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International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions
Fédération Internationale des Associations de Bibliothécaires et des Bibliothèques
Internationaler Verband der bibliothekarischen Vereine und Institutionen
Mem/tyHapoAHa« «DtAepaumi BHÖflHOTCMHbix AccouHauHfi h yipeacÄCHHtt
Federación Internacional de Asociaciones de Bibliotecarios y Bibliotecas
I FLA Publications 101

The Ethics of Librarianship:

An International Survey

Edited by
Robert W. Vaagan
with an introduction by
Alex Byrne, chairman of I FLA /FAI FE

Κ · G · Saur München 2002

IFLA Publications
edited by Sjoerd Koopman

Recommended catalogue entry:

The ethics of librarianship: an international survey /

[International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions],
Ed. by Robert W. Vaagan. With an introd. by Alex Byrne.
- München : Saur, 2002, VI, 344 p. 21 cm
(IFLA publications ; 101)
ISBN 3-598-21831-1

Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahme

The ethics of librarianship: an international survey /

[International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions].
Ed. by Robert W. Vaagan. With an introd. by Alex Byrne. - München : Saur, 2002
(IFLA publications ; 101)
ISBN 3-598-21831-1

Printed on acid-free paper

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National
Standard for Information Sciences - Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ANSI Z39.48.1984.

© 2002 by International Federation of Library Associations

and Institutions, The Hague, The Netherlands
Alle Rechte vorbehalten / All Rights Strictly Reserved
Κ. G. Saur Verlag GmbH, München 2002
Printed in Germany

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system of any nature, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Printed I Bound by Strauss Offsetdruck, Mörlenbach

ISBN 3-598-21831-1
ISSN 0344-6891 (IFLA Publications)
CONTENTS

Foreword
by Robert W.Vaagan 1

IntroductionEthics for a New Millenium

Information

by Alex Byrne 8

Argentina
Argentine librarians, freedom of speech and ethical aspects
of public service

by Stella Maris Fernández 19

Canada
Ethics and the Canadian Library Association: Building on a
Philosophical Foundation of Intellectual Freedom

by Toni Samek 35

Costa Rica ethics in Costa Rica

Librarianship

by Deyanira Sequiera 59

Estonia
Collaboration between Estonian Librarians' Association and
Estonian Libraries

by Maije Tamre 81

Finland
Professional Ethics — A Finnish Outlook

by Kerstin Sevón 96

Iceland
Librarians and information specialist ethical issues:
an Icelandic perspective

by Svava H.Friögeirsdottir 123

Japan
The Code of Ethics of The Japan Library Association

by Yasuyo Inouye . 142

Lithuania
Ethics — A New Challenge for Lithuanian Librarians

by Vita Mozuraite 163

Mexico
Librarianship
by Rosa Maríaand ethics indeMexico
Fernández Zamora and Martín Vera Cabañas 177
Norway
Norwegian librarianship, ethics and ABM

by Robert W. Vaagan 192

Russia
The Russian Librarian's Professional Ethics Code

by Julia P. Melentieva 209

Russian Librarian Ethics and the Internet

by Irina Trushina 218

South Africa
Librarian ethics in South Africa

by Ramesh Jayaram 229

Sweden
Roundabouts to the professional highway. On the development of
a Code of ethics for Swedish librarians

by Britt Marie Häggström 245

Thailand
The Code of Ethics of the Thai Library Association

by Khunying Maenmas Chavalit 265

Uganda
Librarianship and Professional Ethics: The Case for Uganda

by Charles Batambuze and Dick Kawooya 283

United Kingdom
Doing the right thing: professional ethics for information
workers in Britain

by Paul Sturges 302

United
Trends States
of of America
Library Associations and Ethics in the US
by Wallace Koehler 323
About the contributors 338
 FOREWORD

Robert W.Vaagan,
Faculty of Journalism, Library and Information Science,
Oslo University College

Ethical considerations, not least the intellectual freedoms of opinion and expression,

which are reflected both in the core values of EFLA and in the activities of FAIFE, have

long been a concern for librarians and library associations.1 Following the creation of

The Journal of Information Ethics in 1992 it is apparent that LIS research has also

become more attentive to ethics. Thus The Library Bill of Rights of The American

Library Association has been analysed in terms of ethical presuppositions in

utilitarianism, natural rights theory and social contract theory.2 Despite this ethical

awareness only in some countries have library associations or government agencies

formally adopted written codes of ethics or conduct to provide recommended standards

of best practice.

Today as the information age unfolds there are many indications of a growing

need for this type of moral benchmarking. As most of the articles in the present volume

reflect, librarianship and the wider LIS field are facing various challenges where ethical

considerations come into play. A shortlist of potentially divisive issues with ethical

aspects would include globalisation, the digital gap between the information rich and

poor, digital inclusiveness, commercialisation of information versus interactive on-line

public services, privacy, authenticity, confidentiality, trust and confidence in

cyberspace, censorship, copyright, intellectual property rights, grey literature, electronic

filters and the consequences of The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).

Moreover, post-September 11, 2001 anti—terrorist legislation in many countries, which

1
is intended to target terrorists, also causes ethical concern that such legislation may

threaten to restrict ordinary citizens' free access to information and freedom of

expression.

The relevance of ethics is becoming more apparent as librarianship and the LIS

field are being reshaped, e.g. inducing several LIS authors over the last years to reaffirm

the traditional values of librarianship as librarians go about their traditionally main task

of cataloguing, preserving and transmitting the human record.3 Yet in the information

age the librarian is increasingly cast as an information specialist. In consequence "ethics

of librarianship" overlaps conceptually with "infoethics", as both the introduction as

well as the contributions from the United Kingdom, Estonia and Iceland in the present

volume all reflect. Based on UNESCO's planned global infoethics code to be launched

in 2003, and the increasing relevance of infoethics, 4 it is reasonable to posit that ethics

(under tables such as ethics of librarianship, LIS ethics, infoethics, cyberethics etc), will

form part of the traffic rules that will apply to what some have metaphorically described

as the global information superhighway of the new millennium.5

On the threshold of the new millenium it causes concern that we may have to

accept information overload (infobogs) and information fatigue ("the IFS syndrome") as

permanent features. 6 Also causing concern is the observation by some LIS authors that

the theme of survival appears repeatedly in the LIS education literature.7 Of course LIS

education cannot be exempted from the current reshaping of the LIS field. While some

see traditional librarianship values as a remedy, others prescribe the acquisition of new

information age skills, converting librarians into "infopreneurs", which raises other

ethical considerations including those of the market place. Many, if not most, of the

articles in the present volume support the view that LIS education should accord greater

importance to ethics. This, it would seem, applies not least to countries which for

2
various reasons lack appropriate codes of ethics or codes of conduct. From this

perspective the contributions from Argentina, South Africa, Uganda are cases in point.

Also interesting are countries with partial solutions like Mexico (a code of ethics but

only for Colegio member librarians with academic degrees) and Norway (a code of

ethics but only for academic and special libraries).

We now see that also mid-career librarians in many cases see a need for

acquiring new skills in moral benchmarking: In Denmark (which lacks a code of

librarianship ethics) a recent study shows that a clear majority of leaders of Danish

public libraries want to gain new skills e.g. in value-based leadership (VBL), such as

ethical accounting.8

The genesis of The Ethics of Librarianship: An International Survey can be

attributed to the 11th Nordic Conference on Information and Documentation in

Reykjavik 30 May - 1 June 2001. In my paper I addressed the issue of ethics in

Norwegian librarianship. The ensuing debate provided me with valuable commentaries

from a number of colleagues. This prompted me into bringing together colleagues from

different countries to compile an international survey on ethics in librarianship. As

further discussed in my article, the book evolved parallel with my work chairing a

committee set up by the Norwegian National Office for Research Documentation,

Academic and Special Libraries, to formulate recommended ethical guidelines for

member libraries, a task completed in March 2002.

Whereas the FAIFE Website currently lists the ethical codes of selected national

library associations, there is a need for commentary and analysis of individual country

cases, both those listed by FAIFE and others. The present volume is designed to fill that

need: 12 countries with codes are included (Canada, Costa Rica, Estonia, Finland,

Iceland, Japan, Lithuania, Russia, Sweden, Thailand, UK and the USA) as well as 3

3
without codes (Argentina, South Africa and Uganda) plus Mexico and Norway with

their partial solutions. The 18 contributions (including the introduction which also sheds

light on the situation in Australia) are all by experienced practitioners and academics

representing all hemispheres. Most of the articles are by single authors but two articles

(Mexico and Uganda) have been written jointly by two co-authors while one article

(Russia) consists of two distinct contributions. In some articles where existing codes are

either new, little known or not included in the FAEFE list, the codes have been included

in the articles. This is the case with e.g. Costa Rica, Estonia, Lithuania, Norway, Russia

and Thailand.

Many of the potentially divisive issues shortlisted initially are discussed in the

articles. Save for the introduction where FAIFE Chairman Alex Byrne has had a free

hand, it was suggested to the authors that they concentrate their reflections on the

unifying themes of historical background, library structure and organizational

considerations, constitutional and legal aspects, why codes of librarian ethics or codes

of conduct have (or have not) been adopted, the impact of the information age on

libraries and finally research and/or reflections on the impact which the codes (if any)

are perceived to have had on library activity.

As will be seen the contributions vary in content and detail, and each contributor

has weighted the assigned issues as well as other topics somewhat differently,

dependent on the author's interests, field of expertise and the regional/local context.

While all articles deal with the historical development of libraries and the issue of

librarianship ethics, some contributions are more marked by a troubled political past

combined with a fresh enthusiasm for the future. Such, in my view, are the articles from

Russia, Lithuania, Estonia and South Africa. Yet the future contains ethically difficult

issues, as the introduction notes, and which the Canadian contribution links to post-

4
September 11, 2001 developments such as freedom of expression for employee speech

in the workplace.

Compared with the medical profession's Hippocratic oath all professional ethical

codes are relatively recent phenomena. This view is bome out in all the articles. With

the exception of the American Library Association which published its first Code of

Ethics for Librarians in 1938, the codes discussed in the present volume were adopted in

their first versions in the latter half of the 20th century: Canada (1966), Costa Rica

(1974), Estonia (2001), Finland (1989), Iceland (1996), Japan (1980), Lithuania (1999),

Russia (1999), Sweden (1997), Thailand (1977), United Kingdom (1983). An

interesting observation is that the early creation of a national library association has

been no guarantee for the early adoption of codes of ethics: As discussed in the articles

from Japan and the United Kingdom, the first Japanese and British library associations

were established in 1892 and 1877, respectively. Both countries waited approximately

100 years before they adopted ethical codes. Norway, whose first library association can

be dated back to 1910, adopted recommended ethical guidelines in 2002, but only for

academic and special libraries.

The development and structure of public libraries, academic and special libraries

and school libraries are well brought out in many articles. Most articles proceed from

the assumption that librarianship is a profession, although this point remains open to

some discussion,9 as e.g. the Swedish article discusses. The paper from the United

Kingdom shows that both the profession and its ethics may alter when two previously

distinct organizations merge, as in the case of the British Chartered Institute of Library

and Information Professionals. Library associations and trade unions are the focus in the

Swedish contribution, whereas the American contribution has a comparative perspective

in its discussion of ethical codes in a broad range of library and information

5
organizations. Constitutional provision of the freedom of expression is taken for granted

in many countries but the legalities are sometimes complex as the Argentinian article

reflects.

The various steps in the process of developing a code of ethics are highlighted in

several articles, e.g. the British, Canadian, Finnish and Thai contributions. Perhaps

equally interesting are the processes that underlie the lack of codes (at least so far) in

Argentina, Mexico, South Africa, Uganda and partly Norway. The impact of the

information age on libraries and society is dealt with by all articles, and as will be seen

also explains why there are two distinct Russian contributions. But not all articles

identify, as does the one from Costa Rica, the digital gap as the primary ethical

challenge in the face of globalisation. In terms of research all articles include references

to relevant literature, which will be useful for further studies of individual countries. As

for the impact which the codes (if any) are perceived to have had on library activity,

each article, in my view, tells a unique story, and confirms the increasing relevance of

ethics in librarianship and in the wider LIS field.

