dws@mit-eddie.UUCP (Don Saklad) (06/06/84)
Censorship has been the subject of an exhibition at the New York Public Library. The perennial issues are discussed, yet there's a lapse on the part of the library profession from my point of view. Too often, it seems, libraries fail to provide access to documentation on the library itself. Annual reports, minutes of public board meetings and training manuals aren't available to visitors and users at the library so that anyone would be able to gain as great facility locating and searching at the library as people who are there working all the time. In addition public meetings aren't open and posted so as to discourage any public oversight at some libraries. Libraries hold a reputation as institutions in our society and fail in their mandate if they are intimidated by requests for what they may consider in house documentation of public record rarely requested. Boston Public Library has failed in these ways. Someday meetings and documentation may be as available as other things there.