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American librarianship and human rights

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Librarianship and human rights are an interconnected conceptual model that has gained increased attention since the beginning of the 21st century in the United States. Librarians oversee many aspects of human rights in their daily services. While the values of human rights, are a new contemporary discussion topic for U.S. librarians, the concept itself is not. The foundation of modern American librarianship rests on an essential set of core values that define, inform, and guide the practice including information access, confidentiality / privacy, democracy, diversity, education and lifelong learning, intellectual freedom, preservation, the public good, professionalism, service and social responsibility.[1] " Library and information workers play an important role in preserving and supporting the ideals of tolerance, democracy, human rights and collective memory." [2] Librarianship plays a pivotal role in the preservation of civil liberties, intellectual freedom, and civic identities.

History

Colonial America

Books arrived in the New World as early as the 1500s when British and European colonists began to explore and settle. Private Collections were held in high esteem and evidence of a wealthy family. As the printing industry expanded, by the 1700s, the social culture evolved from the elitist idea that only the wealthy should have access to books and education to the social premise of equatable access to education and books. In 1638, Harvard University established the first institutional library; by 1764, Havard' s library had 5,000 volumes of books.[3]

Boston Public Library and social responsibility

While not explicitly employing the term "social responsibility", the July 1852 Report of the Trustees of the Boston Public Library made clear that the library had two primary social obligations: 1) To equalize and maximize individual opportunities to participate in civil society while fighting conflicting cultural, political, and social influences; and 2) To provide the public with a means of developing a uniquely American culture, founded on the notion of an engaged citizenship.[4] The notion of social responsibility has long been at the center of the professional ideology that grounds thought and justifies practice in librarianship.[4] Additionally, the idea that people agree to tax themselves for the support of the public library – an institution that activates human capabilities, diminishes the division between people of different classes, and provides access to information is an indicator of our society's commitment to fundamental human rights, democracy, and social responsibility.[5] Historically, the library profession's claim to neutrality has drawn a line between professional issues such as literacy and so-called non-library issues such as war, politics, segregation, and poverty.[6] Since World War I, librarians have struggled to support true democracy when government directives are different than democratic principles.[7] Librarians in the United States acted as "good citizens" in the perceived best interests of their country and collaborated in the censorship of German materials during World War I.[8]

1930s – 1950s

The Chicago Public Library issued the first intellectual freedom policy in 1936 (McCook & Phenix, 2008, p. 26). The first bannings of the book The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, in the year of its publication, 1939, occurred at a transformative time for librarianship in the United States and its response to the issue of intellectual freedom. Most significant was the ban in Kern County, California, the main setting of the novel. This ban was likely a product of the desire of groups who had financial interests in California corporate farming to protect those interests, rather than the professed reason of obscenity.[9] Also in 1939, the Progressive Librarian's Council (PLC) was founded by Phillip O'Keeney. The PLC published the PLC Bulletin and issued a Statement of Purpose, adopted in 1940, which listed among specific aims the promotion of federal and state aid to libraries, support of the ALA's Committee on Intellectual Freedom, and opposition to involvement in the war. After the annual meeting in Boston in 1941, resolutions were adopted that covered racial discrimination, cooperation with organized labor, salaries, and civil rights of library workers and users, and continued aid to library workers seeking asylum (refugees coming to the United States from Fascist Europe) (Sass, 1990, p. 8). The group disbanded in 1944 after the Organization Round Table and the Unions Round Table gained momentum and the number of round tables increased (Samek, 2001, p. 8).

1960s – 1970s

On February 2, 1961, the American Library Association (ALA) established Amendment V to the Library Bill of Rights to state, “A person’s right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views”.[10]

The passage of the Library Services and Construction Act (LSCA) in 1964 was a major force in developing library services and collections for ethnic, disadvantaged, and under-served groups.[11]

In 1969, the American Library Association's Social Responsibilities Round Table (SRRT) was formed as a forum to promote social responsibility as a core value of librarianship.[12]

In 1970, the American Library Association's first LGBT forum, Task Force on Gay Liberation, was formed. This organization, now known as the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Round Table (GLBT), is the oldest LGBT professional organization in the United States.[13]

1980s – present

The Progressive Librarians Guild (PLG) was formed in 1990, and through membership in the ALA and organizational affiliation with the ALA's SRRT, its members have been outspoken about social responsibility and human rights in the library community.[14] In 1991, Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was added to the policy manual, and in 1997, "Resolution of IFLA Human Rights and Freedom of Expression" was included. "Libraries: An American Value," adopted in 1999, also adds to librarians’ affirmation to support human rights.[15]