I would like to express my thanks to all my colleagues and friends who have

contributed to this book. Their professionalism not only considerably simplified my task

as editor but helped bring together what we all see as a valuable, combined statement on

the growing relevance of ethics to librarianship and LIS. M y only regret is that for

practical reasons more countries could not be brought in. I hope the book will prove

valuable for college and university level students and teachers of librarianship and

information science, as well as for information professionals. I am particularly honoured

that the chairman of FAIFE, Mr. Alex Byrne, University of Technology, Sydney,

Australia, has contributed on behalf of FAIFE an introduction to the book

6
NOTES

1 The terra "ethics" has a variety o f meanings but in the context o f the present volume it can be defined as

"the rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group",

cf. Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Gramercy Books, New

York 1996, p. 489. For simplification "ethics" is used interchangeably with "morals" .

2 M. Frické et al (2000). "The Ethical Presuppositions Behind The Library Bill of Rights", The Library

Quarterly, Vol. 70, No. 4, October 2000, pp.468^491.

3 Michael Gorman (2000). Our Enduring Values. Librarianship in the 21" Century, Chicago:American

Library Association; Ronald B. McCabe (2001^. Civic Librarianship. Renewing the Social Mission of the

Public Library. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press

4 Martha Smith (2001). "Information Ethics", in: F.C.Lynden (2001) Advances in Librarianship, Vol. 25,

San Diego: Academic Press, pp. 29-66.

5 Manuel Castells (1997). The Information Age: Economy Society and Culture, Vol. Ill, p. 373.

6 Anne Goulding (2001) "Information Poverty or Overload", Journal of Librarianship and Information

Science, Vol. 33, No.3, September 2001, pp.109-111

7 Roma Harris, Margaret Ann Wilkinson (2001). "(Re)Positioning Librarians: How Young People View

the Information Sector", Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, Vol.42, No.4, Fall

2001, pp.289-307

8 Nils Ole Pors, Carl Gustav Johannsen (2001). "Mellem New Public Management og vasrdiledelse.

Bibliotekledelse under krydspres", Proceedings, Nordic Seminar on Public Library Research, 10-11

December 2001, Copenhagen:Royal School of Library and Information Science, pp. 159-169.

' Charles Oppenheim and Natalie Pollecutt (2000). "Professional associations and ethical issues in LIS",

Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, Vol.32, No.4, December 2000, p.188.

7
 INTRODUCTION

INFORMATION ETHICS FOR A NEW MILLENIUM

Alex Byrne,
Chairman, FAIFE

It is a privilege to introduce this important collection of papers on professional ethics

for library and information services. This work brings together papers from many

countries reflecting both the diversity and commonality of our professional concerns

and our responses to their ethical dimensions. Common bonds of professionalism

unite us in dealing with the challenges of a troubled world. Most dramatically in the

past year, of course, was the destruction of the twin towers of the World Trade Centre

and its consequences. But professional challenges for the year also included

initiatives to rebuild and strengthen the libraries of countries ravaged by conflict,

continuing pressure to censor the Internet in many states and measures to muzzle

access to information in too many countries. The overarching concern remains

information inequality, the 'digital divide', the gross and growing inequality in access

to information for the inhabitants of rich and poor states and for rich and poor within

states.

All of these issues pose ethical conundrums for those of us who deliver library and

information services. We need to draw on our professional traditions, our moral

sensibilities and our commitments to the welfare of society in seeking to respond with

wisdom and compassion. Whether a school librarian trying to help a troubled

teenager or a documentalist dealing with records relating to the disposal of toxic

8
wastes, each of us needs to confront and deal with difficult dilemmas. We hope we

are able to resolve those challenges to the benefit of both the people who are

immediately involved and the wider community.

In the long and noble tradition of library and information work, we have maintained a

commitment to conserve the records of human enquiry and imagination. In doing this

we recognise and celebrate the interconnectedness of knowledge which transcends

natural and national borders, lifetimes, and the tenures of kings and governments.

Since the invention of the public library in the middle of the nineteenth century and

the diversification of libraries into so many types and models, we have increasingly

endeavoured to extend our services to the whole community. Sometimes we serve

the residents of a region or country, sometimes the members or clients of an

organisation or institution. In all cases we are professionally obliged to work to meet

their needs as well as possible and in a disinterested spirit.

The recognition of librarianship and other occupations as professions during the

nineteenth and twentieth centuries highlighted certain key characteristics including a

shared body of knowledge, a commitment to service to society and an agreed ethical

foundation [1], It later became important to codify the ethical expectations of

members of the profession, to develop an ethical framework which would be

appropriate to the field. Such expectations began to be expressed in terms of codes of

ethics which have moral force over the members of the profession. A code binds its

members to do good, or at least avoid doing harm, in the practice of the profession. It

might be enforced through legal or quasi-legal sanctions, although that is unusual in

library and information services.

9
The obligation to the individual patient or client has been extended to a wider

community whether city, state or institution. Following the Nuremberg trials after

World War Π, the responsibilities have been extended to humanity in general. They

have subsequently been joined by concerns to enhance environmental sustainability,

resist social exploitation and ensure commercial and legal transparency, among

others. The professional must actively contemplate the effects of his or her actions

both for the client and the community. Conflicting imperatives, particularly the

expectation to serve the client versus the expectation to serve the community, must be

resolved against an ethical framework in which the general good has priority and

disinterested practice is essential. Nuremberg conclusively articulated personal

responsibility: we cannot excuse our actions as 'just following orders' nor as accepted

practice.

Many ethical issues confront us in library and information service. The broad ethical

requirements have traditionally included accuracy, comprehensiveness, obligations to

the client, responsibilities to the community and the long term commitment to

preserve the record of knowledge. To those, we must add the wider concerns

mentioned above.

At the time of writing this Foreword, the trial of Slobodan Milosevic is proceeding

before an international court in The Hague. He has been charged with genocide and

related crimes stemming from the wars in Croatia in 1991 and Kosovo in 1999 and

actions in Bosnia. Libraries were destroyed or at least disrupted in all of those

hostilities but IFLA/FAIFE became involved particularly in the events in Kosovo

10
where it became clear that there had been a sustained campaign of 'cultural cleansing'

which had started around 1991 [2]. It included the harassment of Albanian speaking

staff, the removal and pulping of library resources in the Albanian language or

dealing with Albanian culture [3], Reminiscent of the Nazi destruction of 'Jewish'

books and 'degenerate' art, these actions sought to expunge Albanian culture from the

Kosovo/Kosova region. The trial will determine Milosevic's culpability. For us, the

question is the responsibility of librarians and libraries. What is the culpability of

those library staff members who were directly involved in the decade long process?

It was they who discriminated against their colleagues, they who identified materials

for removal and organised their removal and destruction, and they who changed

catalogue records. Can they claim the Nuremberg defence, that they were 'just

following orders'? What about those who were aware of the process of cultural

cleansing but stood by silently? Most of us were ignorant of those actions, should we

have cultivated greater watchfulness? How can we ensure that such a pattern of

events will never happen again?

These are big and challenging questions but they are not unique to the war torn

Balkans in that unhappy last decade of the twentieth century. A few other examples

will illustrate the broad extent of challenges to intellectual freedom concerning

libraries.

In the long running political interference by National Front local government

councillors in the south of France, many public librarians have distinguished

themselves by resisting instructions to remove allegedly left wing materials from their

libraries. Sadly, this has resulted in many losing their positions in those libraries.

11
Their resistance has been echoed in similar situations in other countries and notably

in the United States where the ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom provides strong

support for those who seek to uphold First Amendment rights.

However, even in the United States there is a need to continually reaffirm the ethical

responsibilities of library and information workers. In the wake of the ghastly events

of September 11, 2001, authorities sought to limit access to information. Media

organisations came under pressure to restrict the provision of information to the

public. Some claimed that uninhibited access to the Internet had facilitated the

attacks on the World Trade Center and other potential threats by making information

readily available and providing a ubiquitous and easy means of communication. In

the highly charged atmosphere following the attacks and during the preparations for

the bombardment and invasion of Afghanistan, the PATRIOT Act [4] was passed

and has since been emulated in other states. That Act significantly extended the

provisions which enable a wide range of law enforcement and security organisations

to monitor access to information by individuals. In one incident, a library staff

member informed the FBI that a client of Middle Eastern appearance was a potential

threat because he had sought maps of water catchment areas. The client's rights to

access information and to privacy were not considered, nor the host of possible

explanations for his interest in water catchment areas. It is especially in such

somewhat hysterical climates that professionals have a duty to remember their

professional ideals and commitments.

Concerns about the Internet have not, of course, been limited to its possible use by

terrorists. Many jurisdictions have considered the introduction of some form of

12
Internet censorship. In some cases, such as China, it has emphasised the security of

the state and has been facilitated by governmental control of telecommunications. In

other, more open, environments governments have sought to protect the community,

and especially children by imposing penalties for the provision of access to

'offensive' material. The Children's Internet Protection Act, so effectively dismissed

through energetic action by the ALA [5], is a prime example. Unfortunately, my

country, Australia, was quick to introduce federal legislation which has made it an

offence to host content which may be offensive and to provide access to content

which may be inappropriate for minors. Some of the states have enacted

complementary legislation in their jurisdictions. School libraries have largely been

constrained to implement filters on Internet connections despite widespread

understanding of their inefficacy. The national legislation introduced a complaints

based regime but since its introduction few complaints have been lodged and fewer

accepted [6]. This has indicated little community support for the regime or, indeed,

concern about the issue. Similar measures have occurred or been contemplated in

other countries. They are unlikely to be any more successful but their consideration

raises serious issues for information professionals.

These are grave issues with which we deal. They underline the importance of our

professional commitment to free access to information: "To promote the free flow of

information and ideas in the interests of all Australians and a thriving culture and

democracy", in the words of the first object of the Australian Library and Information

Association [7]. It is a commitment which goes to the heart of societies which aim to

provide the widest opportunities for their peoples.

13
This aspiration sets a high benchmark for professional conduct when it is coupled

with ALIA's third object, "To ensure the high standard of personnel engaged in

information provision and foster their professional interests and aspirations". And,

indeed, ALIA challenges its members to participate as "members of a profession

committed to intellectual freedom and the free flow of ideas and information" [8]

with a shared set of core values [9]:

1. Promotion of the free flow of information and ideas through open access to

recorded knowledge, information, and creative works.

2. Connection of people to ideas.

3. Commitment to literacy, information literacy and learning.

4. Respect for the diversity and individuality of all people.

5. Preservation of the human record.

6. Excellence in professional service to our communities.

7. Partnerships to advance these values.

In justifying these values, the free flow of information and ideas is claimed to be

necessary to a thriving culture, economy, and democracy and to be supported by

library and information services, which represent "a legacy to each generation,

conveying the knowledge of the past and the promise of the future".

I have used these phrases because they come from my country and they offer a

concise summary of our key professional values. But their inspirational sentiments

are not bounded by the coastline of Australia. They express universal values, values

which all library and information workers must hold dear. Although the words may

14
differ from country to country, culture to culture, they are not culturally contingent

values, as I have argued elsewhere [10]. They are fundamental values which ensure

that all individuals and all communities are able to maintain and develop their

cultures and languages, express their opinions, and further their development. Our

professional support for those values can assist students to prepare for their careers,

mothers to intrigue and stimulate their children, and indigenous peoples to

communicate their knowledge.

In 1997, when meeting in Copenhagen, IFLA established the Committee on Free

Access to Information and Freedom of Expression (see FAIFE at http://www.ifla.org')

which was soon joined by the FAIFE Office thanks to the generous support of Danish

and other Nordic librarians and agencies. IFLA/FAIFE is a core activity within IFLA

to defend and promote the basic human rights defined in Article 19 of the United

Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The IFLA/FAIFE Committee and

Office seek to promote free access to information and freedom of expression in all

aspects, directly or indirectly, related to libraries and librarianship. IFLA/FAIFE

monitors the state of intellectual freedom within the library community worldwide,

supports IFLA policy development and cooperation with other international human

rights organisations, and responds to violations of free access to information and

freedom of expression. Its work has been described in many articles and reports

which can be found on the FAIFE website.

