The Watergate scandal has profoundly shaken the confidence of the American people in their government. One aspect of Watergate which can be immediately corrected is that of secrecy. In the abolition of secrecy and the defense of intellectual freedom, librarians have a role to play. American librarianship has taken upon itself the task of providing free and unbiased access to information, but there are still restrictions being placed on this role. The recent Supreme Court decisions on obscenity have provided the public with the mechanisms needed to control the kinds of materials to be made available at the local level, although the Supreme Court guidelines are by no means clear. Most would-be censors are well-meaning people; reflecting the confusion and loss of confidence of the nation as a whole, they hope, by the simplistic solution of banning books, to abolish the complex social issues which these books portray. Many of the excesses of pornographers and politicians have been accomplished in the name of freedom. If the library profession is to succeed in its defense of intellectual freedom, it must strive to make that term respectable again. (Author/SL)