The Information Professional

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There is a lot of concern in the modern world about how the internet has impacted freedom of expression. This is especially true in the U.S., where speech is protected from government interference by the First Amendment of the Constitution.

 

From the purely professional perspective of a librarian who is trying to organize information into easily-accessible catalogs and databases, there is certainly a strong reason to be in favor of the free exchange of information over the internet, without governmental restrictions, as it makes getting a holistic collection of our society’s views much easier.

 

Most would agree that a librarian, by profession, believes in giving the type of assistance that will allow others to empower themselves with knowledge, and the question of how good librarians can be at this task hangs in the balance as governments and private corporations decide what sort of speech is protected in this new era of a truly globalized internet. Our profession, then, has an obligation to weigh in on this debate.

 

Read more on this blog post written by David Winger here:  http://hacklibschool.wordpress.com/2012/11/23/librarianship-and-freedom-of-expression-in-the-era-of-the-global-internet/

 

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Via Fe Angela M. Verzosa