I agree with Diana. But in my opinion, I believe that CILIP does have a
certain role in the ID card debate. Chris Armstrong's excellent Ex
Cathedra in eLucidate, to which he referred in his original email,
demonstrates that this debate is not just about politics. It is
fundamentally about information, and as some of us are *information*
professionals (as opposed to librarians) and as CILIP is the professional
association in the UK representing information professionals, so CILIP
ought to enable a forum to discuss these information issues.
Of course there are other associations like the BCS which have members with
valid professional opinions, but as this is a debate about information, so
information professionals have a responsibility to discuss the matter.
Legal and social and political experts have their own forums if they
believe there is an issue for them.
Chris's article also mentioned the information connection with DNA
sampling. This is another information issue - not *only* a political or
social or policing issue - on which those of us who are information
professionals could express professional opinions.
In my Ethically Speaking column in Information World Review (backpage,
April 2001) I commented: "One prominent information professional recently
failed to convince me that we should not get involved in the current debate
on the handling of human genetic information. Of course we must involve
ourselves, if not individually at least as a profession. The latest
consultation period by the UK's Human Genetics Commission ... ended in
February. Each of the nine main chapters in its discussion document ...
discussed practical and ethical issues in obtaining confidential personal
information, ownership of such information, use, re-use and storage of that
information, and a wide range of related topics which should have been at
the very least of some professional curiosity to most of us. How can we
distinguish between genetic information and almost any other type of
information: business, financial, government? It is an arrogant - or
blinkered - information professional who happily hands over responsibility
for such matters to the medicolegal profession. And yet neither of the two
main professional organisations in the UK (the LA or the IIS) made any
representation to the HGC."
In other words, CILIP and its members do have a role in this debate. It is
about information. Some of us are information professionals. Those of us
who are not do not need to take part in the debate.
Diana Nutting <[log in to unmask]>@JISCMAIL.AC.UK> on 19/05/2004
13:34:47
Please respond to Chartered Library and Information Professionals
<[log in to unmask]>
Sent by: Chartered Library and Information Professionals
<[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
cc:
Subject: Re: ID Cards, the National Identity Register and Data
Protection
Doesn't everyone seem to be rather missing the point of this. It's not to
vent steam on one's personal political stance (in some cases quite
offensively) but to explore CILIP's role in the ID card debate. Personally
I
don't think it has a role, but I'm open to persuasion.
Diana Nutting
Information Liaison Manager
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