Courage, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. And in an era of increasing controls on the gathering and dissemination of information, many Americans are unaware of the courageous stands librarians take every day.
The day-to-day challenges librarians face are inherent in the job description: defending access to controversial or banned books, staving off budget cuts, and creating and expanding programs to draw more citizens into one of the few remaining genuinely public commons in American life. While the ethic of secrecy often prevails in the gathering and dissemination of corporate and governmental information, the work of a librarian is imbued with just the opposite. Be it in the capacity of archivist, reference librarian or information technology professional, a common thread is the profession's dogged commitment to safeguarding books, research and information to make knowledge more widespread, not less.
There are actually a lot of reasons why I love doing what I do, but if you were to ask me why librarians are so important to have in our society, it would certainly be for the reason above. I get to read, play with computers, talk to lots of people, and I have fun, but the thing that gives me the most pride in what I do is making sure that nobody is left without access to the information they need or want.
The issues of free speech and privacy have always been important to me, even before I knew I wanted to be a librarian or that it was even important to librarians. Ever since I can remember (which was about 8th grade), I spoke out against censorship in school, on just about every research paper I wrote through high school and college, and I never stopped speaking out against it. Now I'm older, wiser (maybe), and definitely more educated, and I still think it's the most important right we have and it's the most important thing about my job and what I do...that other stuff makes my job fun, but protecting everybody's freedom to information is what gives my job purpose.
Tags: library, libraries, intellectual freedom, banned books week, privacy, free speech, first amendment