The current year, 2002 has seen two major events in the campaign to strengthen

freedom of access to information.

15
On 1 May 2002, the IFLA Internet Manifesto [11] was launched. Through it, EFLA

asserts that:

• Intellectual freedom is the right of every individual both to hold and express

opinions and to seek and receive information; it is the basis of democracy; and

it is at the core of library service.

• Freedom of access to information, regardless of medium and frontiers, is a

central responsibility of the library and information profession.

• The provision of unhindered access to the Internet by libraries and

information services supports communities and individuals to attain freedom,

prosperity and development.

• Barriers to the flow of information should be removed, especially those that

promote inequality, poverty, and despair.

It continues by establishing principles of freedom of access to information via the

Internet and noting the need to develop strategies, policies, and plans to implement

the Manifesto.

The second major event was the proclamation at the 75 th Anniversary of EFLA in

Glasgow of The Glasgow Declaration on Libraries, Information Services and

Intellectual Freedom [12]. This important document highlights the inextricable

connection between libraries and information services and the development and

maintenance of intellectual freedom, on the one hand, and the reciprocal core

responsibility of the library and information profession worldwide to uphold

intellectual freedom. Through pursuing its aims, libraries and information services

16
can help to safeguard democratic values and universal civil rights and promote the

well being of all the world's peoples.

These key documents express the values discussed above. They underline the critical

importance of a principled approach to our professional work, an approach which

embodies and articulates the ethical considerations discussed in the chapters of this

work. By engaging with the issues and adopting the principles into our professional

practice we can extend ourselves personally and professionally and better fulfil our

obligations to our clients and communities.

17
NOTES

1. Oppenheim, C. and Ν. Pollecutt, Professional associations and ethical issues in LIS. Journal of

Librarianship and Information Science, 2000. 32(4): p. 187-203.

2. Frederiksen, C. and F. Bakken, Libraries in Kosova /Kosovo. 2000, IFLA/FAIFE: Copenhagen.

http://www.faife.dk/.

3. Frederiksen, C. and F. Bakken, Alleged destructions of books in Serbian in Mitrovice/Kosovska

Mitrovica. 2001, IFLA/FAIFE: Copenhagen, http://www.faife.dk/mitrorep.htm.

4. United States of America. Congress, USA PA TRIOT (Uniting and Strengthening America by

Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism ) Act. 2001.

http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/hr3162.html.

5. A L A , CIPA web site. 2002, American Library Association, http://www.ala.org/cipa/.

6. Australian Broadcasting Authority, Six-month report on co-regulatory scheme for Internet content

regulation: January to June 2001. 2002.

ftp://ftp.dcita.gov.au/pub/media_attachment/six_month_report6_130202.rtf.

7. A L I A , Constitution of the Australian Library and Information Association Limited. 2000, Canberra:

Australian Library and Information Association, http://www.alia.org.au/govemance/constitution/.

8. A L I A , Statement on professional conduct. 2001, Canberra: Australian Library and Information

Association, http://www.alia.org.au/policies/professional.conduct.html.

9. A L I A , ALIA core values statement. 2002, Australian Library and Information Association.

http://www.alia.org.au/policies/core.values.html.

10. Byrne, Α., Freedom of access to information and freedom of expression in a pluralistic world.

IFLA Journal, 1999. 25(4). http://www.ifla.Org/V/iflaj/ilj2504.pdf.

11. IFLA, The IFLA Internet Manifesto. 2002, International Federation of Library Associations and

Institutions. http://www.ifla.org/III/misc/im-e.htm.

12. I F L A , The Glasgow Declaration on Libraries, Information Services and Intellectual Freedom.

2002, International Federation o f Library Associations and Institutions, http://www.ifla.org.

18
 ARGENTINA

ARGENTINIAN LIBRARIANS, FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND ETHICAL

ASPECTS OF PUBLIC SERVICE

Stella Maris Fernández,

Sociedad de Investigaciones Bibliotecológicas

Historical background

To understand the librarian's panorama of the Republic of Argentina it is necessary to

keep in mind that Argentina is a vast territory of 2.776.656 square kilometres populated

by 36 million inhabitants according to the latest census (2002). Demographically, the

population is concentrated in certain provinces and in the main urban centres, with a

population density of 11,7 inhabitants per square kilometre. Moreover, the population is

politically divided in 23 provinces. In this environment the librarian's movement has

been marked by an educational economic policy that has not demonstrated or

understood the importance of libraries. The lack of a librarian policy is noticeable, and

library planning is not a part of educational and cultural planning. Adding to this, a

permanent political uncertainty exists, with the orientation changes according to who

governs institutions. Political positions are in most cases filled by people who do not

understand or know the library profession, nor are they interested in libraries.

From the XVII century under Spanish dominance, important private libraries already

existed on the territory that would become Argentina. In the XVIII century schools and

monasteries of the Jesuit order had libraries that were passed into the hands of the

Dominican and Franciscan orders after the Jesuits were expulsed. At the beginning of

19
the XIX century, in 1810, with the first national government, the first public library was

built in Buenos Aires. In 1884 it became The National Library.

The first school of librarians was created in the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the

University of Buenos Aires in 1922. This was also the first school of university level in

Latin America. At present, there are in Argentina 25 schools of librarians, 9 of which

are universities (7 official and 2 private). Two of the 16 remaining schools depend on

the Ministry of National Education while the rest depend on provincial Ministries of

Education. One of the features of this system is the irrational geographical distribution

of the schools. Some are concentrated in one city and in one province, leaving areas of

the country without schools of librarianship. This is indicative of the lack of planning

and shows that the country is not considered as one organizational unit. It also reflects a

failure to take into account the necessities of human resources. Instead, one responds to

isolated, sporadic initiatives and political and individual objectives of the day.

The degrees granted by schools of librarianship are: auxiliary librarian, school librarian

(2 years' duration), professional librarian (3 years' duration), bachelor, professor and

doctor (the last three are at university level). The doctoral degree is conferred only by

two schools. The master's degree has newly begun to be introduced, and is so far

available only in one school but it is in the process of being implemented in other

schools. Although the possibility of the doctorate exists, librarians seem not to be

interested in it.

20
The education system in librarianship is characterized by a lack of uniformity in the

study plans, in the number of subjects, in their denominations, in the intensity and

number of courses that one becomes trained in, and in the demand of languages. This

reveals that a clear idea does not exist on the basic nucleus of disciplines to teach,

neither on the minimum contents required, nor on the professional profile that is

wanted. The librarian's formation for public libraries is neglected. Meetings have been

held between leaders and teachers of the university schools on many occasions to

identify unified approaches as regards study plans. Yet the surrounding reality, specially

outside the province of Buenos Aires, the economic problems and the lack of

specialized human resources, as well as the lack of equipment, have in several cases

blocked developments.

Permanent education does not accommodate planning and programming that includes

the existing requirements of the profession. The latter depend on the availability of

economic resources and specialized human resources to fill the institutions. This has the

effect that the interests of institutions in university education as well as in professional

associations are centred on technological aspects of education. Still, there are no

concerted and cooperative actions among the different institutions with a view to avoid

overlapping of efforts and to facilitate a larger range of possibilities and better use.

Research does not seem to attract librarians who limit themselves to daily chores, in the

"metier" of librarianship. There are few appropriate stimuli such as economic incentives

or diffusion of research through publications. Librarians are not trained to carry out

research and there is in general little experience in research. In many universities

21
apathy, or economic anguish forcing people to hold more than one job, have even led to

the suppression of the requirement of a thesis presentation to obtain a bachelor's degree.

In consequence, Argentinian literature on librarianship is almost nonexistent. In recent

years the following periodic publications came out: GREBYD /Noticias (Bulletin of the

Centre of Studies and Professional Development in Librarianship and Documentation -

stopped being published in 2001); Referencias Association of Graduate Librarians of

the Republic of Argentina, ABGRA, 1994); Boletín de la Sociedad de Estudios

Bibliográficos Argentinos (1996); Revista Argentina de Bibliotecología (Argentine

Society of Information, 1998); Libraria, correo de las bibliotecas (Library of Congress,

1998); Infodiversidad (Society of Librarian Research, 1999) and Información, Cultura y

Sociedad (Institute of Librarian Research, Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the

University of Buenos Aires, 1999). To these should be added some magazines from

various provinces within the country, revitalized a little over the last years, namely

Boletín de la Asociación de Bibliotecarios de Rosario - province of Santa Fe- y A.B.C,

Informa (Association of Cordoba Librarians - province of Cordoba). There were, not

long ago, two periodic publications, now nonexistent: Documentación Bibliotecolögica

(Bahía Blanca, province of Buenos Aires, 1971, edited by the Centre of Documentation

of the National University of the South, probably the most important magazine of the

profession at the time) and Bibliotecología y Documentación (1979), edited by

ABGRA - which reached only 10 numbers - in which works of great importance

appeared. Unfortunately, one of the characteristics of this type of publication is its brief

appearance. Even worse is the fact that the National Library does not fulfil its duty of

compiling the national bibliography. In a sense this task was partly assumed by the

Chamber of the Book. By an agreement celebrated on 25th June 1981 between the

22
Argentine Chamber of the Book and the Secretary of Culture of the Nation, the

Chamber took over the tasks linked with the inscription and registration of books

included in Law 22399/81. Said agreement establishes the obligation that every book

edited in Argentina carries the ISBN printed, and an annual list of books of the

immediate previous period is to be published.

With the purpose of rescuing what is published in the country, even when it is by areas,

there are systems which try to compile what is produced in the country within a certain

topical field. This is what the System of Information in Social Science, REDICSA, does

with the publication of the Bibliografia Argentina de Ciencias Sociales, Antropología,

Ciencia, Política, Economía, Sociología. This is also what is done by the National

Institute of Science and Technical Hidrics, INCYTH, with its analytic catalogue of the

works produced by that body.

Non-governmental organizations try to improve this situation by lending their support to

research, to permanent education and to contribute not only to the publication of their

magazines, but also to the publication of research. NGOs such as the Argentine Society

of Information and the Society of Librarian Research contribute to the publication of

research results. Other examples are the Argentine Society of Bibliographical Studies

which also promotes actions of improvement, and the Association of Librarians,

Documentalists, Archivists and Museologists of Mar del Plata (province of Buenos

Aires) which was created in 1999. Contributions to the bibliography have also been

made by The Bibliographical Institute Antonio Zinny and The Bibliographical Centre of

the University of Cuyo.

23
Library structure, organizations, professional unions

In the country there are various types of libraries with different objectives and user

categories: school libraries (corresponding to establishments of primary and higher

level), libraries of public reading represented by the so-called popular libraries, and

public libraries. The two last types differ in origin and maintenance form. Popular

libraries have developed as fruits of the interest of the community, and they are run by

members of the community through a fee that they contribute. The public libraries

depend on an official body either at the national, provincial or municipal level, which is

in charge of their administration. Children's libraries most often constitute a section

inside the libraries of public reading. As for university libraries, specialized libraries and

The National Library these have been commented on above. The Library of Congress

was originally created to support legislators, but presently it has a hybrid character.

Besides its first function it plays the role of a public library. Finally there are a number

of documentation centres.

To assure a continuous flow of information and to solve the lack of bibliographical

control ol literature generated in the country, units of information have been organized

in nets and national systems that cover areas and certain topics of interest. Examples are

the Net of Libraries of the Armed Forces, REBIFA; the National System of Educational

Information, SNIE; the Net of Information in Social Sciences, REDICSA; the Collective

Catalogue of Manager Libraries, CACOBE; the National Net of the Planning of

Argentina, RED NAPLAN, Argentina, the Federal System of Information for Planning

and Development, REFIPLAN, the Net of Nets, UNIRED, formed by CACOBE,

REDICSA, NAPLAN; National Net of Information in Sciences of the Health, RENICS;

24
System of Libraries and of Information, SISBI; National Net of University Libraries',

National Academic Net, (RAN), Internet Net Argentina, Argentine Centre of Scientific

and Technical Information, CAICYT, Net of the National Commission of Atomic

Energy, National Net of Documentation and Information in Administration·, National

Net of Documentation and Information of Public Administration, RENDIAP; System of

Information and Documentation of the National Institute of Agricultural Technology,

SIDINTA, National System of Information in Agricultural Sciences of the Republic of

Argentina, SNICA; National Institute of Science and Technical Hidrics, INCYTH;

Argentine institute of Rationalization of Materials, IRAM, Vitruvio Net - net specialized

in art architecture, design, urbanism-; Argentine System of Artificial Computer Science,

Argentine System of Juridical Computer Science, SALT, etc.

