Facing the New Millennium: Values for the Electronic Information Age

“Human Response to Library Technology,”

“…While technology offers the capacity to improve both the efficiency and effectiveness of library work, it may be pushing us away from the allimportant theoretical base of our profession. Hisle (1998), in a guest editorial for College & Research Libraries, explains that: "Without a clear understanding of our core values and the unity of mission it brings, many aspects of the profession will suffer [including] our attempts to use tech nology to accomplish our goals" (p. 6). These core values he identifies as: an altruistic sense of service, dedication to intellectual freedom, recogniz ing reading as a way of understanding and investigating the world, and valuing research, extended study, and analysis for personal and profes sional growth.…”

Intellectual Freedom in Academic Libraries: Surveying Deans about Its Significance

“…As noted in the preamble, "a strong intellectual freedom perspective is critical to the development of academic library collections and services." 7 Likewise, in his editorial as the president of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), W. Lee Hisle (1998) argued that "intellectual freedom is a clear bedrock of our value system." 8 The literature about intellectual freedom in academic libraries is sparse, but there are three common strands: a relationship between academic freedom and intellectual freedom, the finding that academic libraries face fewer censorship challenges than public or school libraries, and the study of several specific topics related to intellectual freedom, such as Internet filtering and privacy of patron records.…”