[11228] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
FYI France: If you think "information wants to be free"...
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jack Kessler)
Wed Apr 16 20:38:11 1997
Date: Wed, 16 Apr 1997 11:46:39 -0500 (CDT)
From: Jack Kessler <kessler@well.com>
To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU>
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
FYI France: If you think "information wants to be free"...
The Front National -- a right - wing extremist party which advocates anti -
immigration policies, among other disturbing things -- recently won mayoral
races in four southern towns in France: Marignane, Orange, Toulon and
Vitrolles. Shortly thereafter, left - wing publications, such as
_Libe'ration_, began disappearing from those towns' library shelves.
There has been a national outcry in France. A national "loi des
bibliothe`ques" is under consideration -- central government versus local,
Paris versus the provinces, "Paris et le de'sert..." -- and the debates
online and off have been protracted and bitter. But the problem seems only
to be growing worse.=20
What follows is an open letter, just published online (April 10, to the
French librarians' BIBLIO-FR econference) apparently by a group of
librarians at the Bibliothe`que Municipale de Strasbourg -- a famous
library in France, with a magnificent collection and a long and
distinguished history of coping with political threats and chaos --
protesting against these Front National developments.=20
France is in some danger nowadays: persistent 12+% unemployment, major
national strikes in all sectors -- hospital interns, bus services, public
employees, airline personnel (no this is not "the usual", it is worse) --
the European Unity that isn't, the Russians, Algeria and Bosnia, and now
this growing Front National cancer. Your average French citizen is like
any other -- basically wants a quiet life, but also has a temper -- and
France is beginning to rock back and forth politically, from reaction to
reaction between the various extremes. Those who have said "it couldn't
ever happen in France" have been wrong before.=20
Everyone ought to read what these Strasbourg librarians have to say here
-- brave, in their context as public employees and individuals and French
and European citizens -- and consider how much we all take for granted
when we say that "information wants to be free". Countries which enjoy
such freedoms are exceptions, not the rule: Internet developers should
remember this, and they usually forget it. Freedom has to be purchased and
maintained, sometimes at a high price, and it seems that the price may be
climbing now in France: [translation is by JK] --
=09"On the occasion of a meeting of the Front National held at
=09Strasbourg at the end of March, 1997..."=20
"We ask that you take the time to read the text which follows. It describes
not a fantasy but something which actually takes place when the City Halls=
=20
of the Front National put their mark on the Bibliothe`ques Municipales.
It presents one of the reasons why we feel we must express publicly,
notably to the users of our libraries, our irreducible opposition to=20
all that the Front National represents, to its ideas and to its political
practices, and our solidarity with our colleagues of the biblioth=E8ques
municipales of Marignane, Orange, Toulon and Vitrolles.
Dominique ANTHONY - Maria ARION - Cathie ARNOUX - Chantal BASTIAN - Nicole
BENTABET - Paul BLEILE - Miche`le BOEHLER - Alexia BOUTEVIN - Ute BREINING
- Laurence BURNICHON - Anne CHOURAQUI - Jean-Michel CORDIER - Maggy
DUNOYER - Ve'ronique EYDMANN - Hamid FALLAHI - Claudine GAILLARD -
Gabrielle GAINES - Xavier GALAUP - Farid GATER - Sophie GENTZBOURGER -
Claudine GLORIA-SALEN - Jacques GOORMA - Dominique GROS-JEAN - Jeanne
GUERLIN - Francine HAEGEL - Yves HECHT - Astrid HEYER - Sandra JOLY -
Ve'ronique JULKE - Michel JUNG - Chantal KAHN - Amid KHALA - Catherine
KLEIN - Marie Jo KLEIN - Ve'ronique LARMET - Marie France LE QUESNE - Yves
LIEHR - Brigitte LONGECHAL - Sabine MATTER - Corinne METZGER - Christiane
MEYER - Anne MULLER - Pierrette MUTZIG - Marie-Rose NUSS - Muriel ORY-KERN
- Arse`ne OTT - Catherine PFEIFFER - Salvatore RANDOLFI - Viviane RICHARD
- Danie`le RICOU - Sandrine ROJAS-SANCHEZ - Francine SCHNITZLER - Nathalie
STAUDINGER - Ste'phanie STENGER - Bernard SUCHECKY - Francine THOMAS -
Chantal VUILLOD - Vale'rie WILD,
-- members of the staff of the Bibliothe`que Municipale de Strasbourg,
acting in their personal capacities.
=09=09Libraries Losing Their Reason
First question:
What to do when certain elected officials put pressure on the library,
intruding on its normal activities?=20
This is the same question posed as when we ask:
What to do when certain elected officials of the Front National put
pressure on the library, intruding on its normal activities?=20
But this little nuance makes a difference.
Pressures, interference, resorts to force, distractions, orders,
obligations and responsibilities: we, as librarians, know that these
things exist -- we all have dealt with them in our professional lives.=20
The difference is the work of the Front National.
