a website for the conservative librarian
|
Thursday May 20, 2004
Its been a very heated week in library politics so
since I'm off tomorrow I'm going to leave tonight on a high note. I love my MLS. I
received it and my Bachelors in Library Science from Southern Connecticut State
University (though they probably would prefer I didn't advertise for them). It
was great and practical and fun and the library classes were some of the best
classes I took the entire time I was there. So here is a little tale from those
years. One of those experiences you just never forget...
A long time ago in a university one state over I was going
to library school. One day in one of my classes we got an assignment. For the
next class we were going to have an actual library staff meeting. It would last about
15 minutes, less/more I
don’t recall, and each of us would play a role. Someone would play a cataloger,
someone would play a janitor, someone would play a clerical person, and so on.
Of course they didn’t just wear a tag saying ‘I’m the
janitor’ and that was it. No no. The role was broader than that. The person who
got to be janitor got to be “Grouchy janitor who always complains about the
kids playing in the flowers and the flooding every time it rains from bad
drainage”. Then there was “staff member with an agenda” and “airhead who avoids
conflict by suggesting lunch or outing.”
The purpose was to mimic what would probably be a potential
meeting in our future and to look at how people acted and see what we could
learn about these situations. We got our roles by picking from a hat.
I got “Director”. Which means I had to lead the meeting.
There was a specific topic to be discussed and a decision had to be made about
it. I had to lead the discussion and make sure a decision was actually made.
The next class came and nobody really knew who each other
was supposed to be in advance so when I called the meeting to order that was
when everyone knew who their target was.
When all was said and done I lost. The person with the
agenda stuck to it long enough so that the issue was tabled to a later date.
The little old lady sitting beside me, a real honest-to-God little old lady,
spent the time interrupting to ask me if we would be getting together for tea
afterwards. The always-pleasant spitfire who was the unpleasant janitor did her
duty all-to-well.
The teacher gave me a thumbs-up a few days later but the
bottom line was I got my butt kicked and we got to spend the rest of the class
analyzing how it was kicked and in what trajectory.
At the end of the class a group of them were standing around
talking and I walked up to them. They looked a little leery at me, at which
point I said, “If I’d had gun…” and then Mr. Agenda chimed in “… there’d be 3
less people in the room right now.” Everyone laughed, of course this was a long
time before Columbine so people were allowed to make silly, nervous jokes like
that.
Anyhow, this is what the MLS education was about.
Leading. Running an actual library from the ground up. And that’s what it
should still be about.
Night
Its saying something when I can shock Jack over at
Conservatorblog.
No apologies though Jack, sorry. Mutt is short for
mongrel which is defined as "an animal or a plant resulting from various interbreedings,
especially a dog of mixed or undetermined breed."
Hardly controversial, though another definition states
that they are an inferior breed, but that's simply not true. Mixed breeds are healthy
and stronger. Pure breeds run into more health problems and tend to be high strung.
The reference to McCook, my guess would be that's her
married name so she herself may or may not be mixed, no clue, don't care. Her
children, if any, are mixed. And like I said before, that's a good thing.
The Inside Track by Francine Fialkoff is titled
"Selection Not Censorship" which deals with the issue of Christian Fiction and
the various discussions that are going on about to-buy-or-not-to-buy / with-regular-
fiction-or-not-with-regular-fiction. I get slammed for saying King & King should
be in the parent's collection but they write a whole article about an entire genre
being placed separately. You think its the topic?
Couple more items from LJ. Apparently ALA-APA is not
getting the response they had hoped for from current ALA members. Does it have
anything to do with this goal?:
I didn't think so either. Perfectly reasonable
goal. Everyone likes to make more money. Maybe its this one:
Yeah, that's the one.
"Come one! come all! *You* can be a librarian! Just
for one initial only semi-moderately hefty fee *You* can get bachelors degree! You won't
be a librarian yet but you can be looked down on by librarians for as long as
like! Now for a moderately hefty secondary fee *You* can get a master's degree! Now
technically you will be a librarian but any attempt to move up and get more pay
will be short lived and ineffective. No siree bob, if *You* want to be a
super-duper-go-anywhere-you-please capital "L" Librarian *You* just need to come
up with a really hefty fee and buy this here certificate that tells you everything
you already learned during your bachelor degree and you'll now be that classical,
old-fashioned, more-money-then-sense, more-wood-then-human, Librarian!!!!"
Yee-haw.
Wednesday May 19, 2004
I finished going through the latest issue of Library
Journal (05/15/04). It is truly stunning to be talked about so much without being
actually mentioned. I talked about Berry's editorial on Sunday. From there we go to
page 18 to a news clip titled "Cuban 'Librarians' Gain New Support", their quotes around
Librarians, not mine. The clip deals with the Freadom initiative, something I've talked about
here. Here's a quote from Karen Schneider:
On page 58 is a NextGen article which brought about Berry's
editorial. Gordon's take is that we need to be careful about what we say and how we say it.
Here's a good bit:
[Oh, and Katie dear, write out your name on a piece of paper
and take a good long look at it because its a pleasant sign of the future. All of
SPECTRUM's efforts are going to be in vain in 50 years when we're a giant nation
of mutts. A good thing btw.]
Say what you want about McCook, she's got fire. Schneider?
Not so much. Intelligent, open-minded (sorta), but no fighter. And let's be honest, ALA's
got problems that are going to require some fighting. Unsupported generalizations? No.
CIPA, Patriot Act, Cuba, MLS - serious issues that ALA is handling badly. Issues, not
generalizations. In fairness Gordon does talk about more personalized
communication between coworkers as well but her two main examples leave a lot to be
desired.
