ALIA Board Blog

Our right to access information is front and centre today courtesy of WikiLeaks. 

Not so long ago, in my day job, I had to defend that very same right.  It’s one that is absolutely core to our professional values.  For me it was also quite a public affair played out in the main stream media – newspapers, talkback radio and television (although clearly not on the same scale) .  Social media was also in full swing with blogs and tweets flying around the country and globally.  Some powerful lobby groups and politicians had firm views on the matter and didn’t hesitate to express them.   

It reinforced for me what a precarious path we walk in ensuring free and uncensored information for our communities. 

Opposition to free and uncensored information came, at the time, from some unlikely sources. But then, perhaps I really shouldn’t have been so surprised to see that some of the greatest opponents were those I had assumed would normally be in support of one of our core values.  They weren’t in this particular instance, because the information didn’t suit them. It was abundently clear that the most important consideration in the debate was promotion of a particular position, not the right for people to have access to alternate views and ideas and for the community and individuals to make up their own minds.

Whilst my own experience is nothing compared to that of Julian Assange, I can’t help but draw parallels.  Calls to suppress information are usually underpinned by an argument that the information presents a danger to society or to individuals and therefore those who think they know best argue it should be suppressed.  The debate about right to the information and allowing individuals to come to their own conclusions becomes overwhelmed by the argument about the dangers to society.  The person seen to be upholding the right of freedom of access is often the target of some quite personal and vitriolic attacks, usually from those who are challenged or perhaps embarrased by the infromation itself.  As is often the case, the defence of this right often has a very high personal cost.  

The lesson I learnt from my own experience is that both as a profession and as individuals we must remain vigilant and ready to defend this core value.  Is it worth the cost we will sometimes have to pay - yes absolutely!  Whilst information has perhaps never been more freely available, increasingly there are those who seek to control and censor that information – governments, politicians, special interest groups and individuals.   There has never been a more important time for us as a profession to stand up for our core professional values.  

ALIA’s position on this matter is clear and as professionals we need to stand tall in the face of opposition.  At the time, I found it useful to point to the statements of our professional values on the ALIA website.    http://www.alia.org.au/policies/free.access.html

For me there was one shining moment during my recent experience – a talk back radio session on whether listeners thought (public) libraries had a role as a place in which discussion and debate on sometimes controversial issues should take place. The response was an overwhelming yes!   

Thankfully, I sense the same community support for our right to freedom of information emerging now. 

Margaret Allen

Vice President

Today ALIA joined with another not-for-profit organisation, the Inspire Foundation, as well as internet giants Google Australia and Yahoo! Australia to release a joint statement of Core Principles to further engage in the community debate against proposed mandatory ISP internet filtering.  We have been working with these organisations to encourage the government to make amendments to their proposed legislation, being tabled at the Autumn session.   Read the ALIA media release and the Core Principles statement at  http://www.alia.org.au/internetfiltering

ALIA has been lobbying on this issue for decades, but really it goes back to the core values of libraries and library staff -  the two key points that relate to this issue  from the ALIA Constitutional Objects and our Core Values  are :

“To promote the free flow of information and ideas in the interest of all Australians and a thriving culture, economy and democracy”   and  “Promotion of the free flow of information and ideas through open access to recorded knowledge, information, and creative works.”   

We are concerned that URL filtering is only one very small part of removing illegal material that assists in child protection.  We know that most of the activity relating to child pornography and child abuse occurs with direct contact, chat rooms and peer-to-peer networking  - that’s why we want a greater increase in funding for the expertly trained AFP Child Protection unit.

ALIA will continue to work with ACMA on educating library staff, children, parents, carers and the community on safer internet surfing.   The http://www.cybersmart.org.au website should be high on all of our Favourites list and spread amongst our networks.  The videos for library staff are a great professional development activity.  We know that parents and carers want more information and sessions to update their knowledge to assist children with creating a safer environment in the digital economy.  As the Education Revolution laptops roll out to each school, a comprehensive national education program on cybersafety should be joining them.  This means additional government funding to internet safety education.

For an excellent summary of the proposed filtering and RC Classication, and what other countries do to reduce illegal internet material,  take a look through Untangling the Net.

We recently asked our members to submit feedback to the RC Classification submission, and members can continue to take the opportunity to comment through our advocacy@alia.org.au email.  Look out for the notifications of forthcoming submissions during the year.  We also thank our partner library associations who joined with us for this submission.

Sue Hutley, ALIA Executive Director

The weekend is often for catching up - on the housework, back to school organising, the online and other reading, and some fresh air - in preparation for the week ahead.   Some of my online reading this weekend included prep for meetings with ministerial officers this coming week, expressing our opposition to mandatory filtering and pulling together case studies and comments for the ALIA submission.  Also catching up on Parliament too - and the positive and supportive comments by Senator Trood regarding the National Library of Australia and  ‘Indeed, it is a national treasure.’  Other parliamentary-related reading included Kevin Rudd’s new book ‘Jasper & Abby and the Great Australia Day Kerfuffle’.  We are hoping that Kevin (and Rhys Muldoon and Carla Zapel) might like to get involved in National Simultaneous Storytime this year on 26th May, as our chosen book has an animal theme as well, being ‘Little White Dogs Can’t Jump’.

This coming week marks ALIA’s first time (or first time in a long time) at the VALA Trade Exhibition - visit Kate, Steph, Judy, Margie, Jeannine and myself at Booth #43.    Either side of VALA, two of our key Advisory Committees are meeting face-to-face.  The first in-person gathering of the ALIA TAFE Libraries Advisory Committee and another important meeting of the ALIA Public Libraries Advisory Committee.   #ALIANational will be part of the #VALA2010 twittering as well.

