Intellectual Freedom and Manga

Have you heard of the Christopher Handley case? There is so much meat to this story of how Intellectual Freedom and the protection of children plays out that I almost don't know where to begin.

Handley is a manga collector and by the intpretetion of those involved he has a huge personal library. At some point, US customs officials intercepted a package of manga from Japan depicting sexual acts with minors. The context to the case is that Handley is not a pedophile; he owns no child pornography and the materials in question were a small part of a very large collection.

Last week, after some months of investigation, Handley pled guilty to, “possession of obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children.” He faces up to 15 years for the charge.

Some questions brought to light by NPR about the case include that notion that no child was actually harmed here. The Wired article below does a good job talking about the intention of the statute used to go after pedophiles, not book collectors.

I have not seen the images. I am torn. Does the argument that the existence of this material is a violation to the rights of a child hold weight? Does it have stand-alone artistic purposes or does it solely satisfy a prurient interest? I read on some blogs that though we don't know what images/books are in question, other avid collectors following the case have put together clues.

Can I defend that? In theory, yes, but if saw that image out of context, I might not be able to say it doesn't harm children, just by existing. I feel a bit coward in hiding behind the fact that I can't see it to judge it myself, but I think that is the point of the fuzziness involved in upholding Intellectual Freedom. Every case is unique and we have been given solid guides to identifying porn. I stand behind the prurient interest and artistic merit clauses and without the image in hand can't say where the work falls.

A co-worker set me to thinking about the case. We have been discussing our own library's treatment of Phoebe Gloeckner's A Child's Life and the similarities and differences are remarkable. Stay tuned.

Department of Justice news release, "Iowa Man Pleads Guilty to Possessing Obscene Visual Representations of the Sexual Abuse of Children."

Publisher's Weekly PWBeat blog post, "Handley Case Update."

Wired article, "US Manga Obscenity Conviction Roils Comics World."

Elseveir on my mind

So, as forum leader this week, I have been neck deep in the Elesevier case. While this alone is not the reason for my recent tossing and turning at night (a change in class work pace, for example :), I am still reeling over the discovery of at least 6 fake journals by this once reputable publisher.

I feel so naive, so taken. How did I not see this was possible, inevitable and may undoubtedly happen over and over again? My sense of justice is on red alert and my coping skills are kicking in. I'm carb loading and freaking out over the future of our profession. Okay, it isn't that bad, but, man, it's bad, it's real bad. They took money and took information professionals for a ride. The scope of the effect of this case is limited in some ways in that the journals were mostly bought by academic libraries. But, they were MEDICAL journals! If we can't rely on these resources in academic settings, where our medical professionals are being trained, to take care of our bodies, what can we rely on? (And why hadn't my medical conspiracy theories ever trickled down to online journals before?!;)

The broader questions about the abilities of professional librarians to reliably evaluate our sources reinforced what I have yet to learn (is that possible?) in Collection and Development. We need our professional reviewers, although even they were duped by the level of fakery involved here.

At the end of our forum discussion, a classmate provided an awesome link to a blog written by a few dozen professional science writers. I loved reading through the comments and seeing how thrown these people are, too. I like to be confirmed in my dizziness, it makes the room spin a little less. I also liked the solutions put forth: stop reviewing for Elseveir, boycott publishing there, note in all publications the questionable value of its material, move toward open source online journals, and on and on. I don't know what is most effective, I just like the variation on a theme. We're going to have to be a savvy bunch of librarians and scientists to fight this. Or at least to keep the scale minimized.

Something even bigger has been happening to me, and it has everything to do with Eleseveir and intellectual freedom. I feel so much more confirmed in the importance of good, trained and dedicated librarians. Information is exploding all around us. I hesitated to start SLIS, I mean, who's hiring public librarians and why would the public need me to do this for them? Good lord, friends, the answer lies therein. The very nature of the information society means our work is meaningful.

S640 Seminar in Intellectual Freedom

Let it begin!

I'm looking forward to this summer and this class a lot. The syllabus rocks - even if we'll have to bust out triple time to do it. We got skills. We got this:)

See you around!