I extend this as a query to AALL HQ - what was the intended purpose of
including race?
I understand that race listing/q is acceptable in some circumstances for
the purpose of statistics, however listing someone's race in a professional
directory smacks of discrimination, IMHO.
Karen Mahnk
At 10:11 AM 1/26/1999 -0800, Mary Whisner wrote:
> After Neela Taub posted her message, I went and checked my
>listing. Indeed, it does include much more than it used to -- including
>membership number, type of membership (institutional), and race.
>
> Laura Orr suggests that only basic contact information be listed
>(perhaps name, institution, address, phone number, email address), but I
>think there might be a good middle ground. Isn't there some value in some
>of the other information -- e.g., education and past leadership positions?
>We haven't had a new edition of the Biographical Directory in years;
>perhaps the expanded listings on the web were a response. We can go to
>Martindale Hubbell or West's Legal Directory to find out what school a
>lawyer went to; why shouldn't we be able to find out what school a
>librarian went to?
>
> What seems clear is that the membership data isn't something that
>should be loaded simply because it is available in electronic format and
>*can* be loaded. How much to load should be discussed. I assume there is a
>committee that advises headquarters staff on the content of AALLNet
>(perhaps the Publications Committee?) or perhaps the Board has oversight.
>In any event, a group should consider the options. In the short term, I'd
>suggest going back to the information that was available before -- the
>basic contact information and current committee assignments. The "Ethnic
>background" field seems to be the hot button, but members might also feel
>differently than I do about the desirability of listing the other
>biographical information, too.
>
> Mary Whisner, Head of Reference
> Gallagher Law Library, University of Washington
> whisner@u.washington.edu
> Library's website: http://lib.law.washington.edu
>
>
>
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