My MLIS school is in the middle of a director search. Because of employment laws and such we can't talk about the individual candidates, I understand the privacy concerns. However, a fellow student with a blog (dangerous objects these blogs) had been blogging about her impressions of the directorial candidates (without naming names or institutions or anything). I felt she was being discreet (maybe other then naming her school - but I've probably slipped and done that in tweets - oops). Personally I don't have time or money to go and sit in on the candidates speaches and forums and such and was happy a friend was blogging about it. I'm close enough to graduation I don't feel a huge stake in this - but I'm still curious and concerned and would like to stay informed.
She was asked to yank her posts. Then we all got this email:
this email is to remind you about the confidential nature of the Directors Search process. If you are blogging, twittering, facebooking or using other social software to formally/informally report, or comment on the candidate visits, you must stop and delete all postings immediately. When such discussions and statements are posted on a blog or on any other web software, they are considered published, and therefore are stripped of their confidentiality. As result, such postings jeopardize the integrity of the search process, and must stop.
The student did take down her posting in compliance with the school policy which is pretty much the only action she could take. I am starting to get frustrated with administrations all around.
Oh well, back to my regularly scheduled end of semester chaos.
Posts
4 comments:
Good post, Eeyore. I, too, was using the posts to stay up to date on what was going on at the school since I couldn't attend the student forums. What I'm wondering is if the administration looked farther than its privacy concern and actually read the part of the posts that addressed the growing discontent amongst the student population. There are decidedly more changes needed than just the head of the school.
I highly doubt it (taking notice of discontent). The director on the way out certainly is not going to care, the one who ends up coming in is going to have too much on the plate to really be able to address it effectively initially. Everybody else has to worry about their jobs or tenure or whatnot. And its academia - things chug along at a tepid pace anyway. I'm always optimistic that things change for the better - just usually not until after I'm through! Thanks for the comment :-)
Thanks for the support. People don't like anonymous blogs and often rail against those like the Annoyed Librarian, but I feel like none of this would have been an issue if I had made the blog anonymous and not traceable back to me. I would have then been able to continue providing information. I hate that this program is so backwards sometimes... we study information, and yet there is so little transparency within the school. I feel muzzled.
-k
lol! Anonymity is a double edged sword - but I don't think the problems we are having are unique - I think we're in the middle of a big shift in what people expect from their education and education providers. Lead on K - we're listening (and voting for you if we can). Once the dust settles - you could always guest blog here! Admin hasn't found me yet (he he).
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