The freedom to access and create information is the most important ethical consideration of a librarian’s work. This is true of both public and private librarians. Democracy depends upon an informed citizenry, which in turn depends upon the freedom of information. Whether librarians serve the public or a private organization, they should not seek to censor or repress the information that their users seek.
Individual information seekers in a democratic society must be held accountable for their own use of information. If librarians were liable for the information they help discover, intellectual freedom would be destroyed. Librarians would withhold information that isn’t necessarily “accurate” to save themselves from being punished in a court of law. This is true for private as well as public libraries, and would have particularly disastrous effects on research communities. Even in rigorous research environments, “accurate” information is not always the most valuable information. New scientific hypotheses, for instance, often disprove the accuracy of previously recorded information. Rather than worrying about information liability, librarians should be concerned with discovering “more” and “useful” information. Conflicting viewpoints are necessary to challenge existing hypothesis and promote stronger research.
Rachel
