From: xx717@freenet.carleton.ca (Miranda Gray)
Subject: Draft -- Material Selection policy

Related to censorship and intellectual freedom is the right of access to
information. It is not enough to ensure freedom of speech, we need to
provide for access to other people's ideas.

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Information Selection
=====================

The National Capital FreeNet has a basic responsibility to facilitate
access to all expressions of knowledge and intellectual activity,
including those which some elements of society may consider to be
unconventional, unpopular or unacceptable. To this end, NCF shall acquire
or provide access to the widest variety of information possible. 

NCF should resist all efforts to limit this access while recognizing the
right of criticism by individuals and groups.

--end

This policy would form the basis for decision making about which Usenet
newsgroups should be carried on NCF. At the current time, NCF carries
whichever newsgroups Carleton University carries. This is not a technical
necessity. The news administrators could arrange alternative news feeds.

It is important to recognize the distinction between censorship and
selection. NCF's news administrators have already made decisions about the
selection based on technical limitations. For example, we have not carried
alt.binaries.* groups since May 3rd. They were deleted due to the lack of
space on the news disks.

Such material selection decisions should probably be approved by the
board. Concerned users should be able to appeal the news administrators'
decisions about newsgroup selection.

The American Library Association has a Selection Policy Writing Workbook
which is available online at
http://www.intac.com/~kgs/freedom/slmworkbook.html .

This draft is based on the Canadian Library Association's Statement on
Intellectual Freedom (1985) and the Canadian Association of Research
Libraries' Statement on Intellectual Freedom and Freedom of Expression.
The full text is on the Freedom pages -- http://www.intac.com/~kgs/freedom .
--

Miranda Gray	xx717@freenet.carleton.ca