The mid-XX century was a time of librarian boom in the country, characterized by the

creation of different types of libraries and of librarians' schools in different locations of

the country, by the organization of congresses and professional days and by the

appearance of librarian associations. The first Argentinian librarian association was

created in 1939 in the province of Santa Fe, although it quickly disappeared. At the

moment 13 provincial associations exist, two of them denominated "schools" and one

denominated "national" created in 1958. The latter is Association of Graduate

Librarians of the Republic of Argentina, ABGRA, which grants membership to graduate

librarians of the country with a professional training of minimum of three years' studies.

The remaining associations have similar statutes and are characterized by low

membership. They have sought to remedy this by not requiring members to have a

professional title, only that you have worked in a library. As a result many have as

25
association members also archivists, documentalists, museologists and data

programmers.. Low membership numbers mean that many associations do not have

headquarters. Instead they use their president's residencies as occasional headquarters.

Such associations have scant economic resources, they lack administrative staff, they

have difficulties in organizing courses and congresses. They also lack a permanent

organ of diffusion for their activities such as a bulletin or magazine. If these organs exist

they are of limited circulation. These associations do not carry out cooperative actions

with other associations but rather act in isolation. In contrast, ABGRA has a larger

amount of resources, it has its own headquarters, a magazine, it carries out an annual

congress - in 2002 the 36th National Meeting of Librarians will be arranged. These

meetings were carried out previously inside the country on a rotation basis, which gave

better chances of participation and of attracting librarians of the interior. In recent years

the meetings have only been arranged in the city of Buenos Aires.

Other professional associations linked with specialized thematic areas include the

Association of Biomedical Libraries also exist, the Association of School Libraries, the

Argentinian Association of Computer Sciences and Documentation, and others. In

recent years some regional associations have been created, such as the Association of

Schools of Librarians of the South Cone, 1991, the Ibero-American and Caribbean

Association of Education and Research in Librarianship, Science of the Information and

Documentation, and Archive in 1996 and the Association of Ibero-American National

Libraries, AB IN LA.

26
Constitutional and legal considerations. Freedom of expression

Existing legislation on libraries and their operations is modest. In 1870, during the

presidency of Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Law 419 was passed. Sarmiento was the

great propeller of popular libraries, and besides encouraging their creation, he set up as

supervisory body the Protector Commission of Popular Libraries. This law was

replaced in 1986 by the Law 23.351, which established the development and support to

popular libraries. The law also modified the name of the supervisory body to National

Protector Commission of Popular Libraries, CONABIP. This body secures a special

base for its support through the proceeds of a tax on gambling, lotteries and other games

as well as through private contributions. At the same time the law recommends the

provinces to adopt similar laws.

The passing of this law generated in almost all provinces laws which made reference to

popular libraries and/or to the creation of librarian systems and/or the creation of

Provincial Protector Commissions, reporting to the Secretary or Undersecretary of

Culture. These provincial laws were in some cases ahead of the national law because

they helped spread a uniform librarian system composed of popular, public, school,

special and even municipal libraries.

On 10th January 1936, the Ministry of Justice an Public Instruction (at present: Ministry

of Culture and Education), by File n° 604, letter P, year 1936 entrusted the National

Counsel Of Education (nonexistent nowadays because the schools are now dependent

on the provincial governments and the government of the City of Buenos Aires) to

establish school libraries and to provide regulations for their organization. Now that the

27
National Counsel of Education has disappeared, those regulations are not applied

anymore.

School libraries are not included in any legal norm. The recent Law of Education 24.195

passed in 1993 does not mention them at all. This is also the case in the Law of Superior

education, 24.521, passed in 1995. University Law 22.207 passed in 1980 includes the

national, provincial and private universities recognized by the State. This is paradoxical

considering that in 1886, the University Law called the Avellaneda Law, in its statutes

dedicated the XIII chapter to the libraries of the Faculty.

A national System of Libraries does not exist, although this question was discussed at

many of the Congresses of librarians and although a preliminary design of Federal

System of libraries services of the Faculty was presented without success to the

legislative power in April of 1996. There were many factors that bore on this decision:

the absence of governmental librarian planning at the federal level, the disinterested

politic power to support the development of libraries, and the lack of social conscience

concerning the importance and need of libraries.

The country does not have explicit legal norms on freedom of speech. Freedom of

speech is regulated by the Constitution, the fundamental Law of the Nation and it

emanates through articles 14, 31, 32 and 33, all which refer, in some form, to freedom

of speech.

28
Artide 14th 'All inhabitants of the Nation enjoy the following rights according to the

laws that regulate their exercise, that is: to work and exercise all licit industry; to

navigate and to trade; to solicit from the authorities, to enter, to remain, to travel and to

leave Argentinian territory; to publish their ideas in the press without previous

censorship; to use and to have their property; to associate with useful ends; to profess

their beliefs freely; to teach and to learn.'

This article is reinforced by the following:

Article 'No inhabitant of the Nation will be forced to make what the law does not

command, neither deprived of what it does not prohibit'

Article 28th 'The principles, guarantees and rights recognized by previous articles,

cannot be altered by laws that regulate their exercise.'

Article 31s' 'This Constitution, the laws of the Nation that, in consequence, are dictated

by the Congress and treaties with foreign powers, are the supreme law of the Nation;

and the authorities of each province are forced to conform to it, irrespective of any

disposition to the contrary that are contained in the laws or provincial constitutions.'

Article 32nd 'The federal Congress will not dictate laws that restrict the freedom of print

or establish federal jurisdiction to this effect.'

29
Artide 33rd 'The declarations, rights and guarantees that the Constitution enumerates,

will not be understood as negation of other rights and guarantees not enumerated, but as

bom from the principle of the sovereignty of the town and the government's republican

character. '

Why codes of ethics or conduct have not been adopted

Argentina does not possess a code of professional ethics. The topic has not been

discussed at meetings or Congresses, neither does specific literature exist. In

publications that refer to librarianship in general or to administration, the topic is not

considered. However, there are rules of ethical behavior in which all officials, and in

consequence all librarians, are immersed. These rules relate to the environment of the

Congress and a National Commission of Public Ethics looks after the execution of

duties and obligations. Surprisingly, the Law of Education 24.521, mentioned

previously when referring to university superior education, in chapter 2 refers to the

autonomy and scope of institutions and affirms (in clause E) that university institutions

should "Formulate and develop study plans, plans of scientific research and of extension

and services to the community including the teaching of professional ethics as an

autonomous subject."

The impact of information age on libraries

The impact of the era of information is perceived to some extent in all the types of

libraries of the country that use modern technological equipment, although the latest

technology. The impact is without any doubt greatest in the specialized and university

30
libraries. These have received aid under programs such as the FOMEC (Fund for the

improvement of university quality), the SIU (System of University Information) and the

Net of University Interconnection (RIU). The general tendency is the creation of

internets connecting existing centres of information and putting on-line the catalogues

of each unit. Enhanced net communication unifies bibliographical wealth, and currently

efforts are being made to improve technological equipment and develop an integrated

system of administration of libraries (software), to form databases and train librarians

and users.

Internet is now available in many libraries, university libraries, specialized libraries, the

National Library, Library of Congress, the Teacher's Library and even school libraries

of the city of Buenos Aires. In 2001 a donation by the Foundation Martin Varsavsky to

the government of President of the Nation, Dr. Femando de La Rúa, allowed the

initiation of the project 'Educate Gate'. This is a national state project based on three

basic pillars: a gate of educational contents, a plan of educational training and a

connectivity plan to apply first to secondary level schools and secondly, to primary level

schools. The connectivity plan will facilitate the use of computers in schools and their

connection to Internet, and also training. At the moment these plans have been

interrupted as a result of changes in the government, and a new educational budget. The

objective, however, was the computer training of teachers, parents and students. The

success of the plan will depend on the number of connected schools.

Progress is slow, on the other hand, as far as the implementation and acceptance of the

new and sophisticated services of the so-called virtual libraries are concerned. In 1995

31
the National University of Cuyo (province of Mendoza) created the Integrated System

of Computerized Libraries, SIBI. Since then advances have been made towards the

development of seamless libraries. These facilitate a dynamic and effective access to

current information through connecting all types of material held in different locations.

32
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Constitución de la Nación Argentina. Santa Fe-Paraná. 1994

Fernández, Stella Maris. Situación del sistema bibliotecario argentino. Sus falencias,
sus aciertos, sus necesidades, propuestas para solucionar la situación./Parada,
Alejandro. Hacia una teoría de la creación del Sistema Federal de Bibliotecas e
Información (SIFEBI). Buenos Aires: Sociedad de Investigaciones Bibliotecológicas
1998, 236 p.

Fernández, Stella Maris.- Giunti, Graciela. Planes de estudio de las Escuelas de

Bibliotecologia, Archivología y Museologia de Iberoamérica. Buenos Aires: Sociedad de Investigaciones
Bibliotecológicas. 1999, 193 p.

Ley Federal de Educación. Ley 24.195.

Ley de Educación Superior. Ley No 24.521

Lucero, Alberto Ataúlfo, Relator Mesas redondas sobre un Sistema nacional de Servicios de bibliotecas e
información. Informe final. Buenos Aires, ABGRA, 1995.

Penna, Carlos Víctor. Estrategias para la creación de un Sistema Federal de

Bibliotecas e Información. Buenos Aires: ABGRA, 1997

Sabor, Josefa E.EÌ inquietante futuro de la bibliografia argentina Mar del Plata:
Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Biblioteca Central. 1986

Sabor, Josefa E. La investigación en Bibliotecologia. En Reunión Nacional de Bi-

Bliotecarios 21a. Buenos Aires 7.-10 ag. 1985. Buenos Aires: ABGRA ,1985. 10 p.

Sabor Riera, María Angeles. Contribución al estudio histórico del desarrollo de los servicios
bibliotecarios de la Argenti Resistencia: Universidad Nacional del Nordeste 1974-1975

Zago, Manrique ed. Bibliotecas populares argentinas. Buenos Aires: Zago, 1995.

Internet

Asociación de Bibliotecarios Graduados de la República Argentina, ABGRA

(http://www.abgra.sisbi.uba.ar)

Biblioteca Nacional
(http://www.bibnal.edu.ar/der.htm)

Ministerio de Economia, Centro de Documentación e Información

(http://www.cdi.mecon.ar)

Comisión Nacional Protectora de Bibliotecas Populares - CONABIP

(http://www.conabip.gob.ar)

33
Educar
(http:// www. educ. ar)

UNIRED
(http://www.cib.cponline.org.ar:82/unired.htm)

Universidad
(http://www.spu.edu.ar)

34
 CANADA
ETHICS AND THE CANADIAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION:
BUILDING ON A PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATION OF INTELLECTUAL
FREEDOM

Toni Samek,
University of Alberta

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom

to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and

ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

— Excerpt from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19.

Introduction

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms "guarantees the rights and freedoms set

out in it subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably

justified in a free and democratic society." This charter directs that, "Everyone has the

following fundamental freedoms: (a) freedom of conscience and religion; (b) freedom of

thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media

of communication; (c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and (d) freedom of association. 7 It

is within this philosophical context that Canadian library ethics exist.

In this chapter, the institutional framework of the Canadian Library Association (CLA) is

used as a lens through which to examine library ethics in the Canadian context. The

35
chapter's intellectual content is organized by the following five discussion sections: (1)

the institutional framework of the CLA, (2) a brief history of the CLA's search for a

Canadian library charter or statement of philosophy, (3) an introduction to contemporary

rhetoric on Canadian library ethics, (4) a reflection on Canadian library ethics in an

emergent global and digital society, and (5) closing comments. Throughout this chapter,

references are made to American librarianship, as Canadian librarianship has developed

in close connection with its neighbor to the south.

