To most librarians, destroying any kind of information is tantamount to censorship and goes against principles of their profession. These issues have taken on a new dimension since September 11th.
by Gena Asher
SLIS Alumni Magazine, Spring 2002
THE OCTOBER 12 LETTER WAS SHORT AND BUSINESSLIKE, SIMILAR TO MANY THE GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE SENDS TO LIBRARIES IN THE FEDERAL DEPOSITORY PROGRAM WHEN THERE'S A CHANGE OR SUBSTITUTION TO BE MADE.
"The United States Geological Survey Assistant Director of Water has asked the library program services to instruct all depository libraries to destroy all copies of the CD-ROM 'Source Area Characteristics of Large Public Surface-Water Supplies in the Conterminous United States: An Information Resource for Source-Water Assessment, 1999.'"
To most librarians, destroying any kind of information is tantamount to censorship and goes against principles of their profession. But in the shadow of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, these requests take on new meaning as national security concerns clash with the basic right of freedom of information. These requests to libraries in the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) aren't the only government actions. Agencies have been asked to review and cull "sensitive" information from their web sites; the USA PATRIOT Act (click on HR3162) broadens the rights of government agencies to review records; and some information once available has become classified.
On list serves and message boards and within professional organizations, librarians are struggling to define their positions as they try to balance rights to access with national security concerns. Nowhere are the arguments more volatile than among the FDLP librarians.
"Of course we want to live in a safe environment, and I don't like the idea that someone could look something up in a government document and poison my water, but it seems like we're overreacting," says Judith Violette, director of library services at IUPU-Fort Wayne's Helmke Library, an FDLP member. "Once information is out, we cannot stuff it back in the box. The data that's already been released may be somewhere else, or could be found in other (non-recalled) sources, or could have been purchased by a private person who still has access."
At Indiana University's main library in Bloomington, head of government documents Lou Malcomb, MLS'73, agrees that recalled information generally is available in various other sources, though someone wanting to recreate the water supply CD would have to spend considerable time collecting that data. In any case, the directive and the CD-ROM sat on her desk a few days.
"I wanted to discuss this with other people," she explains, but eventually, "the CD was withdrawn from the collection and disposed of." Violette said her staff never located the CD-ROM within the collection and she isn't sure it was ever received.
One reason Violette and Malcomb struggle with these issues is because the roots of the Federal Depository Library Program are grounded in the premise that citizens of a democracy must have access to its information and must be involved in the issues of the day. Begun in 1813 by a young nation with far-flung citizens, the program now has 1,337 member libraries, about half located in university institutions. Federal agencies send their publications to the Government Printing Office, which forwards the materials to the member libraries. These books, documents, and electronic materials remain government property, with the member libraries providing public access. (Some items are available to purchase and if libraries do so, they own materials outside the requirements of the FDLP.)
Indiana University has been a depository since 1881, though the collection predates that, thanks to avid librarians who continue to collect items as they are available. Today, the government publications area chooses to collect about 85 percent of the items available from the FDLP, while the Indiana State Library in Indianapolis collects 100 percent of materials. The Helmke Library in Fort Wayne, an FDLP member since 1964, receives on deposit about 45 percent of the items available for selection.
There have been other GPO recalls or changes over the years. Malcomb compiled a list of such actions while the CD-ROM lay on her desk. There have been orders to pull a page with an error and insert the corrected copy, recalls of defective materials, and recalls of material that was to have been for "agency use only."
For government documents librarians who oversee their facilities' participation in the Federal Depository Library Program, guarding public access to information is on a par with guarding democracy. But defying the instructions, perhaps an initial gut reaction, isn't such a simple decision. First, there's the fact that the material still belongs to the government agency, not to the member library.
"Then, if libraries don't follow the Superintendent of Documents' instructions, what encourages these agencies to put their materials into the program? Information may not come in the future, then we really lose," says Malcomb. Or, an institution could lose its depository status. "If we're not a depository, then our patrons have no access. We don't want to risk that."
Librarians fall into what Malcomb describes as three camps: Those who won't destroy any kind of information, those who believe they should comply with any government directives when that government is at risk, and those who feel their obligations fall somewhere in a murky middle ground. At one extreme are those who would quietly refuse to destroy or limit access to any document, whether recalled or not. At the other end of the philosophical spectrum are those such as the librarian in Oswego, N.Y., who tried to start a grassroots movement encouraging librarians to take it upon themselves to screen requests for Nuclear Regulatory Commission documents.
"We understand that post 9/11, there are increasingly difficult questions about the risk of having some of this material publicly available," says the American Library Association's Lynne Bradley. "But we also feel there's a risk to not having it available. People who live near water supplies or other sensitive areas need this information to know how to minimize their risk from terrorism and to organize themselves to respond."
While government documents librarians are wrestling with these issues at the grassroots level, where government directives immediately affect their day-to-day performance, other librarians and information professionals are just as concerned about restrictions on information. The American Library Association set up a task force among its member groups to monitor and address such issues.
"Part of what we have to do as a country is have public participation in these decisions, develop clear criteria, and get the public involvement in a general debate about what should be removed, if anything," says Bradley, director of government relations of the ALA Washington office. "What ways do we remove information, or redirect pieces that leave the overriding body publicly available? If electronic information is removed, will it ever be put up again? We need a systematic way of doing these things."
The library world has both feared and respected electronic information since the government began offering the format and hosting its own web sites several years ago. While data on the web allows free access to many, it also may be available one day and not the next. There's no archive or storage of any versions of the material.
Since Sept. 11, several orders have sought to classify or retract information that already was available from government web sites or publications, what Bradley called a "scrubbing." As recently as late March, the White House ordered federal agencies and departments to take a look at their records management procedures and public documents, including web sites, for information that could be used to help someone develop or use weapons of mass destruction. Agencies were told to keep control of data that's not classified but contains sensitive information about the weapons systems or other threats to domestic security.
In October, the USA PATRIOT Act sought to expand the powers of federal law enforcement agencies investigating cases involving foreign intelligence and international terrorism by amending laws governing the FBI's access to records, including those at libraries. Now, libraries are instituting written policies, if they didn't have them before, to guide staff workers when government agents arrive seeking records or other documents.
These are not new issues, but they have taken on a new dimension since Sept. 11 and in light of recent mandates.
"Philosophically, we promote maximum access, but we are in different circumstances now," Bradley says. "Still, a lot of the questions one asks post 9/11 were around before 9/11: What is publicly available? Is there a bibliographic record of it? Is it permanently maintained, so that if it is removed from the Web right now, or is deemed 'sensitive' or classified, it will be accessible later?"
World Trade Center Light Memorial photo
taken by Adam Rothschild
Updated 4-28-2003
Author, Gena Asher, won second place in government reporting for the Indiana Society of Professional Journalists "Best of Indiana" state-wide journalist competition for this article. The article was competing in categories for publications with circulations of 40,000 or less.
Updated awards information will get posted here: http://indyprospj.iupui.edu/stories/storyReader$12
Posted May 03, 2002