CJSR radio interviewed me about Freedom to Read Week. The
interview was an opportunity to talk about librarians as part of the
Freedom to Read initiatives - but about librarianship in general. I was
interviewed for aprox. 40 minutes...
The station got my name from U of A MLIS student James Reimer... who
does volunteer work on behalf of the U of A School of Library
and Information Studies' "Future Librarians for Intellectual Freedom
(FLIF)" student group.
The station was also aware of my role with CLA.
I spoke to such topics as: Freedom to Read Week; library associations,
such as CLA, ALA, and IFLA; the dilemma about what constitutes library
work and questions around so-called library issues vs. so-called
non-library issues; Internet access; Internet governance and censorship;
filters; family values and community standards; poverty and library policy
around the homelessness, living on fixed income, & no fixed address;
commercialization of public space and the library as part of public sphere;
social exclusion; the power of publishers and then open access and library
publishing; preservation of cultural record, the destruction of libraries
(e.g., in Bosnia and Iraq) and obliterated memory; limited
access to government information (Arar), technological capacity for mass
registration and surveillance; academic freedom; Patriot Act and libraries;
heightened legalistic atmosphere; .. and more.
The cartoons came up only briefly. But I had time to make points from
various angles including the democratic right to view and inform oneself,
tolerance, expressed questions around the motivations of the Danish editor;
big picture context, incitement of extremism, hate, rights AND responsibilities,
and high magnitude issues of peace and sustainable
development.
About CJSR: "CJSR's programming is a diverse mixture of news, current
affairs, and - of course - music. Since broadcasting its first minute of
music to the general public on January 7, 1984, CJSR's programing offered
an alternative to mainstream radio. CJSR features the most eclectic
selection of music on Edmonton's airwaves: folk, jazz, blues, rock,
reggae, hip-hop, techno, classical, ethnic, gospel and everything in
between. CJSR's programming also focuses on issues that are either ignored
or marginalized by mainstream media. CJSR also broadcasts University of
Alberta Pandas and Golden Bears Sports. Our mission is to enlighten and
entertain our audience through high quality and diverse programming that
constantly challenges the status quo."
Toni Samek (Convenor, CLA Advisory Committee on Intellectual Freedom
libr.org
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