Since June 1995, over the course of months, of weeks, of days (when the
interference became daily), the situation deteriorated so badly at the
Biblioth=E8que d'Orange, with so much implied violence, contempt and
ignorance, that it would be best to admit that the basic principles of
operation -- good sense, experience, know - how -- professionalism, in
short -- could not continue to function.=20
With these politicians, there is no dialog. It is neither possible, nor
desirable. There is no dialog, no exchange, no listening, no respect.=20
Their attitude, their managerial approach, administratively and personally
provoke a gradual degradation, a fatigue caused by incessant
irritation...=20
To be a librarian in a city of the Front National is impossible; for --
simply -- libraries, as we all know, are tools of pluralism, of
toleration, places for the exchange of ideas, basically open, providing
free access, and multi - cultural.=20
All of these terms: pluralism, toleration, exchange of ideas, openness,
liberty, accessibility, and diversity of cultures, have been defined away
or denied by these politicians.
It is enough to examine the lists of authors and titles with which the
personnel of the Front National have tried to "regulate" the
Bibliothe`ques municipales of numerous towns... It is evident that for
them the library is essentially political, a means of distributing
ideology.=20
In such a situation, it is useless to hope to resist, to continue the job,
to create a sort of enclave of liberty at the heart of the FN operation.=20
The experience of our colleagues in Orange proves this: the sole solution
is departure, to be labeled "on probation", or "resigned".=20
One must leave "in order to leave" and to create a vacancy. This choice,
these decisions, are dramatic to consider, and to take: they signify the
loss of reason of the library, its closing (under consideration at
Orange), a considerable setback, and -- for a number of years -- the
removal of an essential public service (by those who appreciate this
well). But I say again, very clearly: it is impossible to exercise the
profession of librarian in a city of the Front National.=20
Very many of our distant colleagues, living in regions less affected by
all this politically, have had, and still have, difficulties in
understanding the gravity of the situation and its oppressive nature -- in
taking this type of discussion seriously. The experience of Orange, a
laboratory - city for the FN, demonstrates the seriousness. To think that
the situation might evolve differently is an illusion.=20
And moreover the unrest grows, as the cities of the south have been picked
off: Orange, Toulon, Marignane, but also Nice, almost... and the Front
National is advancing and taking over territory, more and more often "in
disguise", insidiously, sneaking in at times.=20
The most terrible thing is to hear the politicians of other parties taking
on their positions: certain words, certain phrases... Recently the mayor
of a commune of the Bouches - du - Rho^ne, a mayor who is not Front
National, demanded that his librarian cancel the library's subscriptions
to "Le Point" and "Le Nouvel Observateur" because, from reading those
periodicals, people might change their political views.=20
It is evident that if we do not make some response all together to these
excesses, we as professionals, like all of those involved in Culture and
Communication -- I think particularly of journalists, of the popular press
-- will not be able any longer to express ourselves, to exercise our
functions.=20
It is evident that we have an essential role, and that our libraries are
alarmed, troubled, unable to bear this further: they are too strong, too
forward - looking, too effective, for those who represent reaction,
mistrust, who practice insult and contempt.=20
So if some libraries must, for a time, close, let us be sure that other
libraries defend their missions and their users, continuing to give reason
and content to the collections which we assemble. Let us not be content
with making libraries banal and ordinary. Let us make them shining,
creative, active, indispensable and joyous places.=20
On the Librarians of the South of France,
March, 1997."
XXX
Note that the signatures appear at the beginning -- they want you to know
-- signing things can be a dangerous practice in politics in Europe, and
in most countries outside North America and one or two other places.=20
And that phrase, "une ville du Front National"... one tries to imagine
this sort of language said of a "Labour" city by a "Tory", in the UK, or
of a "Republican" town by a "Democrat", in the US. Even making liberal
allowance for Gallic emotion and over - statement -- and remember that
these appear to be responsible professional librarians of a respected
institution speaking here, and not some wild - eyed political crazies --
things seem to be getting bad in France.=20
Is there any reason to think -- to assume -- that the same might not
happen elsewhere? It seems myopic, self - delusional, even arrogant,
simply to assume that library freedoms or any other sort of information -
related liberties somehow mystically will be guaranteed anywhere, and yet
much of what the Internet so far is about blandly makes this assumption.=20
The next time someone tells me that "information wants to be free", I will
have them read this.=20
Jack Kessler, kessler@well.sf.ca.us
XXX
FYI France (sm)(tm) e - newsletter ISSN 1071 - 5916
*
| FYI France (sm)(tm) is a monthly electronic newsletter,
| published since 1992 as a small - scale, personal,
| experiment, in the creation of large - scale
| "information overload", by Jack Kessler. Any material
/ \ written by me which appears in FYI France may be
----- copied and used by anyone for any good purpose, so
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(search for FYIFrance), or via gopher to infolib.berkeley.edu 72
(path: 3. Electronic Journals (Library-Oriented)/ 6. FYIFrance/ , or
http://www.univ-rennes1.fr/LISTES/biblio-fr@univ-rennes1.fr/ (BIBLIO-FR
econference archive), or via telnet to a.cni.org , login brsuser
(PACS / PACS-L econference archive), or at http://www.fyifrance.com .
Suggestions, reactions, criticisms, praise, and poison - pen
letters all will be gratefully received at kessler@well.sf.ca.us .
Copyright 1992- by Jack Kessler, all rights reserved.
XXX
end