Following the September 11 attacks in 2001, librarians were demanded to provide records to the FBI by the laws written into the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act (USA PATRIOT Act).[16] The ALA took a very different stance than it had in the years past and passed the "Resolution Reaffirming the Principles of Intellectual Freedom in the Aftermath of Terrorist Attacks" and "Revisions and Updates on Privacy: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights", in 2002. The "Privacy Toolkit" was, also, developed in 2005. Four Connecticut librarians challenged the constitutionality of the non-disclosure provisions of the National Security Letters and took their case to the Supreme Court.[17] The ALA passed the "Resolution Against the Use of Torture as a Violation of our Basic Values as Librarians", in 2004 (Phenix, 2007). In 2007, The Human Rights Video Project was created to provide libraries with video collections to increase the public’s awareness on human rights issues. [18]

The 21st century

Librarianship faces challenges to democracy, social responsibilities, and human rights, to this day. Libraries have banned homeless people from checking out books; books with homosexual themes have been moved to "adult only" areas; gay pride displays have been ordered down; Spanish-language materials have been refused to be purchased; and the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) and Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA) have aimed to limit access to information available on the Internet (McCook & Phenix, 2006, pp. 67–8). Censorship, intellectual freedom, closing of libraries, and discrimination remain critical issues for librarianship, while the ALA has no authority over what individual library administrations do (Samek, 2007, p. 9). However, librarians are fighting back against budget cuts and closures, providing access to materials, protecting the freedom of inquiry, and allowing groups to meet in their common areas (McCook & Phenix, 2006, p. 68). The ALA provides numerous tools to libraries and librarians and has developed several task forces to cover human rights issues, and the ALA 2010 Strategic Plan envisions a future in which librarians are committed to social responsibility and the common good (ALA, 2010). McCook and Phenix (2011) argue that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights can provide libraries with a widely understood international document that can be used to guide development of policy, and services that help maintain policy.

The essay, "True Community: Connecting the Millennium Development Goals to Public Library Services in the United States"[19] asserts that U.S. public libraries have the potential to actively participate in realizing the collective vision of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

In 2004, Grupo de Estudios Sociales and Bibliotecologi y Documentatcion (Social Studies Group on LIbrarianship and Documentation) and the Circulode Estudios sobre Bibliotecologia Politica y Social (Study Circle on Political and Social Librarianship) wrote a manifesto entitled the 2004 Declaration from Buenos Aires on Information, Documentation and LIbraries that recognized that any type of library is a cultural commodity and resource that is promoted and protected by democratic values.[20] Mathiesen has proposed that governments have an obligation to create and fund public libraries, because access to them is a human right. Starting with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and appealing to recent work in Human Rights Theory,she argues that there is a right to information, which states are obligated to fulfill. Given that libraries are highly effective institutions for ensuring that this right is fulfilled, there is a derived human right to a public library. [21]

References

  1. ^ American Library Association, 2006[citation needed]
  2. ^ Samek, Toni (2007). Librarianship and Human Rights: a twenty-first century guide. Cambridge: Woodhead Publishing Limited. p. 4. ISBN 978-1-84334-146-8.
  3. ^ Murray, Stuart (2009). The Library-an illustrated history. New York: Skyhorse Publishing. p. 143. ISBN 978-1-60239-706-4.
  4. ^ a b Raber, 2007, p. 676
  5. ^ McCook & Phenix, 2006, p. 60
  6. ^ Samek, 2007, p. 7
  7. ^ (McCook & Phenix, 2008, p. 26-7)
  8. ^ (McCook, 2011, p. 61)
  9. ^ Lingo, M. (2003). Forbidden fruit: The banning of 'The Grapes of Wrath' in the Kern County Free Library. Libraries & Culture, 4, 351. doi:10.2307/25549126
  10. ^ American Library Association. (2014). Amendment V. In Library Bill of Rights. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill
  11. ^ (Rubin, 2004, p. 295)
  12. ^ American Library Association. (2014). About SRRT. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/srrt/about-srrt
  13. ^ Keilty, Patrick (2009). "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Information Needs". Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science, 3rd Edition: 3275–3280.
  14. ^ (Buschman, Rosenzweig, & Harger, 1994, p. 575)
  15. ^ (McCook & Phenix, 2008, p. 32)
  16. ^ (Samek 2007, p. 9)
  17. ^ (Phenix & McCook, 2007)
  18. ^ Carmine Bell, “Libraries and Human Rights Education.” Catholic Library World 77 (December 2006): 112-20 and also American Library Association. "The Human Rights Video Project." http://www.ala.org/programming/pastprograms/humanrightsvideo
  19. ^ Susan Maret "True Community: Connecting the Millennium Development Goals to Public Library Services in the United States"Information, Society & Justice Journal 4:2, December 2011. https://metranet.londonmet.ac.uk/depts/fssh/applied-social-sciences/research/informationsocietyandjustice/informationsocietyandjusticejournal.cfm
  20. ^ Samek, Toni (2007). Librarianship and Human Rights: a twenty-first century guide. Cambridge: Chandos Publishing. p. 13.
  21. ^ Mathiesen, K. (2013). The Human Right to a Public Library. Journal Of Information Ethics, 22(1), 60-79.