Institutional Framework of the Canadian Library Association

In order to develop an appreciation for Canadian library ethics, it is necessary first to

establish a sense of basic Canadian library philosophy. For the purposes of this chapter,

the CLA's mission and values are used as a general reflection of basic Canadian library

philosophy.

The CLA was founded in 1946 and incorporated under the Companies Act on November

26, 1947. CLA is "a national, not-for-profit, voluntary organization, governed by an

elected Council and Board of Directors." Five constituent divisions comprise the CLA,

respectively representing the interests of academic, public, school and special libraries, as

well as library trustees.2

The CLA's mission is "to promote, develop and support library and information services

in Canada and to work in cooperation with all who share our values in order to present a

unified voice on issues of mutual concern." 3 It is worth noting that the CLA's mission

36
makes explicit reference to shared Canadian library values. The CLA defines these

values as follows:

• "We believe that libraries and the principles of intellectual freedom and free

universal access to information are key components of an open and democratic

society."

• "Diversity is a major strength of our Association."

• "An informed and knowledgeable membership is central in achieving library and

information policy goals."

• "Effective advocacy is based upon understanding the social, cultural, political and

historical contexts in which libraries and information services function." 4

The CLA make explicit reference to intellectual freedom. And this chapter is intended to

show how intellectual freedom, which inherently includes the principle of free and

universal access to information, is the foundation on which the CLA's ethical framework

is built and shaped. The origins of this foundation extend at least as far back as the early

1950s.

Historical Background on Canadian Library Philosophy and Intellectual Freedom

The CLA's big sister organization, the American Library Association (ALA), founded in

1876, adopted its first statement of library philosophy, the Library's Bill of Rights, in

1939. As documented by Elizabeth Hulse in The Morton Years: The Canadian Library

Association, 1946-1971, a parallel Canadian library charter was first proposed by the

Ontario Library Association at the annual CLA conference in Toronto in 1951. The

37
proposed charter was intended "to encompass the tights of the Canadian people with

regard to library service, the responsibilities of libraries, and the duties of government."

A special committee chaired by Dr. Gerhard R. Lomer of McGill University prepared a

draft charter, of which a revised version was introduced at the annual CLA conference in

Banff in 1952. The draft charter was referred back to the committee for further work.

Hulse suggested that Canadian librarians of the day were perhaps "better at more down-

to-earth undertakings" because the charter project "soon lapsed." 5

In the meantime, however, Canadians' escalating concerns about obscenity in the early

1950s prompted the CLA to explore the idea of formulating a formal statement on

censorship. In 1958, a newly appointed Committee on Undesirable Literature went so faj-

as to prepare a brief for the Senate titled the "Sale and Distribution of Salacious and

Indecent Literature." This brief served as an important caution to the professional

community to be wary of censorship as a "dangerous instrument which must be handled

with the utmost caution and skill." The brief also expressed the Committee's

dissatisfaction with the status quo method of the banning of books in Canada. In 1958,

the CLA passed a firm statement "opposing recent proposals to incorporate a definition

of obscenity in the Criminal Code." The Committee perceived such a definition in danger

of limiting freedom of inquiry.6

Just as in the United States, where efforts to promote intellectual freedom were initially

sparked by incidents of censorship, by 1961 the focus of the CLA Committee on

Undesirable Literature had changed from censorship and obscenity to the more expansive

38
issue of intellectual freedom. 7 And in December 1961, two decades after the ALA's

creation in 1940 of a Committee on Intellectual Freedom to Safeguard the Rights of

Library Users to Freedom of Inquiry, the CLA Council and the Committee on

Committees followed suit and formed a counterpart Canadian Intellectual Freedom

Committee.8

The terms of reference for the Intellectual Freedom Committee were: "To examine to

what extent, if at all, the communication of information, ideas and/or works of the

imagination (through printed media) should be prohibited by law." Kathleen R. Jenkins

(Chief Librarian, Westmount Public Library and a past-president of CLA) was appointed

as Chair. Membership of the Committee was comprised of a mix of "writers, members of

the reading public, publishers, book sellers, library trustees and librarians, all of whom

[were] members of the Association." The Committee reported directly to the CLA

Council.9

Initially, the Committee on Intellectual Freedom set to work planning both a statement on

intellectual freedom and a general information campaign aimed at both the library

community and the general public. John Archer, who chaired the Committee between

1962 and 1966, initiated the printing of both the ALA's Freedom to Read Statement and

Library Bill of Rights in the March 1962 issue of Canadian Library.10 That same year,

the CLA's legal adviser warned that in his view the committee's activities were out of

sync with its terms of reference. Archer, however, countered that he intended to spend his

first year as Chair devoting his energies to raising the Canadian library community's

39
awareness of censorship issues in order to ready them for a formal statement on

censorship.11 And under his direction from March 1962 to March 1963, four articles on

intellectual freedom were published in three issues of Canadian Library.'2 In one article

titled "This Freedom," published in the March 1963 issue, Archer eloquently observed

that "Librarians are custodians of our culture and our freedom" and that intellectual

freedom "is the sine qua non of a free society."13 This article, in retrospect, can be seen

as a pivotal step toward articulating a Canadian library philosophy.

Over the next several years, the Committee on Intellectual Freedom continued its effort to

develop a formal statement. Both English and French versions were prepared. Finally,

following a pre-conference workshop on intellectual freedom in Banff in 1966, reported

to be one of the most dynamic sessions in the history of the CLA, 14 a statement on

intellectual freedom was passed by the 21s< Annual Conference of the Canadian Library

Association - Association Canadienne des Bibliothèques in Calgary.15

This statement was the first documented Canadian library charter. The statement

asserted, for example, that "Intellectual Freedom is essential to the health and

development of society," and that "Libraries have a primary role to play in the

maintenance and nurture of intellectual freedom." 16 Hulse observed, "Though arrived at

through a different process a number of years later and expressed in a broader

philosophical context, this statement was in some ways the charter of library rights that

had been proposed in the early 1950s. It defined the place of libraries and librarians in

40
Canadian society, a society derived from a rich and varied racial, religious and cultural

heritage."17

In March 1968, the CLA Council approved a decision to create two national library

organizations. The CLA was to be the English speaking organization and the Association

Canadienne des Bibliothécaires de Langue Française (founded as the Association

Catholique des Bibliothèques d'Institutions in 1943 and renamed in 1948) to be the

French counterpart.18 Over the next several years, the Intellectual Freedom Committee

underwent various incarnations and was finally newly minted in 1973. The new

Intellectual Freedom Committee soon became involved in "countering a campaign by the

Church of Scientology to remove several works critical of it from libraries." Following a

campaign of "data collection, consultation with association counsel, the issuing of an

advisory memorandum prepared for the association by the committee, and an active

media information" the Church of Scientology abandoned its censorship effort in the fall

of 1974.19 This issue served to raise the awareness of the CLA membership that

intellectual freedom was a concern. The Intellectual Freedom Committee capitalized on

this growing interest by drafting a new statement on intellectual freedom.

On June 27, 1974, the CLA adopted its Statement on Intellectual Freedom at the annual

conference in Winnipeg. In two years time, it was followed by an important sister

document, the Code of Ethics Position Statement, in 1976. Since 1976, as explored more

fully below, the two documents have been inextricably linked. Thus, historically,

41
intellectual freedom has been at the heart of Canadian library philosophy and its

accompanying ethical framework.

Contemporary Rhetoric

The CLA Statement on Intellectual Freedom

On June 27, 1974 the CLA's Executive Council approved a new Statement on Intellectual

Freedom, based on the 1966 statement. The Statement on Intellectual Freedom was

subsequently amended twice; once on November 17, 1983 and again on November 18,

1985. It now reads as follows:

"All persons in Canada have the fundamental right, as embodied in the nation's Bill of

Rights and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, to have access to all

expressions of knowledge, creativity and intellectual activity, and to express their

thoughts publicly. This right to intellectual freedom, under the law, is essential to the

health and development of Canadian society.

Libraries have a basic responsibility for the development and maintenance of intellectual

freedom.

It is the responsibility of libraries to guarantee and facilitate access to all expressions of

knowledge and intellectual activity, including those which some elements of society may

42
consider to be unconventional, unpopular or unacceptable. To this end, libraries shall

acquire and make available the widest variety of materials.

It is the responsibility of libraries to guarantee the right of free expression by making

available all the library's public facilities and services to all individuals and groups who

need them.

Libraries should resist all efforts to limit the exercise of these responsibilities while

recognizing the right of criticism by individuals and groups.

Both employees and employers in libraries have a duty, in addition to their institutional

responsibilities, to uphold these principles. "20

In its final directive, the Statement on Intellectual Freedom assigns responsibility to the

"institutional foundations" of the practice of individuals. 21 To support this rhetoric, in

June, 1974, the CLA Council passed a three-part resolution (subsequently carried by

membership at the Annual General Meeting) outlining a series of measures that would

ensure funding, legal assistance, and other supports for Association members who

became involved in cases of "alleged infringement of intellectual freedom." 22

Part one of the resolution resolved that the CLA's Executive Director "be empowered to

act immediately on the Association's behalf when cases of alleged infringement of the

intellectual freedom of members are brought to its attention." Part two called for the

43
"establishment, funding and administration of a separate legal defence fund for the use of

members of the Association who require legal assistance during their involvement in

cases where their intellectual freedom has been infringed." And part three resolved that a

collection of relevant materials on "intellectual freedom and its legal aspects in Canada"

be made available in the Association's offices, and that, perhaps most importantly, "in the

event that suit involving intellectual freedom is brought against any member or members,

that CLA provide funds and legal assistance for said member." 23

The importance of this tripartite resolution cannot be overestimated. As American

librarians John Buschman and Mark Rosenzweig have asserted more recently in another

context, if librarians are "individually and collectively exposed to risk without adequate

support, then the larger public freedom the profession seeks to protect is undermined." 24

South of the border, American librarians " threatened with loss of employment or

discharged because of their stand for the cause of intellectual freedom, including the

promotion of freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and the freedom of librarians to

select for their collections from all the world's written and recorded information" can

draw on the LeRoy C. Merritt Humanitarian Fund. 25 This fund, however, is not an ALA

fund.

Currently, should a Canadian librarian become involved in a case of alleged infringement

of her or his intellectual freedom, there are three key points to consider: (1) librarians in

Canada are not legislatively controlled and protected, (2) most Canadian librarians are

