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Re: Questions that didn't used to be sinister



Cynthia:

As I recall, the American Library Association code of ethics expressly
prohibits censorship and promotes the privacy of library users.  In the
past, when the FBI wanted access to circulation records to find out who was
borrowing certain titles, the ALA stood firmly against it.  Now terrorism
has come home to us.  Do we still stand united for these freedoms?

Judy Robins, C. A.,
Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology
520 N. Northwest Highway
Park Ridge, IL  60068-2573

Tel:  847-825-5586

Fax:  847-825-1692

e-mail:  j.robins@ASAHQ.org

This message expresses a personal opinion, and does not necessarily
represent the views of my institution.  JR


-----Original Message-----
From: Bergeron, Paul [mailto:BergeronP@CI.NASHUA.NH.US]
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2001 3:30 PM
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: Re: Questions that didn't used to be sinister


Awareness about potential risks for making blueprints of public buildings
readily available has certainly increased since 9/11, but the sensitivity
toward making that type of information available has been under discussion
for a number of years.  Back in 1998 I was attending a session on Copyright
Law which was part of ARMA's Midyear conference held at Archives II.  The
presenter was an attorney from the Library of Congress.

Manchester City Hall was on the National Historic Register.  The Manchester
mill buildings comprised the world's largest textile manufacturing facility
in the world at one time.  (The subject of Tamara Haraven's oral history,
"Amoskeag.") We had blueprints for a Frank Lloyd Wright home built in
Manchester.  I thought it would be wonderful to post these -- and other --
blueprints on the internet and asked the presenter what she thought.

Her response?  1) Why show would-be terrorists all the access points into
your public buildings?  2) Most blueprints are copyrighted and we
couldn't/shouldn't duplicate them anyway.  That conversation happened almost
four years ago.

Today, the blueprints can be viewed in-person at City Hall, but I believe
there is a sign-in for use of the materials in the repository.  The current
staff would know who accessed the information and when.


Paul R. Bergeron
City Clerk
229 Main Street
Nashua, NH 03060
Telephone: 603/589-3010
Fax: 603/589-3029
http://www.gonashua.com/



-----Original Message-----
From: Cynthia Van Ness [mailto:bettybarcode@YAHOO.COM]
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2001 4:12 PM
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: Questions that didn't used to be sinister


Since folks on this list might have architectural blueprints in
their collection, I decided to post this here.

In this post-9/11 world, questions that were once innocent now
seem sinister.  For example, this week I had a young woman
caller who wondered if we had blueprints of a certain skyscraper
in another city.  Being a public library, we don't have
blueprints of anything, so I suggested she might find
photographs, floorplans, or elevations in various architecture
books in our collection.  I did not make any effort to identify
who *might* own the blueprints, assuming they even exist.  It
sounded like a naive school assignment question so I did not go
any further with it or feel alarmed.

My thinking went this: the violent attacks we have become sadly
familiar with, from Columbine to Oklahoma City to NYC and
Washington, have thus far been the handiwork of men.  A teenage
or college-age woman doesn't seem like a huge threat.  (I
therefore apologetically plead guilty to gender profiling.)

Continuing to think out loud: it doesn't seem likely that
someone targeting a certain building would be so clueless as to
call a modest public library hundreds of miles away to ask for
blueprints.  But maybe there really are nitwits with terrorist
aspirations using teenage girls as a front.

The next day, the supervisor, looking over the phone logs,
inquired about it--did I check caller ID?  What was the caller
like?  Now we are instructed to check caller ID and report
telephone inquiries about blueprints for public buildings, even
though my city happens to boast buildings by major American
architects which are the subject of continual popular and
scholarly interest.

What would you do?

=====
"My heart is moved by all I cannot save:
So much has been destroyed
I have to cast my lot with those
who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary
power, reconstitute the world."  -Adrienne Rich
   Cynthia Van Ness, bettybarcode@yahoo.com
   http://cynthia.is-online.net

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