Deconstructing the LAC Code of Conduct

Thanks to those of you who have signed the Don't Muzzle Librarians and Archivists petition on Change.org. Please take a moment to look at this petition if you have not yet had a chance to.

It is discerning that the LAC Code of Conduct was created by Dr. Daniel Caron, the Librarian and Archivist of Canada. It is notable that while Dr. Caron holds this title, he is not qualified or educated as a librarian or archivist as he does not hold an MLIS degree. The LAC has seen sweeping changes under Dr. Caron's direction which will have a detrimental impact on all Canadians.

It is important to consider the implications these changes may have down the road with respect to our nation, national bibliography, potential censorship, and control in terms of the collective identity and memory of Canada. For example, a legal deposit of all expressions are now being selected according to a narrow view of our history. The Toronto Star has an informative article on this issue. Further information on the state of Library and Archives Canada is available from the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) at savelibraryarchivescanada.ca.

The LAC Code of Conduct has a section outlining the political activities which staff members may engage in:

“4.4.3 Political activities
Public servants have the right to engage in political activity as long as it does not impair and is not perceived to impair their ability to perform their duties in a politically impartial manner. LAC employees who are considering involvement in political activity should seek the advice of the LAC Delegated Political Activities Representative before taking any action. The Delegated Political Activities Representative will assess the file and liaise with the Public Service Commission of Canada (PSC) as necessary to ensure that the employee’s request is processed for the PSC’s approval. PSC approval is required before an employee undertakes any activity relating to political activity and/or seeks nomination for or is a candidate in a federal, provincial, territorial or municipal election.” (p. 17)

Does this mean LAC staff should give up any hopes of being a Liberal, PQ, or NDP candidate as this nomination is directly in conflict of values and ethics? This seems unconstitutional and highly imposing on our freedom  of thoughts and political affiliations. Please share any thoughts in the comments section of this post.

Ancient Texts Saved from Timbuktu Library

The BBC, Time Magazine, and Wall Street Journal are reporting that though militants in Timbuktu did burn a number of texts at the Ahmed Baba Institute early last week, the majority of ancient manuscripts were saved. The destruction of the texts occurred as French and Malian forces closed in with the aim of retaking the city.

No information is thought to be lost, as all of the material burned is believed to be digitized as a result of a partnership with the University of Cape Town. Other ancient manuscripts were reportedly removed before the militants took control of the city last year. The Wall Street Journal has described how a number of texts were more recently removed from the library: history professor/acting library director, Prof. Abdoulaye Cissé , and security guard, Abba Alhadi, moved approximately 28,000 texts to safety in early January by hiding them in burlap sacks and taking them out of the city by donkey cart and boat.

More details on this story will likely become available over the course of the next week.

Archivists and the Occupy Wall Street movement

Check out this very interesting article from the Chronicle of Higher Education blog from April 3, 2012 about clashes between members of Occupy and archivists who want to document the movement.

The article opens with this line:

Howard Besser, a New York University archivist, recently got into a shouting match at an Occupy protest, making a case for why the activists should preserve records of their activities.

The article discusses how archivists have been working to document the Occupy Movement for future scholars within a community that is suspicious of formal organizations including universities and libraries. Archivists have had to come up with new ways of collecting information and documents including "distributing postcards promoting archiving at protests, developing automated systems to download photos posted online, and asking participants to vote on which images are most important for the historic record."

This is a really fascinating example of non-traditional document management and working with a community that doesn't necessarily trust traditional organizations' way of working, like the NYU library's request for a signed donor agreement that was denied by the group who did not want to tie themselves in the traditional hierarchical power system they are protesting. In response, many of the protestors are releasing images and videos under Creative Commons licenses as a way to self-document and disemminate information about the movement.

The author also mentions the dangers of self documenting and putting non-censored images up online, where both scholars and police can access them freely, and attempts to get document creators to add standardized metadata to their work.

Occupy now has an Archives Working Group of their own which you can check out through their website.

Exciting times in the world and for libraries and archives. I think this kind of archiving challenge will become more and more relevant in our current political and global information-driven world.

IFLA launches website on Copyright Limitations and Exceptions

*reblogged from the IFLA website (Nov 09/11), thanks to Toni Samek for bringing this to our attention 

IFLA has created a new set of webpages, dedicated to one of the most important policy issues which IFLA is currently dealing with - the issue of copyright limitations and exceptions for libraries.

Copyright exceptions enable libraries to preserve and make available works. In many countries they have been established in the print era and not been updated to meet the needs of the digital age. An updated system is needed to enable libraries to provide users with both historical and new services in pace with ongoing technological changes.

