The author of this review must start by acknowledging a remote connection with this book, albeit one of which he was not aware until he came to write the review. In the Foreword, Donald Davis says “Some of our most illustrious ancestors established their careers in the book and communication media … Let me mention two towering, living colleagues … Edward G. Holley … and Graham P. Cornish”. I say no more!
As a phrase, Christian librarianship is capable of several interpretations. It could refer to librarians serving specifically Christian organisations or clientele; it could equally refer to the way Christians practise their profession and interpret it; or it might refer to the challenges of a modern information society and how the Christian handles these. This volume concentrates on the first two understandings of the term.
It is essentially a collection of 16 essays by 14 authors from the USA and the UK. Some of the papers appear to have been written specifically for the volume but others are papers given at seminars or meetings in the recent past. As a result, the content is rather uneven and the styles very different, giving the book an overall feeling of discontinuity. There is a selective bibliography and a good index at the end.
The chapters are divided into two unequal parts: the first six deal with the theory and philosophy of librarianship from a Christian perspective, while the remaining ten concentrate on Christian librarianship in practice. Topics range from a rationale for integrating Christian faith and librarianship, through multiculturalism to keeping Sunday special.
There are some interesting insights in this volume which are worth highlighting. For example, Gregory Smith raises the question of how do you justify a profession that organises knowledge in a coherent and related form if your view of creation is of random choice and void of any purpose and design? Smith suggests that librarianship needs a guiding philosophy to justify its existence and that Christianity provides this. He claims that “libraries are based on Judeo‐Christian assumptions”. This, in turn, has a profound effect on our classification systems and cataloguing procedures. In his essay “Library encounters culture”, Roger Phillips says “Colon classification can be adapted to express how a particular book relates to faith. One of the indicator digits could express this. This may be the best of the current classification systems in terms of integrating the ‘secular’ and the sacred.”
Other authors use the “cultural mandate” in the Book of Genesis to justify the concept of culture and historical continuity recorded in some tangible form which librarians use as the basis for the organisation of knowledge.
Some of the essays have a decidedly condescending air about them. For example, John Delivuk, writing about multiculturalism, says, “God forbids Christians to judge others. However … we are commanded to declare God’s judgement on moral values (author’s italics). However, we must … not condemn practices like eating, body odors, manners, social conditions, and other practices not declared a sin by God.” The same author roundly rejects positive discrimination on Christian grounds and informs us we must support constructive aspects of multiculturalism such as learning a foreign language or the collection of foreign‐language books.
In his essay, enigmatically entitled “Beauty for ashes: Christian librarians facing a fragmented profession”, Geoff Warren also warns against the current trend, especially in public libraries, of allowing reader preferences to hold sway in stock selection rather than professional judgement allowing a balanced stock to develop.
Unlike many authors in this book, Elizabeth Irish discusses the role of a Code of Ethics (in this case the American Library Association’s) against personal beliefs and comes to the conclusion that there is no clear answer to this dilemma. On the one hand “No religion, no politics and no morals”, but on the other our personally held views on the interests of our users. As CILIP beings the process of a new code of practice for its members, it will be interesting to see how this evolves in a multicultural and pluralistic society where individual freedom to hold beliefs may conflict with the need to serve the freedom of others to hold different, even contrary views.
The two essays on Keeping Sunday special are quite interesting. Graham Hedges gives an historical view of the issue and describes in some fascinating detail the attitudes to Sunday opening in the Nineteenth century in the UK. One reason it failed was because any attempt to compete with the local pub failed utterly and so few people visited the libraries it became obvious they were not attracting the public!
I found this volume disappointing in several ways. It seemed to be to reflect only one general point of Christian view and this was reinforced by a comment by Donald Davis, “Bible college librarians should stimulate their campus communities … by collecting the best information sources – secular, broadly Christian and evangelical.” The volume contains not a single essay by a member of the Catholic or Christian Orthodox communities – all are written from an evangelical point of view. Second, many of the essays actually deal with how to serve Christian communities such as theological colleges, Bible colleges or Christian schools. Only one, “The Master we serve” by Donald Davis and John Tucker, touches on the role of the Christian in the secular context and this is almost entirely from a pastoral point of view. “Christian librarians … can express concern for their colleagues through relationships of mentoring, counseling, affirming, and interacting.” Do not many people of other faiths do this too just as much as the unbeliever? But my greatest disappointment is that there is no essay dealing with the challenges faced by a Christian librarian working in a potentially hostile environment. What about the Christian information specialist in a pharmaceutical firm making medicines which may achieve goals conflicting with personal beliefs such as abortion or contraception? How does the Christian work in a government department library when the political masters want to follow policies which are perceived as totally against personal beliefs? None if these thorny issues are tackled.
Some useful philosophical issues are raised in the book but it fails to address many of the challenges faced by people with personal beliefs in the modern information world. Similarly, it gives managers little idea of how to handle such conflicts, whether in their own minds or those of the staff they manage.
