Biblioteket tar saka #librarycase

By Mikael Böök, Isnäs, Finland

Part 1 of this blog post gathered many international readers three days ago, not least thanks to Kathleen de la Peña McCook and her sharing and comments. 

Evidently,  the librarians’ resistance to discuss this matter is considerable, even among peers in the Facebook (which is not really in the public sphere, and not really private either).

To overcome this inhibition, it is probably wise to divide the matter in two by drawing a line between the person and the thing (admittedly, this is often quite difficult).

Therefore, please consider that Julian Assange is a man and that a man is strictly speaking not a thing, whereas the WikiLeaks is a thing, I mean a certain collection of documents that WikiLeaks has released and made public on its website WikiLeaks.org and/or via their co-publishers; newspapers or other public media.

Also, ponder that documents can be mismanaged, locked up in a secret place, or simply destroyed, but not mistreated and tortured (in the same sense as a living being can be).

Then ask yourself and your peers, the other librarians: what will happen with the huge document library that now exists and can be studied at WikiLeaks.org? For how long do we think that a website, such as WikiLeaks.org, will stay alive? Where will all those documents be preserved if, one day, …

>> See even part 2 and part 3.

By Mikael Böök, Isnäs, Finland

Presently, I am trying to find supporters of Assange and WikiLeaks among the librarians. I’m sure there are some. Indeed, there must be many! Think of it, librarians are educated and enlightened people, who support democracy and therefore promote access to information. Yet all those providers of access to information, the public librarians, are evidently keeping their sympathy for Julian Assange for themselves, deep in their hearts…  Because when one tries to dig up some evidence of their sympathy from the public sphere, it is like looking for the famous needle in the haystack!

By the way, what would the public sphere be without the librarians and their libraries? Certainly not a democratic one, anyway.  Sadly, however, one must also admit that the public sphere can be very undemocratic in spite of the existing libraries and librarians. 

I have to modify what I wrote above a little because sometimes one actually finds the needle (although the probability is as low as that of winning the Jackpot).  

Once upon a time the library associations of Norway did, in fact, make a common public statement. They said: 

“It is a fundamental principle of a democracy that the population should have insight into the decisions and decision-making processes that concern them. Open societies are an obstacle to corruption and abuse of power. WikiLeaks has contributed to increased transparency for the general public by bringing to the public conditions that deserve to be criticized. Attempts to close WikiLeaks are characterized by hasty reactions, which as of today have not been sanctioned in any courtroom. This could threaten freedom of information.” (I am responsible for the tentative translation of this passage from Norwegian into English).

But that was back in 2010, and today that rare needle has lost its thread and guiding principle. Or so it seems because the WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange need our support more than ever now, in 2021. Where is our necessary support now? 

FAIFE, the committee within IFLA (International Federation of Library Association and Institutions) was founded to defend and promote …