I came across an interesting statement over on The Corner
the other day, it was echoed more or less by someone at LISNews. The statement regarded
churches and taxes but is certainly applicable here:
That's enough for one night. A little sharper tone then I'd
prefer to keep but let's not be under any delusions about civility. There's a left side
and a right side in the library profession just like in every other profession and we're
going to get a little bloodied from time to time. You guys just aren't used to it because
the left side is so large in this profession you haven't had to deal with it much. Toughen
up.
I going to have a beer and watch Enterprise. Night.
An email from the Board of Library Commissioners
was sent yesterday to all the library regions in the state of Mass.:
Had the following on Page A10
GLOBE EDITORIAL
The Budget files
May 18, 2004
Legislators are debating the state budget for the fiscal year beginning
July 1. So far, they have refused to increase taxes to support needed
programs and close a $500 million budget gap. Here are some of the
consequences of that choice. (One in a series)
THE ITEM: Library technology
With less state funding, libraries keep up with technology costs by
making cuts in other areas. The sad result: an information age where
public access is restricted.
Here was my reply-to-all:
Boston Herald
Hey, Mitt Romney, good luck getting rid of the Boston Municipal Court. The
BMC is the Somerset Club for payroll patriots, the al-Qaeda of the
hackerama.
Get rid of the BMC? It's like Tony Blair getting rid of the House of Lords.
It's like abolishing purgatory, or maybe limbo.
Oh sure, the BMC isn't what it used to be, hackwise. It is a much more
"sensitive" court now, as you'll be reading soon on some editorial pages.
Sally Kelly, Dermot Meagher - the BMC has become such a celebration of
diversity that the likes of Judge Michael "Flats" Flaherty are now the
affirmative-action hires.
Which is why Mitt may have a shot at taking it out. The legislative
terrorists who will be going to the wall to save the other endangered
district courthouses - Osama bin Finneran, Mullah Bulger and Saddam
Travaglini - may take a hike on the Beautiful People of the BMC.
Still, it would send a terrible message, wouldn't it? I mean, it symbolizes
so much sloth and waste and patronage. Think Elijah Adlow, think Joe Feeney,
who before moving to the BMC was simultaneously a "special" justice in the
South Boston District Court and counsel for the Teamsters union. No wonder
Billy Bulger liked to try cases in front of Judge Feeney.
Sunday May 16, 2004
Big doings over at LISNews concerning the issues of
right vs. left, civility, debate, and the political leanings of the site in
general. It started from an article in Library Juice, a publication by Rory Litwin,
a member of the Progressives. You remember them don't you?
The oddity is that I just found the latest issue of
Library Journal in my mailbox at work today. In it was an editorial by John Berry
titled "Caution and Credibility." He makes the argument that librarians shouldn't
be afraid to voice their political opinions in the open, though the focus is in
online forums. He uses as an example his early articles concerning segregated
libraries.
Its a legitimate editorial on the face of it but when
you wrap it together with everything that has happened in the past four months it
takes a different appearance. What has happened in the past four months? Well, Blake from
LISNews posted the message about recruiting right-thinkers. Tomeboy had been posting
there for a year already but it his fellow conservatives have grown in number and in
volume. Conservativelib is livelier then ever. Conservator is in action. Myself as well.
Everything in Berry's editorial is already happening.
The people who were never comfortable voicing their opinions now are. After all this time
of ALA slowing becoming a liberal think-tank, promoting projects like SPECTRUM, turning
their backs on Librarians in Cuba, bashing Bush, assaulting Ashcroft, the other side,
conservative librarians, are standing up and saying "ENOUGH."
So we've started speaking out. And the best part about
speaking out is we are finding out there are more of us out there. The more we find,
the more comfortable we are speaking out and so on.
We are still small in number which is what makes the big
discussion at LISNews and Berry's editorial seem odd. It seems more like a rallying
cry to liberals then an attempt to discuss the importance of discussion. "Speak up!
We need help! There are actual conservatives here!" Its like Genghis Khan
sounding out the call for help because he's being attacked by the castaways of
Gilligan's Island.
To all my fellow conservative librarians out there I
just wanted to give you a medal of respect and say job well and good but not yet
done. Not by far.
In response to my criticism
of SPECTRUM came this:
Well, I actually don't know how to respond to this claim properly. The white side
of me wishes there was an equivalent scholarship available so that I could get
another five grand; the Mexican half is happy with its portion, but wishes it were
more. You know how those people are: they come to America and want everything
given to them for nothing.
I confess that, being half Mexican and perhaps of warmer blood, I spent the
Spectrum checks (you get two, maybe because they know how us People of Color go
through money) on a motorcycle rather than upon, say, textbooks or tamales or
statues of the Virgin of Guadalupe. The Irish half won out. You can still get a
lot of motorcycle for that kind of money, and I did.
Now I am about to graduate and take a library job from a (doubtless) better-qualified
entirely white candidate. Because I am a 'stealth' Mexican, nobody will detect
this ploy until it is too late. I will hide behind my veteran's status to gain
advantage there, too, and maybe drop a few hints that I am on ALA council to
dazzle the rubes in Personnel. If they even know what ALA is.
I confess that I am up to even more vile schemes: I've begun agitating for
inclusion of actual confessed homosexuals in the Spectrum program. These folks,
who I've discovered are all around us, deserve a leg up in the library world.
How else can they hope to undertake their scheme to recruit our children? And
what the hell, they spend a lot on clothing and slip covers and gym memberships.
So there you have it. I was surprised to hear that the conservatives had
discovered our little plan, but then I never thought they were stupid. The white
half of me is saying to the Mexican, 'I told you they'd catch on,' and the Mexican
is saying, 'Ay Caramba.' But I've already cashed the checks, and the dinero is
gone. See you in the stacks, amigo.
Michael McGrorty
Clever isn't he? Be careful though Mikey, if ALA finds
out you're half-white they might want their money back.
|
