Forwarded from the BCLA List:


Colleagues,

Yesterday the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions announced their endorsement of the "International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance" - text available here<https://en.necessaryandproportionate.org/text>.

This could represent a watershed moment for libraries and archives as we come to terms with trends in digital service provision that have profound - and deeply troubling - implications for our users, our professional values, and our societies.

Hopefully IFLA's principled stance on this will serve as encouragement for other individuals and professional organisations to endorse the Statement - and to take practical steps<http://beerbrarian.blogspot.ca/2013/10/data-and-surveillance-state-toward-new.html> closer to home to advance its aims.

There has been a lot of encouraging progress in this realm among our community, especially recently, but there is still much more to be done. To many of us, this announcement certainly represents a step in the right direction.

-M

P.S.The Statement also serves as a fairly elegant primer on the philosophical issues at stake; it is certainly worth a read.

--
Myron C. Groover
MA (Hons), MAS, MLIS
Information Policy Chair
British Columbia Library Association



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