It is the anniversary of the Victorian Bushfires - a message is on the ALIA Disaster Recovery webpage - and there is a Blue Shield Australia gathering this week too.

This week also marks Safer Internet Day on Tuesday 9th February.   You can download the video and/or add the logo to your site/facebook/twitter links.  It is an opportunity for library staff in all types of libraries to highlight the importance of cybersafety education.  In the meetings that I will be in with other IT industry stakeholders visiting ministerial advisors at parliament house in the next few days we will be reminding the government about our objection to censorship and to filtering legitimate material, as part of maintaining a democratic society.

And of course - Library Lovers Day (with or without the apostrophe) - to be celebrated at the end of the week ahead.  Most libraries are planning LLD events on Friday or next Monday the 15th.     Jan’s post below reminds us that we can all do something simple to remind our clients and friends to love Australian libraries.  I hope that many public librarians are using The Little Book of Public Libraries as an LLD ‘gift’ for their decision makers and champions, and for other sectors there are some great ideas on the website at http://www.librarylovers.org.au/ 

but wherever you are this week - may it be a good one.

Sue Hutley, ALIA Executive Director

Now why would I be writing a blog post on the Australia Day public holiday?  Besides the fact that I have a little more time to think and write today, it’s because I am celebrating being an Australian - in a free and democratic country.  But what of the near future in regards to our internet…. yes, the NBN is a nation-building activity, but what of the proposed mandatory ISP filtering.  It seems to go against not only the general Aussie way of things, but the core values of ALIA members.

Senator, we welcome the opportunity to comment and to be part of the debate and we absolutely agree that the issue of child abuse and pornography is abhorant and needs addressing.  But the Blacklist is just one form of the internet - the blacklist covers URL’s only, it does not protect children against pornographic activities in the areas of peer-to-peer networking, instant messaging, direct emails and chat rooms.  A significant shift of the cost of the proposed mandatory filtering into additional government funding for the AFP Child Protection initiatives would go a long way here.   Library staff should be aware that anyone can report illegal internet material at anytime by lodging a complaint to ACMA via this webpage.   It is a concern that filtering can give a false sense of security.

Last week I met with a few other like-minded organisational partners to forward the debate on ISP filtering and how ALIA on behalf of it’s members can contribute to this.  We will also be requesting discussion time at the next CWG meeting about the proposals and drafted legislation.

You will note on the ALIA e-lists and ALIATwitter in the coming days a reminder of the ALIA submission to the RC Classification.

We believe that Cybersafety Education should be mandatory, not filtering.   Every Australian should not be treated like a child - adults have the right to look after their children, to educate themselves on how to protect their children, to have greater access to resources and experts to assist with this education, and adults do have the right to view material that is not illegal on the internet  –  in a free and democratic society where freedom of information is regarded as a right of it’s citizens. 

Topics that are sensitive - including euthanasia, terrorism, sexual persuasion and suicide  - might not be long conversations around the Australia Day BBQ, but every Australian still has the right to access information about these issues.

ALIA members and friends, I encourage you to take the time to update youself on the current ISP filtering issues - this recent report is a great summary  “Untangling the Net : The scope of content caught by mandatory internet filtering”.   There are also more questions from the IIA that you will find of interest.

ALIA will be completing our submission to the RC Classification review and be writing to the minister again with questions and comments.  What can you do?

1.  Contribute to the ALIA Submission :  Email your comments, example case studies of how filtering impedes access to information and topics of common interest to advocacy@alia.org.au .  If you belong to another Australian Library Association/Organisation, then encourage your executive to contact the ALIA Executive Director to join in the combined submission executive.director@alia.org.au .   Please note that the 5 main questions to respond to for this submission

2.  Individuals may also make a submission directly to the RC Classification review by 12th February 2010, or write to the Minister at any time

3.  Support ALIA through your membership contribution to ensure that we can continue our advocacy work in this and other important areas.

4.  Update your knowledge on the issues, and the specifics of the proposed internet filtering.  Take a few minutes to view Cybersmart resources for library staff and send this link to your colleagues. 

5.  Use Safer Internet Day on 9th February 2010 to highlight online safety messages and cybersafety resources to your customers, networks and friends.  Check out the ‘Think before you post’ downloadable poster, tips and YouTube.

Happy Australia Day.  Lets continue to live in a truly democratic society where censorship will be rejected.

Sue Hutley, ALIA Executive Director

This week in Canberra we celebrated the launch of Information Awareness Month at the National Archives of Australia  - and who better to celebrate with than with politicians, the Canberra tradition !  

Senator Faulkner gave an interesting speech at the launch that was also attended by Senator Lundy, outlining the FOI Review.   To quote from the speech -  “ The draft Information Commissioner Bill 2009 and Freedom of Information Amendment (Reform) Bill 2009, have been released for public consultation. They will deliver the first substantial overhaul of the federal Freedom of Information regime since the Act’s inception in 1982.   The legislation will also implement a new Commonwealth Government publication scheme. This publication scheme will require agencies to actively consider the types of information they have which can and should be made available to the public. It will not only encourage, but mandate, agencies to publish what they can lawfully publish – forcing a change of attitude for agencies to think about what they should be publishing rather than what they are obliged to. ”

 Submissions are due this coming week and ALIA has asked other key library peak bodies to join them in a combined submission for this review.  Chair of the ALIA Government Publications Advisory Committee, Roxanne Missingham is leading this submission.  You thoughts and comments as ALIA members are still welcome.  Send them to jane.hardy@alia.org.au by Tuesday 12th May. 

ALIA is pleased to join with many other information-related Associations in Information Awareness Month.  Take a look at the website for events near you during the month.