44
Other documents randomly have
different content
accompany them to the nearest point on the river Seine, by which
Eleazar had determined to reach Troyes. Danger was everywhere,
but he felt safe and less likely to be observed in a boat on a river. As
they went through the gate, the young Roman officer was there,
commanding the guard. He saw them at once, and this time came
forward and asked if he could render them any assistance.
“Surely,” he said, “you are not going forth on the track of the
enemy across this waste land?”
Eleazar was disposed to resent any interference with his private
affairs, but he dared not refuse to state whither and on what errand
they were going.
“We must needs go hence without delay,” he said; “but we are
only poor folk, and our poverty will be our best protection against
plunder. In a short time we hope to be safe amongst friends.”
Marius, the young Roman, felt he had no right to inquire further.
Besides, what protection had he to offer? Already a portion of the
Roman and Gothic armies had left in pursuit of the retreating Huns,
and that day the rest were to follow, leaving Orleans to repair her
own walls and defend herself. Therefore, though with a sore heart,
and much perplexed as to the relations between the fair-haired
youth and maiden and the dark, Oriental-looking old man, he let the
little company pass on. To direct attention to them might, he felt,
only increase their peril, but he watched them far across the
desolate plain, until the little band disappeared from his sight on the
edge of a forest.
Eleazar was well versed in making his way through perils. They
rather avoided the imperial roads, and crept along through by-ways.
As it happened, their present peril was rather from hunger than from
robbery, so thoroughly had the Huns ravaged the land and
massacred or hunted away the inhabitants. By day they travelled
miles without seeing a human being. The green corn had been cut
down for the cattle; the vineyards were a tangle of scarred and
broken stems; the husbandmen and vine-dressers had fled no one
knew whither. The June sunshine shone down on a broad waste of
trampled desert. All along the way, moreover, there were ghastlier
traces of the invasion; unburied corpses lying by the wayside in
heaps, or one by one, smitten down in their flight; and at night,
when they sought shelter behind the walls of some burnt village,
only the dogs gathered round them—cowed, lean, hungry dogs,
whom the Irish deer-hound for the most part frightened away—poor
famished dogs, finding terrible food in the human bones scattered
around the ruined homes.
Only one night did they happen to find any traces of the
inhabitants. It was the last day before they reached the banks of the
Seine. They had encamped for the night on the edge of a forest, and
spread their rugs and garments on the ground inside the ruined
walls of a hovel. In the middle was a hole full of ashes, and on these
still lay some charred chestnuts. Outside was a stone trough by a
little spring, which bubbled up and trickled into it; a broken pitcher
had been left beside it. In a corner of the little ruined home Ethne
discovered a rude wooden cradle and a child’s rattle. When she saw
it she burst into an uncontrollable fit of weeping. When Miriam tried
to comfort her in this rare burst of emotion, “Where, where is the
poor mother?” was all she could say, “and the little child?”
When she recovered, and had begun with Baithene to gather
chips for the fire among the trees near at hand, they heard a faint
hushed wail near them, as if some one were trying to soothe the
cries of a child. Creeping softly on into the forest, they came on a
little family group, an old man and a young woman, with two
children crying for hunger. Something in Ethne’s face and voice
always made people trust her, and to her delight she found she
understood what they were saying to each other.
“They are of the Bagaudæ!” she said to Baithene. “The poor
oppressed peasants of our own race!” and she insisted on bringing
them all to the hovel.
Eleazar was not altogether pleased at this addition to the family
circle; but Miriam welcomed them as her father Abraham might of
old. The fire was lit, and cakes of flour were laid on it, and shared
with the hungry peasants. The children were evidently quite at
home. They ran up to the cradle, and for the moment all their
sorrows were blotted out at the discovery of their own lost toys; and
soon all slept, except Ethne and the mother, who held a whispered
conversation.
“What will you do to-morrow night?” Ethne asked, a royal instinct
of providing for others always deep in her heart.
“Perhaps we may creep back home again,” the woman said.
At first she seemed afraid to say more; but no one could hesitate
long to confide in Ethne. And soon her story came out.
“The Huns are gone,” Ethne said, “and the Romans and Goths are
pursuing them.”
But that scarcely seemed to comfort the poor mother. She
explained that though the Huns were their worst enemies, as they
destroyed their crops and burnt their homes, still, whoever ruled,
they, the peasants, were always slaves, sure to be compelled to
work as hard and live on as little as possible, whether the masters
were Goths or Romans; and it seemed that in some respects the
Roman tax-gatherers were the worst oppressors of all, because they
understood best how to wring out the last farthing.
Then, seeing Ethne’s sympathetic distress, she took to comforting
her in turn, and confided to her that her husband and the men of
the family were in hiding not far off, and that they had little secret
storehouses of fruits and grain. She told her also of a wonderful old
man, who lived alone in a cave of the forest, and spoke of the good
Lord and Saviour, and baptized the little ones and taught them, and
sometimes gathered them together for the Holy Eucharist. And so
Ethne was comforted.
At last they reached the river Seine, and found a few frightened
boatmen willing to row them up to Troyes, which they reached in
safety on the fourth evening after they left Orleans. There Eleazar
found his friends, but received a scant welcome.
 “Why came you hither?” they said. “Of what use is it to be at the
meeting-place of roads going in every direction, when the stations
on all the roads are abandoned, and many of the roads themselves
broken up? The Huns are pushing on through the country. Some of
their horsemen galloped past the town yesterday, and to-morrow we
may be overwhelmed by the whole flying host.”
The wilful old man was convinced for once that he had made a
mistake, but he said—
“Who can say which way is the worst? Southward are the Romans
and Goths, victorious; here are the Huns, defeated. The victorious
Romans are as bad for us to encounter as the defeated Tartars. Little
choice for us between heathen vanquished and Christian victors.
What will the citizens of Troyes do?”
“We have no defence,” was the grim reply. “Troyes has no walls.”
“Why then,” said Eleazar, “do you not all take flight at once?”
“Troyes has a Bishop,” was the reply; “a great saint, who is
clothed in rough raiment, and lives on nothing, they say, like our
Elijah. He is called Lupus. The people believe in him; they believe
the city is walled around by his prayers.”
“Another Anianus! another living saint!” murmured Ethne, turning
with shining eyes on her brother. “We shall be saved, but I wonder
how!”
Eleazar’s acquaintance resumed—
“It is strange; it makes one think of our old histories in spite of
oneself. It is like Elisha and his wall of fire.”
Miriam’s face quivered with emotion.
“The God of Elisha is living,” she sighed, “and surely He is never
far off.”
Eleazar made no reply but a despairing groan, and went out to
find a safe hiding-place for his chests. But when Miriam and he were
alone together again he said reproachfully—
 “Thinkest thou the angels of God will build walls of fire around
these Gentiles? As they have done unto us so shall it be done unto
them.”
“I know not,” was Miriam’s reply. “I was thinking of the old words,
‘Should I not spare Nineveh, the great city, wherein are more than
six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right
hand and their left, and also much cattle?’”
“But that,” said Eleazar, “is in the Book of Jonah, a wonderful and
mysterious apologue, which it is dangerous for the people who know
not the law, especially for women, to interpret.”
That evening Ethne reminded Baithene that a monk of Tours had
given them on the second tablet a letter to Lupus, Bishop of Troyes
—the very man whose prayers, as Eleazar’s acquaintance had said,
made a wall of fire round the city.
Eleazar had found the introduction to Bishop Anianus of Orleans
too satisfactory for him to refuse that the captives should make use
of this second tablet. The next morning, therefore, Ethne and
Baithene went to the church to present their introduction. The good,
aged Bishop himself lay prostrate before the altar in sackcloth and
ashes. After a time he rose, lifted his hands in benediction, and went
forth through the streets at the head of a procession of clergy and
people, also in penitential robes of sackcloth, with ashes on their
heads, chanting litanies. Ethne and Baithene followed. They had
been impressed by the power and light in the sunken eyes and on
the worn and hollow face of the Bishop; but they had little hope of
getting near the holy man himself, until, as he entered his own door,
they saw him pause on the threshold, that the poor mothers might
draw near for him to lay his hands on their children and bless them.
Then Ethne and Baithene ventured to press near, and present him
with the old monk’s tablet. It was at once accepted with a gracious
welcome, and the brother and sister were led into the house, and
committed to the care of an aged priest.
 “Alas! my children,” he said, “I fear you have come to the very den
of the lion. Attila and the Huns are at our doors; walls and gates we
have none. This very morning the tramp of the host has been heard,
and the Bishop is to lead us forth in solemn procession to plead with
Attila for mercy. Perhaps you will help us more by your prayers than
we can help you.”
It was indeed too true. The savage cries of the horsemen, the
heavy grind of the wagons, all the signs of the advance of the
savage horde, with which they had grown so terribly familiar during
the siege of Orleans, were around them again, growing louder and
louder, nearer and nearer, every hour. And there was absolutely no
defence; no walls, no garrison, nothing but a multitude of unwarlike
citizens, with the women and children; absolutely no defence but
faith and prayer.
When the brother and sister returned to Eleazar, they found him
far more gentle than usual, and reproaching himself.
“Miriam, my wife,” he said, “I have brought you all into this den of
lions, and I am no Daniel; and I had no command to come!”
As he spoke, a procession of clergy drew near in white robes, and
at the head the aged Bishop in full sacerdotal vestments. Slowly they
advanced, chanting the psalms of Eleazar’s own people, in Latin,
David’s familiar Miserere, “In the multitude of Thy mercies, blot out
my iniquities.” And the old Jew reverently bent his head, swept away
on the tide of prayer. It seemed also as if some individual arrow had
pierced his own conscience, for as the captives followed the
procession, and he was left alone with his wife, he said to her—
“I had no call to come hither; no call to make slaves of these
children! Miriam, what is driving me hither and thither through the
earth? Surely there is the child; we shall find her; we will ransom her
and make her all a child of our house has a right to be. It is for her I
am striving and bargaining, and wandering like Cain to and fro
through the earth. But is it of the Lord? Or can it be that the
Adversary is hunting me hither and thither by his enchantments?”
 Then, after some hesitation, Miriam ventured to say, in a voice
quivering with emotion—
“Have you not told me, my beloved, that there is an idol, an
enchantment, an enchanter, a thing, a demon, called Mammon?”
“It may be,” he replied, with a startled look of horror, as one half-
waking from a nightmare. “But however that may be, this Bishop has
the look of an Elijah. Let us go in and pray!”
Slowly the procession moved on with the Bishop at its head, and
closely following him, a young deacon called Nemorius, clasping to
his breast the book of the Gospels bound in gold. Numbers of the
townspeople were following. Ethne returned to Miriam, but Baithene
was swept on in the tide.
Close on the outskirts of the town they encountered the advance-
guard of the host pressing on to the plunder of the city. The nimble
brown men with the swift horses, which were as part of themselves,
wheeled around them. Javelins were raised to hurl at them, spears
were pointed, with the fierce howls and cries which seemed to have
caught the tone of the wild beasts of the desert. Nor were these
aimless, unmeaning menaces. Even while the procession advanced
towards the enemy, Attila had given the order to cut them all down.
Nemorius the young deacon fell pierced to death, with his golden
Gospels still clasped to his breast; and many sank wounded or dead
beside him. It seemed as if there would be a general massacre. But
still the old Bishop Lupus pressed on, until he reached Attila; and
then, something in the venerable figure and the worn, aged face,
with its fire undimmed by the seventy years, something in the man
himself, seemed suddenly to impress the fierce and haughty
conqueror who had insulted emperors without fear, and had
destroyed cities and devastated provinces without mercy.
Attila gave order for the carnage to cease, and at a nod, at a look
from him, javelins were lowered, spears were couched, the eager
war-horses were held in check, and the procession with the white-
haired Bishop in his priestly robes stood still, surrounded by the
checked host of foes, confronting the Desolator of nations.
It was as if a raging sea had been arrested at full tide, each
foaming wave frozen into stillness in the curve of its breaking.
What was said in that wonderful interview can scarcely be known.
Few who could understand were near enough to hear.
It was rumoured afterwards that Attila himself claimed to be “the
Scourge of God,” and that the Bishop with lofty meekness replied—
“If thou art the Scourge of God, chasten us as much as the Hand
that holds thee permits.”
Probably this was merely a dramatic echo in words of the deed
done. Whatever was said, what was felt and done cannot be denied.
Troyes was no Rome guarded by the glory of centuries and the
magic of a great name. It was an unhistorical, unwalled town, such
as Attila had burned and sacked by scores. The Bishop bore no great
title such as he could have heard of; it was simply the man, the
saint, the man of God that moved him,—moved him not merely to
turn aside from an intended enterprise, but to curb his fierce hosts
in the full career of plunder and slaughter; a host that was not
composed only of his own people, but of the fiercer and more
lawless elements of the Gothic tribes, and of Alans and Vandals. One
stipulation only the leader of that savage host made; and the
stipulation was almost a greater tribute to the Bishop’s character and
influence than the granting of his request. Attila said he would spare
the city on one condition, that the aged Bishop should leave it and
accompany him and his hordes to the Rhone. Perhaps he meant it as
a test of the saint’s courage and sincerity. If so, they stood the test.
The old man yielded himself up to Attila, and the procession, with
the grateful citizens, returned to the rescued city. Perhaps some of
them felt that they owed their deliverance to a double sacrifice: the
aged Bishop, who offered up his life amidst the perils of the hostile
army; and the young deacon, who had laid it down pierced by their
spears.
 Silently Baithene re-entered the dwelling where his sister awaited
him with Eleazar and Miriam.
“Has anything come of this bearding of the lion?” Eleazar asked.
“Everything,” Baithene replied. “The Bishop has given himself up
to the Huns, and the city is saved.”
“In the lion’s den!” said Eleazar, bowing his head and hiding his
face.
“With Him Who can stop the mouths of the lions,” murmured
Miriam.
“With the Creator of the lions!” said Ethne. “He made everything
good, they told us in Ireland. Even the lions! Even Attila is not only a
destroyer.”
Afterwards, when they were alone, she said to Baithene—
“Who can tell what even Attila might have been if the Christians
he met had all been saints!”
“He seems to have a wonderful eye for a saint,” Baithene
admitted. “But we must pray hard for the Bishop.”
“I do not believe Attila will hurt a hair of his head,” rejoined Ethne.
“He is, after all, nothing worse than a Hun, and I cannot forget the
poor ugly brown head that I had to hold, or the kind dying eyes that
looked into mine.”
 CHAPTER XI.
A FIELD OF SLAUGHTER, AND A FOUNTAIN OF
YOUTH.

