available to any agency of state, federal, or local government
except pursuant to such process, order, or subpoena as may be authorized
under the authority of, and pursuant to, federal, state, or local law relating
to civil, criminal, or administrative discovery procedures or legislative
investigatory power.
3) Resist the issuance or enforcement of any such process, order, or subpoena
until such time as a proper showing of good cause has been made in a court
of competent jurisdiction.
53.4 Governmental Intimidation
The American Library Association opposes any use of government prerogatives
which leads to the intimidation of the individual or the citizenry from the
exercise of free expression. ALA encourages resistance to such abuse of
government power, and supports those against whom such governmental power
has been employed.
53.5 Shield Laws
The American Library Association supports the enactment by Congress of
a broad and effective federal shield law. The Association exhorts its chapters
to work vigorously for the enactment of broad and effective shield laws in
every state.
The American Library Association deplores the destruction of libraries, library collections and property, and the disruption of the educational process by that act, whether it be done by individuals or groups of individuals and whether it be in the name of honest dissent, the desire to control or limit thought or ideas, or for any other purpose.
58.3 Abridgment of the Rights of Freedom of Foreign Nationals
Threats to the freedom of expression of any person become threats to the
freedom of all; therefore ALA adopts as policy the principles of Article
19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations
General Assembly. The Association will address the grievances of foreign
nationals where the infringement of their rights of free expression is clearly
a matter in which all free people should show concern. Resolutions or other
documents attesting to such grievances will be brought to the attention of
the Executive Board and Council by the ALA International Relations Committee.
58.4 Article 19 of the United Nations' Universal Declaration
of Human Rights
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right
includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive
and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers.
58.4.1 Human Rights and Freedom of Expression
The ALA shall work with other associations and institutions that belong
to IFLA to develop positions and programmatic plans of action in support
of human rights and freedom of expression. The president or the member officially
representing the Association at IFLA conferences shall be directed to support
and carry them out; and, in the absence of such specific direction, the
president or the member officially representing the Association at IFLA
conferences is empowered to vote on new IFLA resolutions related to human
rights and freedom. Their votes shall be guided by ALA's adoption of Article
19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the good of the Association.
Resolutions
ALA: The following resolution was adopted by the ALA Council, January 23, 2002. You can link to it on the ALA homepage at http://www.ala.org/alaorg/oif/reaffirmifprinciples.html.
* Resolution Reaffirming the Principles of Intellectual Freedom in the Aftermath of Terrorist Attacks
WHEREAS: Benjamin Franklin counseled this nation: “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety”; and
WHEREAS: “The American Library Association believes that freedom of expression is an inalienable human right, necessary to self-government, vital to the resistance of oppression, and crucial to the cause of justice, and further, that the principles of freedom of expression should be applied by libraries and librarians throughout the world” (Policy 53.1.12, “Universal Right to Free Expression”); now, THEREFORE BE IT
RESOLVED: that the American Library Association reaffirms the following principles, and:
Actively promotes dissemination of true and timely information necessary to the people in the exercise of their rights (Policy 53.8, “Libraries: An American Value”);
Opposes government censorship of news media and suppression of access to unclassified government information (Policy 53.3, “Freedom to Read;” Policy 53.5, “Shield Laws”);
Upholds a professional ethic of facilitating access to information, not monitoring access (Policy 53.1, “Library Bill of Rights;” Policy 53.1.17, “Intellectual Freedom Principles for Academic Libraries”);
Encourages libraries and their staff to protect the privacy and confidentiality of the people’s lawful use of the library, its equipment, and its resources (Policy 52.4, “Policy on Confidentiality of Library Records”);
Affirms that tolerance of dissent is the hallmark of a free and democratic society (Policy 53.1.12, “Universal Right to Free Expression”);
Opposes the misuse of governmental power to intimidate, suppress, coerce, or compel speech (Policy 53.4, “Policy on Governmental Intimidation;” Policy 53.6, “Loyalty Oaths”); and, BE IT FURTHER
RESOLVED: that this resolution be forwarded to the President of the United States, to the Attorney General of the United States, and to both Houses of Congress.
SRRT: The Social Responsibilities Round Table (SRRT) of the American Library Association has also issued a number of resolutions in the past two years that deal directly to the hostilities with Iraq and Afghanistan and the War on Terrorism. These resolutions are not taken to be representative of the opinions of ALA as a whole.
* Libraries in a Time of War and Emergency
* Resolution on Collection Development and Library Programming in Times of Conflict
* Resolution Against the War in Afghanistan
* Resolution on the Iraq Crisis.
This resolution was just passed at the ALA midwinter meeting. It was not posted on the SRRT website by our printing deadline, so it is reprinted here:
WHEREAS the President of the United States is considering whether or not to go to war to disarm the nation of Iraq of its weapons of mass destructions; and
WHEREAS the citizens of a democracy need libraries as a key source of the information they require to formulate and express their views on this, and other important issues of our times; and
WHEREAS the Congressional Budget Office estimates a military action against Iraq will cost our nation between nine and eleven billion dollars a month, resulting in cutbacks in, among others, federally funded programs that benefit libraries; and
WHEREAS any major military action in Iraq is likely to destroy many libraries and other cultural facilities as well as kill many innocent people; therefore be it
RESOLVED that the Social Responsibilities Round Table of the American Library
Association urges all libraries to conscientiously build collections of information presenting all points of view on this critical issue, including points of view opposing war and promoting peaceful alternatives; and be it further
RESOLVED that this resolution be sent to the President of the United States, the Secretary General of the United Nations, the Secretary of State of the United States, members of the United States Congress, IFLA and the library press.
Passed unanimously, January 27, 2003 by SRRT Action Council meeting in Philadelphia, PA.
The Patriot Act
For information about the ALA response to the US Patriot Act, including resolutions passed against the Act, check out the page http://www.ala.org/alaorg/oif/statepatriotresolutions.html. It includes links to a full-text of the US Patriot Act, articles about how the Act affects libraries, and the different resolutions passed by the state library association against the Act.
If you want to know more...
If the above information has piqued your interest, you can visit the SRRT homepage at http://libr.org/SRRT/. This page will have links to all the above mentioned resolutions and much more. You can also link to the "Weapons of Mass Instruction" online petition against a war in Iraq.
Also, there is a new Weapons of Mass Instruction listserv that features an anti-war discussion for librarians. You can subscribe at http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/womi. Finally, much of this information for this article came from Library Juice, an online newsletter for the SRRT. You can view the newsletter and subscribe at http://libr.org/Juice.
The response to the War on Terrorism and the hostilities with Iraq has been broad, both from the library community and from other like-minded organizations. It was impossible to include all the information that is out there on the subject. The above links will get you started.
With thanks to Lisa Chianese, for alerting me (Katie) to the existence of Library Juice, and to Rory Litwin, for permission to quote from Library Juice and SRRT.
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Last updated February 24, 2003