Washington Library Association

Proposed Intellectual Freedom Statement

 

 

·          The Washington Library Association supports the principle of free, open, and unrestricted access to information and ideas regardless of the medium in which they exist.

 

·          A democracy can only succeed if citizens have access to the information necessary to form opinions and make decisions on issues affecting their lives. Libraries play a key role in providing access to this information.

 

·          The Association regards this access as a right of all citizens. Therefore the Association believes that libraries have a responsibility to provide access to a wide range of perspectives and viewpoints.

 

·          The Association believes that parents and legal guardians have the responsibility to guide their own children in the exercise of their rights of access.

 

·          The Association recognizes privacy and confidentiality as essential components of intellectual freedom.

 

·          The Association supports local community involvement in developing policies that uphold the United States and Washington State constitutional guarantees of free speech and intellectual freedom.

 

·          The Washington Library Association endorses the American Library Association's Code of Ethics, Freedom to Read Statement, and Library Bill of Rights and its interpretations.

 

·          Therefore, the Washington Library Association opposes censorship and restrictions on access to the full range of constitutionally protected materials.

 

11/15/00

 

 

 

 

 

Hi all,

 

At the WLA board meeting on December 8, 2000 the board approved a

Proposed Intellectual Freedom Statement to be presented for approval of

the WLA membership at the WLA conference in Spokane (April 4-7).

 

A task force was created when the proposal at last year's conference was

turned down.  The task force was charged with creating an Intellectual

Freedom Statement for the Washington Library Association which will

serve us into the 21st century.

 

Included below is the statement and letters from two task force members

concerning the community involvement portion of the statement.

 

Comments, suggestions and discussion about this Intellectual Freedom

Statement document via this list is encouraged.

 

Thank You

Intellectual Freedom Statement Task Force

Chair Laura Boyes <laurboye@kcls.org>

        Cameron Johnson <meatball@gte.net>

        Mike Wessells <mwessell@timberland.lib.wa.us>

        Tom Reynolds <tomnoir@pop.seanet.com>

        Jan Walsh <jwalsh@statelib.wa.gov>

        Candy Morgan, Cher Ravagni, Janelle Williams, Tony Wilson

 

 

Washington Library Association

 

Proposed Intellectual Freedom Statement

 

The Washington Library Association supports the principle of free, open,

and unrestricted access to information and ideas regardless of the

medium in which they exist.

 

A democracy can only succeed if citizens have access to the information

necessary to form opinions and make decisions on issues affecting their

lives. Libraries play a key role in providing access to this

information.

 

The Association regards this access as a right of all citizens.

Therefore the Association believes that libraries have a responsibility

to provide access to a wide range of perspectives and viewpoints.

 

The Association believes that parents and legal guardians have the

responsibility to guide their own children in the exercise of their

rights of access.

 

The Association recognizes privacy and confidentiality as essential

components of intellectual freedom.

 

The Association supports local community involvement in developing

policies that uphold the United States and Washington State

constitutional guarantees of free speech and intellectual freedom.

 

The Washington Library Association endorses the American Library

Association's Code of Ethics, Freedom to Read Statement, and Library

Bill of Rights and its interpretations.

 

Therefore, the Washington Library Association opposes censorship and

restrictions on access to the full range of constitutionally protected

materials.

 

11/15/00

 

 

Dear WLA  members,

 

        I am a member of the committee charged with rewriting the

association's intellectual freedom statement. The committee has achieved

substantial agreement on nearly all of the statement, but has not been

able to come to consensus on one paragraph, which I call the "community

involvement paragraph." While I would prefer to emphasize the committee's

broad areas of consensus on the IF statement rather than its one area of

division, Pres. Cunningham asked for amplifying comments on the

paragraph in question. Here, briefly, are my reservations about the

"community involvement paragraph," which follows:

 

 

"The Association supports local community involvement in developing

policies which uphold the United States and Washington State

constitutional guarantees of free speech and intellectual freedom."

 

 

My reservations are not necessarily in order, and not necessarily

related.

 

1.   I don't think this statement of process belongs in what is

essentially a statement of our professional principles.

 

2.  I believe inclusion of such a community involvement statement to be

unique for a state library association; thus it requires more and fuller

justification than I have heard.

 

3.  I believe the statement dilutes our ethical stance of support for

intellectual freedom. Suppose a local process were to pass a restrictive

policy.  Would that be okay with us until (and if) a court overturned

it, after which it would not be okay?  Would we support intellectual

freedom even if a court decreed it ended? I hope so, even if just in a

supportive statement. I believe we are confusing ethics with legality.

We should take an ethical stance.

 

4.   An invitation to local participation-in light of the highly

organized nature of the opposition to intellectual freedom-may bring

pressure to bear on local boards to pass restrictive policies.

 

5.   I don't think local boards need our association's approval to carry

out their legal responsibilities.

 

 

                        -- Cameron A. Johnson

                                Everett Public Library

 

 

 

 

Dear WLA members,

 

     I am a member of the committee charged with rewriting the

association’s intellectual freedom statement.  I have been asked to

represent the majority opinion within the committee regarding the

community involvement language in the proposed statement, and to respond

to the reservations expressed by Cameron Johnson in his accompanying

letter.  Like Cameron, I would prefer to emphasize the remarkable

unanimity of the committee in regard to all other aspects of the

statement and the mutual respect and professionalism displayed by each

member during the deliberations.

 

     As a professional librarian, I believe as a matter of ethics that

library service should be developed by the local community to be served

by the library—this is a basic principle of a democratic society.  The

alternatives are the definition of service imposed from on high by a

professional elite, or by the state and national governments who may

purport to know better than the citizens of a locality how they should

be served by their own institutions.  I believe the heroism displayed by

local Boards who stand up for First Amendment principles against local

and vocal opposition should be both endorsed and celebrated by this

association rather than swept under the rug.

 

     Responding to Cameron’s concerns as he has numbered them:

 

1. As stated above, I see this statement as a matter of principle, not

just process.

 

2. As a member of ALA’s Intellectual Freedom Committee, I have seen the

national strategy regarding Intellectual Freedom develop a focus on

local community involvement as a major safeguard against federal and

state mandates.  ALA Councilor Jan Walsh presented examples of states

who have recently taken the same approach as we here suggest.

 

3. The language of the proposed statement was carefully crafted to

answer just such a concern as Cameron proposes here.  The Association

supports involvement for ONLY such policies as uphold the state and

national constitutional guarantees.  Restrictive policies that do not

uphold these guarantees are not supported.

 

4. I do not see how a statement supporting free speech and intellectual

freedom guarantees could appear as an invitation to restrictive

policies.

 

5. Local boards do not need our approval, but those members who support

free speech would appreciate what the statement offers, which is not

approval, but support.  I also think state and national agencies who

desire widespread restrictions could use a reminder that these decisions

need to be made at the local level, and that WLA should support such a

concept.

 

     Thank you very much for allowing Cameron and me to express the

views of the committee on these matters.

                                               Michael Wessells

Timberland Regional Library

 

 

 

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