o the flood of destruction was turned aside from Troyes,

and swept on to the deadly encounter with the armies
of Rome and her allies, under the command of Aetius
the great Roman general, and Theodoric the Gothic
king, in the Catalaunian plains near Châlons.
The great shock of the battle of the nations (the Hunnenschlacht)
came at last.
It was said that before the battle, Attila had a solemn consultation
in his tent with his augurs, and by various methods of divination
they warned him of disaster, but said that a great leader of his foes
would fall on the field; and that Attila, believing that this leader must
be Aetius, deemed that the loss of thousands would be compensated
by the death of that one. Probably personal resentment also may
have entered into his dislike of Aetius, once a hostage among the
Huns, and afterwards their ally.
But whether the battle was forced on him or chosen by him, and
how it began, none seem able to say. The confusion that hangs
about the story of great battles does not begin with gunpowder;
blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke, and the dust of the arena
hang in blinding clouds around them all. And this conflict on the
plains between Troyes and Châlons was one of the great critical
battles of the world. A little shallow runnel of water, it was said,
became a great torrent of blood on that fatal field. Three hundred
thousand were left there dead. “A battle ruthless, manifold,
immense, obstinate,” fought on from the afternoon into the night. In
the morning after it the Romans and the Gothic allies, left in
possession of the field, strewn with corpses, saw that the Huns did
not return to the fight, but kept encamped behind their wagons,
where they had fled for shelter. This was all the proof they had of
victory. The battle was scarcely won; but the Huns were gone, and
they were suffered to go unpursued. Gone as it proved for ever;
from Gaul and all Teutonic Europe. But of that no man then could be
sure.
Marius wrote on the morrow of the battle—“The messengers are
to start for Rome at once. Fortunately only my left hand is wounded,
and that but slightly, and so I can write. The battle is won; or at
least it is over. The battle-field and the dead are left to us. The Huns
are behind their wagons. Theodoric, the brave old Gothic king, is
slain. Some say Attila would have been content to lose the battle if
Aetius had fallen, as he thought the augurs promised. But Aetius
lives and diplomatizes still. And the heroic old Goth is dead—a hero
and king to the last. Unmindful of his threescore years, I saw him
galloping to and fro, cheering on his people to the fight, when he
was thrown from his horse, and fell under the feet of the advancing
horsemen. They are searching now for his body among the heaps of
slain who died around their king.
“They say Attila in leading on his hosts bade them despise our
Roman forces with the ancient defensive array of the shields locked
into the testudo, and make their onset on the young nations who
could not only defend themselves but assail. ‘Cut the sinew and the
limbs will relax,’ he cried. ‘Him who is fated to conquer no dart will
touch; him who is doomed to die Fate will find amidst the sloth of
peace.’ He might have spared his taunts to us Romans. Romans or
barbarians, who could say who fought best when all fought with the
hope of beating back the flood of destruction for ever, and with the
certainty that if it were not beaten back, it would overwhelm them
all? It was no conflict between machines and battering-rams and
Roman walls, but between flesh and blood, fierce and desperate
men fighting hand to hand for life or death. They say three hundred
thousand lives were lost upon this fatal field; three hundred
thousand souls there passed away—whence or whither, who can
say? Every kind of weapon was there—javelin, spear, huge Tartar
bow, Roman shield and sword; amidst the din of every kind of
language. Never, I should think, could confusion have been greater;
and to confusion of tongues, before the battle ended, was added the
bewilderment of darkness. We began at three o’clock, and the
conflict raged on through the night. Aetius himself strayed in the
dark amongst the Huns, whose language, fortunately for him, he
knew. And yet, in spite of the confusion of tribes and tongues, the
issue is clear, clearer I think than the issue of battles can often be.
For it is, at bottom, the conflict of civilization with barbarism, of hope
with despair, of building with destroying, of order with anarchy, of
heathenism with Christianity, of life with death; and in the main,
civilization, order, hope, Christianity, life, have won the day.
“At this moment I hear the death-wail of the Goths around the
body of their king. They think they have rescued the royal corpse
from the heap of slain beneath which it lay.
“Still the Huns keep behind their wagons. Attila their king is
among them; but around him there is no shout as for a king.
“The field is won; the host of the Huns, the great flood of
devastation, is ebbing back to its deserts. God grant it be for ever.
“It seems decided that we make no pursuit, but let the flood ebb
away beyond the Rhone. To-morrow I go southward with a
detachment to Troyes. Farewell.”

All the day of the great battle tidings kept flowing in to Troyes.
None ventured beyond the city, for the battle was said to be raging
not more than five miles away. There was indeed no roll of the
thunder of guns; but the echo of distant tumult came faintly now
and then through the hush of the July afternoon.
Troyes knew that her Bishop was there. Who could say that if the
battle were lost, vengeance might not fall on his head? But if Attila
won, all was lost.
 All day prayer went up ceaselessly in the churches, but mostly in
silence, or following the low litanies of the choir, so heavy was the
weight of suspense.
A confusion of contradictory rumours reached the city: first it was
reported that the Romans had won the height on which all might
depend; then that Theodoric the great King of the Visigoths was
slain. After that fell the darkness. And through the night people took
refuge in the churches, and silent prayer went up; until at last, in the
quiet dawn of the July morning, came the news that the battle was
over, that Attila and his Huns had fled behind their wagons, and that
the Roman army held the field. Soon came the further news that
Attila and his host were retreating towards the Rhone, carrying
Bishop Lupus with them. The city and the land were saved from the
destroyer, but who could answer for the saintly life so freely offered
up for the people?
To Ethne and Baithene the city, in a sense they themselves,
seemed orphaned afresh; and in their different ways and words, the
little group of four, Irish and Hebrew, poured out their hearts
together for the prophet still in the den of lions.
There was much to be done for the crippled and wounded who
were borne in from time to time from the battle. Baithene went out
with the wagons to carry them in; Ethne was again among the
deaconesses and consecrated virgins, succouring the wounded.
Late in the evening Baithene came with a cart to the door of the
house where Eleazar was sojourning; he asked to be allowed to
bring in a young Roman officer who had recognized him. True to the
hospitality of their race and their religion, Eleazar and Miriam would
not refuse. Was not Abraham, “the father of the faithful,” also the
“father of guests”? Had he not received the heathen stranger into his
house? yet had not the Almighty been more merciful than Abraham,
rebuking the patriarch for not tolerating the imperfect worship of his
heathen guest? The Romans had indeed destroyed Jerusalem, but
this wounded Roman must be welcomed as a guest from God, and
the guest-chamber was made ready for him.
 The stranger was Marius, whose wounds were more severe than
he had chosen to report in his letters to his family.
For the first day he lay quite still, weak from loss of blood; but
Miriam’s homely skill in nursing and preparing food for the sick
proved of good service, and on the third morning he was able to
creep out with Baithene and Ethne to the church. On the way they
told him of the rescue of Troyes from the plunder of Attila’s host
through the intercession of Lupus, and how the aged Bishop had
given himself up to the Huns for his people.
By degrees the whole story of the Irish captives became clear to
him: the baptism by Patrick, the father’s rank as a chieftain among
his people, their capture by British pirates, their hearing of the letter
of Patrick to Coroticus, their purchase by Eleazar the Jew, their
interview with the friendly monk at Tours, and his letters to Bishop
Anianus of Orleans and Bishop Lupus of Troyes.
His heart went out to them as captive nobles, in their own land of
a house as ancient as his own; as in unjust bondage to a Hebrew,
yet so far legally his, that except legally they could not be set free;
and above all as Christians, Catholic Christians of the old faith, yet in
some way of the old faith in a new way, so fervent, and simple, and
unaware of all the controversies that had for many worn its poetry
into prose; glowing with a Christian faith that seemed in some
unspeakable way steeped anew in the freshness of dawn, baptized
into the death and life of Christ the Lord. So, during those days in
the house together, the sweet household way and gracious services
of Ethne stole into his inmost heart and took possession of it before
he was aware. She was like his mother, yet unlike, as the rose of
dawn to the tender glow of evening.
At last the day came when Marius had to leave with his
detachment. The day before he left he was trying to console Ethne
for the loss of Bishop Lupus.
“He is not lost,” she said, with a triumphant smile in her dark-grey
eyes. “Attila will not harm him.”
 “Your heart has room even for the Hun,” he replied, remembering
his first sight of her beside the dying boy at Orleans.
“The Huns are terrible heathen, I fear,” she said, “but they do
seem to know the saints of God when they see them. At least they
are not what Patrick calls apostate Christians.”
“No,” he replied, very gravely. “Attila does seem to recognize a
saint; and, alas! he has seen so many apostate or unworthy
Christians. Think of Chrysaphius, the minister of the Emperor of the
East, trying to bribe Attila’s own ambassadors and friends, and to
assassinate him treacherously; and think of Attila finding it out, yet,
when the embassy charged with the base project came to him in his
camp beyond the Danube, being magnanimous enough to
distinguish between the villains who planned the treachery, and the
envoys who were sent to carry it out without knowing what they
were doing. It was not like an ordinary savage to let one of that
embassy escape.”
Ethne sighed.
“How indeed was Attila to know that to be a Christian means to
love good and hate evil? The Huns are not devils; for the devils did
wrong when they knew what they were doing. And how were the
Huns to know? And even if they were devils,” she added, “Patrick
has taught us the Name before which the devils fly.”
“In the Creed?” he said.
“In the Creed,” she replied, “and in Patrick’s own hymn.”
“What is Patrick’s hymn?” he asked.
“I thought all Christians knew Patrick’s hymn,” she said, with some
surprise, and she began to chant softly some of her beloved Irish
lorica and “breastplate.”
“But I do not know your language,” he said.
Ethne translated—“‘Christ at my right hand, at my left; Christ in
the fort, in the battle, on the sea; by the way, at the end.’ Is it not
sure to be so with all Christians? Is it not sure to be so with the holy
Bishop Lupus?”
He hesitated a moment, and then said—
“Christ our Lord suffers some very hard things to happen to His
Christians.”
“I know. We were told so,” she answered. “He said so. But the
hymn says He is with us on all the ways, however rough; and
certainly always at the end, however dark.”
He was silent. Her faith and hope were stealing like sunshine into
his heart, but, like the sunshine, silently.
“I am going with my soldiers,” he said, after a pause, “to keep
them from oppressing the poor peasants. The Huns have robbed
them of nearly everything, and an army of hungry men following the
Huns must not be suffered to take the little that is left.”
“I know,” she said, with a flash of quick sympathy; “the Huns are
not the only robbers. The people seem to suffer everywhere, from
every one. Baithene has heard them say the misery was there long
before the Huns came. There are the tax-gatherers and the slave-
masters everywhere.”
“Everywhere,” Marius replied, “and always.”
“And you will help the oppressed and save them from the
oppressors?” she said, her whole face lighting up, the royal heart
going forth to the poor and the down-trodden.
“I will try,” he said; “I am going back to Rome.”
“They are taking us there also,” she said; and she parted from him
with a smile which was to him as an illumination from heaven.
He wrote to his sister—“The wound was worse than I knew. But I
have had tender care and nursing in the house of a Jew called
Eleazar, from his wife Miriam, and from two young Christian captives,
and I am quite strong again. And, beloved, I think I have found the
Fountain of Youth at last; and I hope may bring some drops to thee
also. Tell my mother of these two young Christian captives, son and
daughter of a king or chieftain from the farthest West, the Scottish-
land, Hibernia, the island Rome never conquered. They were
kidnapped by British pirates, and bought by Eleazar, an aged Jew,
who with his wife Miriam lives at Rome, and is taking them thither.
They must be ransomed. Farewell.”
 CHAPTER XII.
ST. PATRICK’S CHILDREN IN ST. LEO’S CITY.

