Is it really libraries' place to tell a foreign publisher to not be concerned with legal liability on their part for sending their publication to the United States? I think that should be entirely their call. While I believe in the Library Bill of Rights, I don't believe that includes telling foreign non-governmental entities that they should not self-censor. However unfortunate the current climate may be, cancelling subscriptions would be more likely to only punish the people over here who are wanting to read the vast majority of issues that the publisher does send to the U.S.

 

Kevin M. Randall

Principal Serials Cataloger

Northwestern University Libraries

Northwestern University

www.library.northwestern.edu

kmr@northwestern.edu

847.491.2939

 

Proudly wearing the sensible shoes since 1978!

 

 

Potential lawsuits are having a chilling effect on the press from another country and limiting other points of view that our library users have access to.  Libraries should be standing up to whatever is causing that chilling effect.  At the very least, we could cancel our subscriptions to Stern and make it known why we are canceling.

 

 

That’s easy to say when it isn’t going to cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars and bankrupt your company. It’s 2 issues. They’ve extended your subscription. If you want to read it or look at it, there’s always ILL. Free Speech is dying in the U.S. Everyone sues everyone and that is why this is happening…

 

Mike

 

 

Stern is printed in a democratic country that honors a free press.  U.S. customers are being censored and libraries holdings are not being fully represented because certain issues are deemed too controversial.  DPV has censored what we receive, even though we have paid for those issues.  Don’t we want to have complete runs of a title no matter what someone’s legal department thinks about managing their legal risk?