James Van Praagh, may be a best-selling author (Talking to Heaven, etc.), but the appearance July 11 of the “survival evidence medium” at the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference in Chicago is provoking dismay from at least one ALA member. (Here's some skepticism regarding mediums.)

Van Praagh will be presenting in the Auditorium Speaker Series, and David McMenemy, of the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, asked on the JESSE electronic mailing list (archive) if anyone was organizing a campaign against the decision to showcase Van Praagh. He said he would not renew his membership. 

McMenemy was told that many people consider aspects of the conference entertainment, and that's how Van Praagh's appearance might be considered. "Recreation of ALA delegates aside, we should be about truth if we're about anything," McMenemy responded, pointing out how Van Praagh told a missing boy's parents their son was buried--though the child was later found alive.