Hello All,

LIS educators respect and uphold academic freedom.* The library field has struggled to balance privacy issues and open records laws. Given this, I am very interested to know what LIS educators think of the current national debate on William Cronon (UW-Madison Frederick Jackson Turner and Vilas Research Professor of History, Geography, and Environmental Studies) and the Open Records Law request for emails from his university email account.

Abusing Open Records to Attack Academic Freedom
http://scholarcitizen.williamcronon.net/2011/03/24/open-records-attack-on-academic-freedom/

“...It is precisely this fear of intellectual inquiry being stifled by the abuse of state power that has long led scholars and scientists to cherish the phrase 'academic freedom' as passionately as most Americans cherish such phrases as 'free speech' and 'the First Amendment.'”

GOP fails to get all of professor's email:
University of Wisconsin chancellor cites academic freedom, privacy
By Don Walker of the [Milwaukee] Journal Sentinel 
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/119103214.html

Comments? Opinions?
Sherri

*"As LIS educators, we respect and uphold academic freedom and protect the freedom to learn and to teach."
ALISE Ethics Guidelines Statement
http://www.alise.org/mc/page.do?sitePageId=103911


Sharon McQueen

School of Library and Information Studies
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Room 4252 Helen C. White Hall
600 N. Park Street
Madison, WI  53706

Phone: (608) 205-2234
Fax: (608) 263-4849

https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/smcqueen/web/