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Re: Questions that didn't used to be sinister



What I really don't understand about this war or police action or whatever
it is that with seemingly every move we plan to make their, it is broadcast
on the evening news, in the newspaper, and on the Internet. Isn't the idea
to keep Osama Bin Laden and his cohorts from knowing what's going on? When
the police investigate a crime, they rarely tell the public everything
that's going on during the investigation. Shouldn't this be the same way?

Barbara M. Pope, MLS
Reference Librarian
St. Louis College of Pharmacy
4588 Parkview Place
St. Louis MO 63110
(314) 367-8700 x. 1001
FAX (314) 454-3382


-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel Traister [mailto:traister@POBOX.UPENN.EDU]
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2001 10:00 PM
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: Re: Questions that didn't used to be sinister


Peter Kurilecz writes

        I do believe that citizens should have access to public records,
        but at some point access may be/should denied for legitimate
        reasons

-- which, however graciously reasonable it seems, misses the point
entirely: "at some point" and "for legitimate reasons"? Sure. As
determined by whom? On what procedural grounds? With what authority? With
what ability for review and correction?

The impulse to protect a stupid or vicious public from itself is, no
doubt, usually well-intentioned. It is an impulse honorable in the pulpit,
honorable in a police force. But it is an impulse that deserves to be
ignored or, when necessary, actively resisted when it is expressed by
keepers of public records, archivists, or librarians.

There is a reason why Mr. Hensen and SAA have taken a strong stance
protesting the President's self-extension of confidentiality of what the
law and precedent both say should be public records. There is a reason why
ALA protests tracking and reporting what library users read.

Efforts to defend liberty by curtailing it are currently in vogue, it
would seem. No one, however, has as yet required archivists and librarians
to run with this particular pack. It would be short-sighted indeed were we
to start running with it of our own accord.

Daniel Traister
Van Pelt-Dietrich Library
University of Pennsylvania

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