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October 13, 2004
catalogablog
I found this great Library related blog recently. Yesterday he blogged about talking about blogs, and I thought it was interesting. David Bigwood is a Librarian in Houston, Texas. If any of you are interested in Library cataloging, this is good stop. There are also links on his site to other blogs:
http://catalogablog.blogspot.com/
One attitude I find common in most librarians I meet is that Information should be free and accessible. To reach that ideal, information has to be organized so that it can be retrieved on demand.
At work today I found out that our company wants to lock up some information which is now accessible to anyone in our company on the intranet. They are doing this in the name of security against possible terrorist activities within our company. ?!? wow, are we taking a step backwards! Sometimes management only knows how to choke a company in a slow agonizing death. This idea of restricting access to our information, which is not secretive by any means, is contradictory to one of my major job responsibilities: To spread the use of our information throughout our company. How about instead of doing as management says and restricting access to those that are determined to have a "Need to Know," we trust our employees and hire employees we can trust. If we cannot trust our employees, should they be working for us? It's also funny to me that the people planning this lock-down have not consulted the person responsible for managing this information (me).
This brings me back to the topic I talked about a couple of days ago, "REPEAL THE USA PATRIOT ACT" One thing I'd like to add to this now, is the idea of living in fear verses living in love. How much energy do we waste when we base our decisions on fear? Fear creates more fear, and it's a downward spiral.
The next struggle for them will be to determine who has a "need to know" and to develop a plan for how to request and grant access to this information. (which is now available to everyone without hassle.)
Living in fear is a sad way to live. Some people think it's good, but that's because it gives them a sense of power over their world. We all try to control our worlds to some extent. It's like the early days of the internet. Our company also did not want to give employees access to the internet because they were afraid that employees would be browsing porn sites at work.
I agree with librarians. Information should be free. I also think that we as human beings should be free of fear. It starts with real love for each other.
Posted by carl1236 at October 13, 2004 06:57 PM | Attitude
Comments
I'm so impressed that someone who isn't a cataloger by profession finds Catalogablog worthwhile! I usually don't refer anyone other than librarians to it, but maybe it would be a good way for my friends and family to learn more about what I do all day.
Posted by: Stacie at October 13, 2004 07:24 PM