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Back to Bloggin'
September 26, 2007
You may not have noticed, but I haven’t blogged here since last April. I was silenced by a combination of other deadlines, technological change, and a beautiful summer of gardening, traveling, and all.
Most important, it was NOT the argument over anonymous postings which shut me up. Yes, we allow anonymous postings here. And yes, I even agree with the Annoyed Librarian that anonymous postings are protected expression, and our courts and First Amendment apply to them. But Annoyed got very defensive about it all, even quoted a long statement by the Electronic Frontier Foundation about it. But I haven’t changed my mind, and I still think most who hide behind anonymity or some pseudonym are simply cowards, afraid to tell us who they are. I don’t deny them their right to do it, and if I were AL, for example, I might want to hide my real identity too. To attack those who tell you who they are, while hiding your own identity is the coward’s way.
Back from hiatus, I am reassured and frustrated to see that the library agenda hasn’t changed, indeed rarely does change. Michael Gorman and others (including me) are still task forcing in ALA to reform library education while the iCaucus, those 19 former “library schools,” are mounting yet another PR campaign touting their notion that what they call “information” is the main ingredient of all human endeavor. I’m sure they are right, but unlike them, I’m also sure it was always so.
The closet censors are still with us too. You know, the one’s who espouse free expression, as long as it doesn’t emanate from the president of Iran, the nude on a mudflap creatively promoting libraries in Wyoming, or the computer screen in a public access computer in the lobby of a public library in Podunk. My favorite feminist take on the “mudflap girl” is from Karen Schneider, who explains why she is “in a conundrum” about it. I don’t disagree with David King. He said: “I simply do not see how mudflap babe shows me that libraries are 'reliable and exciting.'" Still it is always depressing when so many who claim to share the values of librarianship jump on the bandwagons to censor free expression because they are offended by its sexism, politics, culture, or other content. That is the part we always miss: offensive expression is protected, and librarianship subscribes to the position that libraries should make all expression, offensive or not, accessible to all, whatever their age. We still don’t always get that. And, alas, that was always so too!
I'm saddened to see that those dreadful entry-level jobs in the dank and dreary branch libraries of some of the nation’s great cities with the most distinguished public library systems have not improved at all. I teach at three LIS programs now, and I’m getting a lot of feedback from the new librarians, some of the very best and brightest, who are struggling to keep their idealism and spirit alive in the face of entrenched bureaucrats, risk-averse malingerers, and rule-bound functionaries. We have to find a way to save these bright young ones from our entrenched, aging losers.
So greetings! It is good to be back!
Posted by John N. Berry III on September 26, 2007 | Comments (10)