Further reading

  • Bell,Carmine. “Libraries and Human Rights Education.” Catholic Library World 77 (December 2006): 112-20.
  • Britz, Johannes, Anthony Hoffmann, Shana Ponelis, Michael Zimmer, and Peter Lor. 2013.

"On considering the application of Amartya Sen's capability approach to an information-based rights framework." Information Development 29, no. 2: 106-113.

  • Buschman, J., Rosenzweig, M., & Harger, E. (1994). The clear imperative for involvement: Librarians must address social issues. American Libraries, 25, 575–6. doi: 199415204614006
  • Edwards, J. B., Edwards, S. P., & United Nations. (2010). Beyond Article 19: Libraries and social and cultural rights. Duluth, Minn: Library Juice Press
  • McCook, K. de la Peña and Phenix, K.J. The future of public libraries in the twenty-first century: Human rights and human capabilities, pp. 339–360; pp. 464–467. (2011). Introduction to public librarianship. New York: Neal Schuman Publisher, Inc.
  • McCook, K. de la Peña & Phenix, K. J. (2006). Public libraries and human rights. Public library quarterly, 2591-2), 57–73. doi:10.1300/J118v25n01_05
  • McCook, K. de la Peña & Phenix, K. (2008). Human rights, democracy, and librarians. In K. Haycock & B. E. Sheldon (Eds.). The portable MLIS: Insights from the experts. Westport, CN: Libraries Unlimited.
  • Mathiesen, Kay "The Human Right to a Public Library." Journal of Information Ethics 22, no. 1 (Spring 2013 2013): 60-79.

Paper proposes that governments have an obligation to create and fund public libraries, because access to them is a human right. Starting with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and appealing to recent work in Human Rights Theory, argues that there is a right to information, which states are obligated to fulfill. Given that libraries are highly effective institutions for ensuring that this right is fulfilled, there is a derived human right to a public library.

  • Phenix, K. J. (2007). Dignity and justice for all of us: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948–2008. Progressive librarian, 30, 1–2. Retrieved from: http://libr.org/pl/contents30.html
  • Phenix, K. J. & McCook, K. de la Peña. (2005). Human rights and librarians. Reference & User Quarterly, 45(1), 23–6. doi: 200528806020005
  • Phenix, K. J. & McCook, K. de la Peña. (2007). A commitment to human rights: Let’s honor the qualities of a librarian dedicated to human rights. Information for social change, 25, 39–48. Retrieved from: http://libr.org/isc/issues/ISC25/articles/A%20COMMITMENT%20TO%20HUMAN%20RIGHTS.pdf
  • Raber, D. (2007). ACONDA and ANACONDA: Social change, social responsibility, and librarianship. Library Trends, 55(3), 675–97. doi:10.1353/lib.2007.0020
  • Robbins, L. S. (1996). Censorship and the American public library: The American Library Association’s Response to the threats to intellectual freedom: 1939–1969. Westport,CN: Greenwood.
  • Rubin, R. E. (2004). Foundations of library and information science (2nd ed.). New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc.
  • Samek, T. (2001). Intellectual freedom and social responsibility in American librarianship. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers.
  • Samek, T. (2007). Librarianship and human rights: A twenty-first century guide. Oxford: Chandos Publishing.
  • Sass, S. (1990). "Progressive" 50 years later. Library Journal, 115, 8.

External links

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