reat was the exultation in Rome at the news of the

victory on the Catalaunian plains, the defeat of Attila,
and his retreat with his Huns to their camps beyond the
Danube.
The echo of the triumph soon reached the quiet portico of the
palace on the Aventine, where Damaris and Lucia were sitting
together in the hush of a July noon. Fabricius came in with the
news.
“Attila is in retreat; there has been a battle, with the slaughter of
hundreds of thousands, and here is a letter for thee.”
It was the one Marius had written from the battle-field. In a few
days followed the second from Troyes. It was to Lucia, and she read
it as they sat together in the quiet evening.
“‘The wound was worse than I knew.’”
“I felt sure of that,” said the mother.
“‘But I have had tender care and nursing in the house of a Jew
called Eleazar, from his wife Miriam and two young Christian
captives.’”
“In the house of a Jew!” exclaimed Fabricius, doubtfully. “God
grant they dealt fairly by him. The Jews have many wrongs to
avenge on us and ours.”
Lucia read on—“‘I am quite strong again,’” and then she paused a
moment before she proceeded, “‘I think I have found the Fountain
of Youth, and I hope to bring some drops home to thee.’”
 “A curious mixture of religions,” said Fabricius. “A Jew, and the old
Pagan fountain. What can he mean?”
“He means, I suppose,” said Lucia, “that the world around us
seems rather old, and that he has found among these new people
some freshness of new life.”
“I understand,” said Damaris.
Lucia read on—“‘Tell my mother of the two young Christian
captives, the son and daughter of a king or chieftain from the
farthest West, the land of the Scots, Hibernia, the island Rome never
conquered. They were kidnapped by British pirates, and bought by
the old Jew Eleazar, who, with his wife Miriam, lives at Rome, and is
taking them thither. They must be ransomed.’”
“It seems a very wild story,” said Fabricius. “Are you quite sure it is
from Marius?”
“Quite sure,” said Lucia; and she resumed, “There is a postscript.
He thinks the sister would be delightful to me, and that the brother
would be invaluable to our father on his lands among the Sabine
hills. There is also a dog, a deer-hound of the purest Scottish breed,
that he thinks would be priceless for the chase.”
“A wonderful treasure-trove, in good sooth,” said Fabricius, rather
grimly. “A dog, two captives to ransom, and a Fountain of Youth.”
Afterwards he said to his wife when they were alone,
“Dilectissima, understandest thou what this means? Art thou ready
to have thy youth renewed by a daughter-in-law from the Scottish
wilds?”
“We will wait and see,” she replied. “Marius is no dreamer. If he
thinks he has found a treasure, I believe he has.”
“The Scots are many of them Pelagian heretics,” Fabricius replied,
not without malice.
“Then we must bring them under the instruction of our Pope Leo,”
she said. “We will wait and see.”
 They had not long to wait. The very next evening Damaris and
Lucia were in their lectica, with its purple curtains and golden
lattices, on the great road leading northward, when they met a little
company of four, walking beside two strong, heavily-laden mules.
The old man who led the way, walking alone, had the dark, Oriental
colouring and aquiline features which they recognized as Hebrew.
Behind him walked two women, with veils drawn around the head
and shoulders, one dark and stooping slightly with age, the other tall
and young and fair, with a sweet light in the grey eyes which met
those of Damaris. Behind them came a fair, athletic young man,
holding a powerful deer-hound in leash.
Damaris and Lucia looked significantly at each other. They would
have followed the strangers, but their horses had suddenly changed
their pace, and were galloping towards the hills, rocking the heavy
carriage (or highly-decorated wagon) from side to side. The mother
and daughter had not a doubt that, as in a momentary flash of
lightning, they had seen the group described in Marius’ letter. As
they drove on they met a troop of the slaves of the Imperial
household.
Meantime in the opposite direction the little company they had
met entered the gate of the city, and were passed by the same troop
of the Imperial household.
The officer who was at the head of the band of slaves seemed
struck by the four travellers, so contrasted in types of face and
figure, and yet so evidently belonging to each other. Especially he
fixed his eyes on the fair face of Ethne, the athletic form of Baithene,
and the dog of the much-prized Irish breed. After he had passed
them he turned back, and asked Eleazar where he lived, and if the
dog was to be purchased, and said he might look in some day and
inquire about it.
Something in the officer’s look and bearing made Ethne look down
and draw closer to Miriam, and Baithene look up defiantly and throw
his arm around the dog, whilst the dog pricked up his ears, and gave
a suspicious low growl.
 When they reached Eleazar’s lodging at the top of a tall house on
the further side of the Tiber, where many of his countrymen
congregated, and had separated into their different rooms for the
night, Ethne said to her brother—
“Have you the tablet the Roman soldier at Troyes gave us for his
mother and father, who live in a palace on one of these hills?”
“Surely,” he said; “why do you ask?”
“I can scarcely say why,” she answered, with a shiver. “But this
great Rome seems to me lonelier than the sea, and stranger than
our first step into a strange land, and more like a den of lions than
besieged Orleans or the camp of the Huns. The people look at us so
strangely, as if we were foreign animals, or pieces of merchandise
for sale.”
“And we are!” moaned Baithene.
“Let us say the paternoster and Patrick’s hymn,” she rejoined, “and
try and go to sleep.” But they slept little.
Nor did Miriam and Eleazar sleep much better.
“Dost thou know that man with the sinister face,” she said, “who
spoke to thee about the dog to-day?”
“No,” he replied, “save that he is of the Imperial household, and
must not be offended.”
“He must be escaped,” she replied decidedly. “It is not the dog
only that he wants, and he looks a son of Belial. The Imperial
household is said to be a sink of iniquity; we must never sell these
children into that.”
He was silent; heart and conscience were with her, but he
murmured sullenly—
“I told thee these Gentile strangers were no merchandise for us.”
“The God of the fatherless sent them to us,” she replied; “and our
own child is fatherless and motherless; and if we suffer God’s
orphans to be ruined, how are we to ask Him to care for our own?”
 “We are no princes now,” he answered, “to have young men and
maidens in our service, and beasts of the chase. What would you
do?”
“They have a tablet from that young Roman officer,” she said. “A
letter to his family in a palace on the Aventine.”
“What of that?” he grumbled.
“I will go to-morrow,” she said, “with the maiden, to see the lady
on the Aventine, the young Roman noble’s mother, and tell her all.
Perchance she will have compassion on these Christian captives, and
help them and us.”
“Thou wilt do what seemeth thee best,” he rejoined, in a tone of
oppressed acquiescence. “If we are ruined, we are ruined; and the
All-Merciful have mercy on thee and our lost child.”
Miriam, having gained her point, was too wise to prolong the
debate and imperil the victory, which was, she well knew, the victory
of his own conscience, by the most brilliant or devout retort.
So the next morning early she gently tapped at the door of the
rooms where the young captives were, and said—
“Put on thy raiment quietly, my daughter, and bring the tablet the
young Roman gave thee, and come with me, and let thy brother and
the dog follow close behind.”
In the dusk of the morning they crossed the Tiber, and gliding
along the silent quays at the foot of the Aventine, climbed from their
level between the walls of the vineyard and palace gardens till they
reached the gate of the house of Fabricius.
Eleazar came after them, and stood near them at the gate, in the
shadow, a little apart. One or two slaves were stirring, and seemed
at first determined not to heed them, but in a few minutes the
steward of the household appeared, and demanded what they
wanted at that unseasonable hour.
 “We want thee to bear this epistle instantly to thy lady,” said
Miriam; “it is from her son. He gave it us at the city of Troyes, far
away in Gaul, to bring hither to her.”
The steward looked doubtfully at the group, but nevertheless
accepted the tablet, went quickly into the house, and in a few
minutes returned with his young mistress. Lucia’s smile reassured
them.
“Does the matter press?” she asked.
“It presses sore,” was Miriam’s reply. “A few hours’ delay may
prove the ruin of two innocent lives.”
Lucia went instantly to her mother’s room.
“Mother,” she said, “it is the people we met yesterday, the people
who nursed Marius, with a letter from him.”
Together they glanced at the few words in the letter from Marius,
commending the fugitives to the care of his father and mother. In a
few minutes Damaris and Lucia received the strangers in the atrium.
Miriam asked to see Damaris apart, and few words of explanation
were needed between them.
“My husband purchased these captives on the coast of Gaul,” she
said. “They are noble. They were taken by pirates. They are
Christians. They are good. Lady, save them from becoming slaves in
the household of the Emperor. One of his people has seen them, and
is coming, I fear, to purchase them to-day.”
“It must not be,” said Damaris. “What would you have us do?”
“Ransom them, purchase them, lady; make them your own. They
belong to your Christ!”
“You are not Christian?” Damaris asked courteously.
“My family are of the tribe of Judah—of the family of your Christ.
Christians robbed us of all, of our only child. But I believe your Christ
was good.”
 Damaris looked into the dark, sad, Oriental eyes and read much
there. After a moment’s pause she took Miriam’s hand.
“You have pity on these captives,” she said tenderly, “as your great
prophets commanded you; you know the heart of a captive. You
have pity on this maiden for the sake of your own dead maiden
child.”
“Our daughter is not dead,” exclaimed Miriam, with a tremulous
voice. “But she is a captive, perhaps a slave, we know not where.
We search for her year after year. We pray for her night and day.
There is One Who lives and hears.”
“One Who sees and loves!” responded Damaris; “Who sees thee
caring for these His children, and I believe brings them through thee
to me. I will do all I can.”
She went straight to her husband, who was in consultation with
his steward, in his room of business. After dismissing the attendant,
she said,
“Fabricius, these captives, the friends of Marius, who helped to
save his life, are here. We shall have to ransom them at once.”
“My lady is imperious,” he replied, smiling, “and must of course be
obeyed. But where are the revenues? The taxes and imposts for
these wars are ruinous. Only just now the forester from our farms on
the Sabine hills has been telling me the slaves will not work. They
are probably meditating another flight to the barbarians, as in the
days of Alaric, and everything is going to ruin.
“We must sell some of our land,” she said.
“No one will buy,” he replied. “They say Attila the Hun will soon
return to avenge his defeat and ravage the country.”
“I will part with my jewels,” she said.
He made a deprecatory gesture, and said—
“I was but pointing out to thee we were not Olympians to
command the clouds, nor, alas! of those who found the tribute-
money miraculously stored in the mouths of fishes. What thou
commandest must certainly be done. But what can then be done
with the captives we shall have to see.”
They returned together to the atrium, and Fabricius, addressing
Baithene, said gravely—
“My son writes that thou art a prince in thine own land. I fear we
have too many princes here already to have much room for more.”
“I am no prince now,” said Baithene, raising his frank, fearless
eyes to Fabricius, “at least I have no kingdom and no subjects; and
what we call a kingdom in our country would perhaps seem but a
wilderness to thee.”
There was no complaining in his tone, simply the acknowledgment
of an unpleasant fact; and no defiance in his look, only a kind of
princely sense that nothing could rob him of his birthright, or change
what he was in himself, or prevent his conquering circumstances by
making the best of them.
The old Roman patrician was touched, he felt he had met an
equal; but all he said was—
“Thy dog, at all events, seems a prince of dogs.”
And Bran acknowledged the compliment by an acquiescent wag of
his tail.
Then turning to Miriam, Fabricius said—“I would see thy husband.”
“I will fetch him at once,” she replied. And without another word
she went and brought in Eleazar, who was still keeping guard outside
the gate.
Fabricius took the old man to his private room, and as a matter of
course there was some bargaining between them. The Roman noble
pleaded with much truth the badness of the times; the Jewish
merchant pleaded with much plausibility the poverty of his race, and
his own especial losses on this purchase. But the arrangement was
soon concluded; and Eleazar and Miriam returned alone to the tall
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