IFLA is working with Member States of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to gain support for a binding international instrument on copyright limitations and exceptions to enable libraries to preserve their collections, support education and research, and lend materials. To demonstrate what is needed, IFLA has produced a Treaty proposal (called 'TLIB') to guide WIPO's Member States in updating limitations and exceptions for libraries worldwide.

Find out more about limitations and exceptions for libraries at http://www.ifla.org/en/copyright-tlib and learn what you can do to get involved supporting an international binding instrument that meets the needs of libraries in the 21st century.

Charles Bukowski on Censorship

In 1985, a library in Holland banned one of Charles Bukowski's books: Tales of Ordinary Madness. The library officials said the work was "very sadistic, occasionally fascist and discriminatory against certain groups (including homosexuals)."

Bukowski responded with this brilliant letter, from Letters of Note on October 18th. 

Check out the link to see a photo of the letter that is currently displayed in the Open Dicht Bus, a mobile book store usually based in Eindhoven.

Transcript

7-22-85

Dear Hans van den Broek:

Thank you for your letter telling me of the removal of one of my books from the Nijmegen library. And that it is accused of discrimination against black people, homosexuals and women. And that it is sadism because of the sadism.

The thing that I fear discriminating against is humor and truth.

If I write badly about blacks, homosexuals and women it is because of these who I met were that. There are many "bads"--bad dogs, bad censorship; there are even "bad" white males. Only when you write about "bad" white males they don't complain about it. And need I say that there are "good" blacks, "good" homosexuals and "good" women?

In my work, as a writer, I only photograph, in words, what I see. If I write of "sadism" it is because it exists, I didn't invent it, and if some terrible act occurs in my work it is because such things happen in our lives. I am not on the side of evil, if such a thing as evil abounds. In my writing I do not always agree with what occurs, nor do I linger in the mud for the sheer sake of it. Also, it is curious that the people who rail against my work seem to overlook the sections of it which entail joy and love and hope, and there are such sections. My days, my years, my life has seen up and downs, lights and darknesses. If I wrote only and continually of the "light" and never mentioned the other, then as an artist I would be a liar.

Censorship is the tool of those who have the need to hide actualities from themselves and from others. Their fear is only their inability to face what is real, and I can't vent any anger against them. I only feel this appalling sadness. Somewhere, in their upbringing, they were shielded against the total facts of our existence. They were only taught to look one way when many ways exist.

I am not dismayed that one of my books has been hunted down and dislodged from the shelves of a local library. In a sense, I am honored that I have written something that has awakened these from their non-ponderous depths. But I am hurt, yes, when somebody else's book is censored, for that book, usually is a great book and there are few of those, and throughout the ages that type of book has often generated into a classic, and what was once thought shocking and immoral is now required reading at many of our universities.

I am not saying that my book is one of those, but I am saying that in our time, at this moment when any moment may be the last for many of us, it's damned galling and impossibly sad that we still have among us the small, bitter people, the witch-hunters and the declaimers against reality. Yet, these too belong with us, they are part of the whole, and if I haven't written about them, I should, maybe have here, and that's enough.

may we all get better together,
yrs,

(Signed)
Charles Bukowski

Securing access for the Canadian intellect... past, present, future?

There seems to be some truth in the idea that, at the present time and in the North American context, digital technology has greatly increased access to information for many.

Now I pose an immediate challenge to that goofy, sweeping declaration: will access remain secure--today, tomorrow, ten, one hundred or one thousand years from now?

One moment. We aren't talking about those fleeting moments of post-apocalyptic speculation that I have every once in a while--particularly when guilty of surrending too much autonomy/affection to an electronic gadget!

We are talking about the threat to human knowledge posed by ever-present changes in tech infrastructure, the vulnerable, transitory nature of digital information, and the challenges to preservation initiated by those who place "digital locks" on documents in the form of digital rights management software (DRM).

Surprisingly, the federal government has taken the first step to ensure that some online publications will be preserved--new regulations have been introduced by Canadian Heritage Minister Bev Oda. Effective January 1, 2007, these regulations create the legal and procedural process by which digital material will be deposited with Library and Archives Canada.

Michael Geist has an excellent article on this development--he discusses the details of the new regulations, how eligible online publications are defined, and the weaknesses of this new regulatory scheme.

A small, but progressive step in the larger struggle to preserve digital information so that future Canadians may think and learn and grow.

Source: Buttercup, MLIS student