The idea that librarians are responsible for providing free access to all kinds of information for their users puts an extra pressure on the profession. The acceptance of this idea implies much more than the defence of individual rights of users to obtain whatever material a library holds. To adopt this idea as a basic principle of the profession means to accept consciously the role of an active mediator between the state authorities and the public. If librarians are willing to accept this role, they will have to enlarge their present professional knowledge and will certainly have to master some new skills. To become an active mediator between the state and the public requires from each professional the following competencies that are not always easy to acquire:

• a high degree of up-to-date professional knowledge,
• good communication skills that allow him/her to achieve good relationship with both his/her users and public authorities.

These skills include the ability to talk in public, especially to the media, and the ability to express the attitude and opinion of the profession in both oral and written form to the public and the authorities alike.

• loyalty to the profession, i. e. deep belief in the basic professional principles, that can help in possible cases of conflict where a librarian might find himself/herself confronted with different opinions and requirements from different parties.

The profession has to become visible both to the public and to the state authorities and it also has to persuade them of its competence and reliability. Position of the profession on a range of issues related to free access to information has to be defined and accompanied by valid arguments that have to be found out.

The library association is by its nature the most adequate organisation to formulate, publish and promote professional statements on various topics, free access to information being no exception. Issuing a statement on free access to information is the first step that should be taken. Such a statement can be equally helpful to a librarian in a small school library, who has to explain to non-librarians around what he/she thinks is needed for his/her users as well as a librarian in a big hierarchically organised city library who often lacks self-reliance and feel professionally isolated.

Following the IFLA example the Croatian Library Association established its Committee on Freedom of Expression and Free Access to Information in October 1998. The Committee has twelve members who represent nine regional library associations. All members volunteered to sit on the Committee. The members met twice during the last nine months and corresponded by e-mails and faxes. Informal talks with colleagues from various libraries have also been a valuable source of information for the members of the Committee.

During our discussions and talks with colleagues a number of factors that might have an impact on free access to information in libraries has been mentioned. We have found out that any library process that is not performed properly may contribute to the inaccessibility of information. Absence of written rules of procedure in libraries, lags in cataloguing and classification, improperly performed weeding, as well as scarcity of funds and lack of adequate space and equipment harm the users. Our colleagues also emphasised the human factor, such as the disinterestedness or the inability of some library directors to improve the situation.

We even went so far to analyse the publishers environment and agreed that the present state policy of subsidising publishers, whose titles are evaluated, purchased and then distributed to libraries by the state or local authorities, prevents librarians from formulating a coherent and adequate acquisition policy for their libraries and users.

The Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Education and Sport have nominated special committees whose task is to evaluate and approve titles to be subsidised. These titles are then sent to public, academic and school libraries. The percentage of titles selected and purchased by the authorities for public libraries in major towns is reported to be between 10% and 30%. It appears to be even higher in the libraries of small municipalities where local authorities rely on the state to procure books for their libraries.

In the end the Committee has been put in a dilemma: are we trying to cover too much? Do we really have to concern ourselves with a whole range of issues that in fact should be the province of those who create the country's information policy?

Wouldn't it be better if the Committee only takes care of notorious cases of removal of books from libraries, cases usually exposed by the press, and judged by journalists or an angry member of the public as clear attempts at censorship? We analysed a few cases and found out that ignorance and non-professional interpretation of professional standards played an important role in such cases. Quite illustrative in this respect is the case of a small public library on the island of Korc?ula. In the summer of 1997 the journalists revealed that a number of books belonging to the library were found in a street litter bin.

This was immediately characterised by the press as a political act because discarded books were presumed to be works of Serbian authors or translators. Later research determined, however, that books were by various authors, Croatian included. Further investigation revealed that the act was committed by a young person with no professional qualifications, who had recently been employed by the library upon the recommendation of the local authorities. In fact a year after the affair was revealed, this person got promoted to the post of the library director. Angry words like 'politically acceptable' and 'politically unacceptable' were exchanged in the press between the two opposing fractions in the town. The young librarian defended herself and said she was acting according to the professional rules that require that old and soiled books be periodically weeded. In the meantime two university professors grabbed the opportunity to engage in a personal war in the media accusing each other of the sins against libraries committed in the past. The Croatian Library Association was asked to give a professional opinion. It never did, at least in public. However, a year later it decided to establish a Committee on Freedom of Expression and Free Access to Information and confide such cases to it.

The Korc?ula case seemed to have been extremely exciting for the actors involved; the prevalent feeling in the public was indifference. The case proved to be instructive because the profession learned that libraries could be of interest to politics and that the majority of people, university professors included, could not distinguish the deposit library that has to keep library materials for the posterity from a local public library. It has also become clear that employment of non-professionals as librarians can do and has done a lot of harm, because ignorance is often accompanied by fear and insecurity. We have also found out that the general public knows very little about how libraries work and what it takes to be a librarian. Unfortunately, we have also learned that the state and local authorities alike have very little confidence in our profession.

This has brought us to the starting point. Do we really want to accept the responsibility for providing free access to all kinds of information for all kinds of users? I believe that the answer must be affirmative if we wish to remain a profession. The case of Croatia might be very illustrative in that aspect. The distrust felt by the authorities towards the profession resulted in the present situation where non-librarians select the titles for library collections while librarians unpack the received parcels with books and check the titles against the enclosed lists.

But if we consciously accept the responsibility for providing free access to our users we must also be aware that in order to become active mediators between our users and the authorities, we have to update our professional knowledge and skills, and use them when needed. We have to learn how to communicate with both the users and the authorities. We have to induce the authorities to trust us and collaborate with us when users' needs have to be taken care of.