a website for the conservative librarian
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Friday December 10, 2004
Last night I picked up my comic stash and the first 3
books I read all had things that just really burned me. I'm sick of comics being an
amoral bloodbath with some kind of woman-beating fetish thrown in. Any type of
labeling by the major publishers is shoddy and inconsistent. Its retarded.
I don't have the energy or the funds to start and
maintain a site similar to this one but I did start a new blog through Blogger
called Dead Chicks & Mayhem where I can
at least detail what's going on in comics to some degree. When I have time I'll
create some explanation pages, probably sourced here, that I can link to and help
explain some of the terms that will be popping up on a regular basis.
Wednesday December 08, 2004
A little while ago ALA announced the candidates for ALA
President in the 2005 election, Leslie Burger and Christine Lind Hage. I came up with
a list of questions, which include some editing help and suggestions from some friends, and
I just sent each candidate the email listed below. I'll be sure and post any responses I
receive...
Dear Ms. Burger and Ms. Hage,
Congratulations and good luck on your candidacies
for ALA President. My name is Greg McClay and I run a website, or blog, that
discusses library issues from a conservative point of view. There are a number
of issues, some old, some new, facing libraries today and I was hoping that each
of you would be willing to share your views on each for the benefit of my
conservative readers.
At the 2004 Annual ALA Conference in Orlando there
was a series of events that had less to do with libraries and more to do with
American politics in general and leaning decidedly to the Left in viewpoint. Do
you believe ALA's liberal reputation is deserved or was this an aberration?
Ms. Burger: You voted for the Resolution on Torture. Why?
Ms. Hage: You voted against the Resolution on Torture. Why?
At the time there was a lot of outrage in library
circles concerning the destruction of library materials during the invasion of
Iraq. The response to the imprisonment of Cuban librarians has been less in
comparison. Should ALA make resolutions on issues of foreign policy?
How would you compare American libraries with the
rest of the world? Do libraries reflect the countries that provide them? Should
they?
ALA’s website currently advises libraries that are
faced with a warrant to seek legal counsel immediately. Is lawyering up a
reasonable response considering current threats to our national security?
Before the Patriot Act existed it was possible for
federal law enforcement officials to obtain a patron's records with a warrant.
This will remain the case if the Patriot Act sunsets. Do you believe that library
records should be off limits no matter what the circumstances?
The issue of values played a decisive role in the
past election. As ALA President, should this issue influence ALA policy making
with issues such as parental concerns with the Internet? Do you feel that ALA has
handled the issue of CIPA and filtering in general appropriately?
When considering the term "diversity" within the
context of ALA's policy initiative, do you feel that diversity of thought is
synonymous with culture or ethnicity?
In your experience as a Library Director do you
think that people with only an MLS and no previous library experience are properly
prepared for their positions as professionals?
Would you consider a 4-year or even a 2-year degree
as adequate education for current frontline Librarian positions?
In your experience as a Library Director how do you
think professional Librarian salaries compare to nonprofessional positions in
other local government departments? Do you believe higher education requirements
would have an impact on this?
Do you support the ALA-APA efforts to promote
certification for Library Directors on top of a Masters Degree?
Thank you for your time.
Greg McClay Tuesday December 07, 2004
I just got the latest issue of American Libraries.
Lots of interesting stuff but just two small points and one big one. I don't think
of myself as a Clinton basher, I think he's slime but I don't dwell. The only
reason I bring him up is his new library is on the cover and the angle they took
makes it not only look like a double-wide but a half-finished double-wide on jacks.
What were they thinking when they built that?
Carol Brey-Casiano, ALA President, actually has an
editorial that doesn't make you feel like librarian is synonymous with social
worker. How un-President like. Though I would avoid the term 'social epidemic'.
Its an interesting comparison but I would advise against ever trying to advocate
something using a disease as a metaphor.
Okay. Intellectual Freedom article on page 42 by
James LaRue, director of Douglas County Libraries in Castle Rock, CO. Its called
"Buddha at the Gate, Running: Why People Challenge Library Material." The entire
article summed up in one line, "Control is an illusion." Basically, Mr. LaRue is
arguing that parents challenge library materials because they feel they can control
what their children can access or will see. He continues to argue that this is
simply not possible, that parents need to accept this and simply love their
children as much as possible while facing the inevitable.
Early on he makes one of two mistakes.
The first:
Innocuous - having no adverse effect, harmless.
We'll come back... Shortly after this Mr. LaRue shares an exchange with a parent
who has caught their son viewing porn on one of the computers. His tact is to tell
the parent to stop the child from doing it. He follows with this:
"That's all." No, that's everything. Yes, kids test boundaries, that's their
nature. But acting as if policing the kids on the internet or making some effort
to police the collection is some kind of burden, undermines those boundaries. The
only way a child knows the difference between right and wrong is our responses to
their actions. Those Berenstein Bear books you were just writing off as harmless
are the foundation that society's boundaries are built on. The basics of right and
wrong. No adverse effect? A very adverse effect on bad behavior. A postive effect
on raising good kids. And when a teenager is sneaking peeks on the internet, the
reason he's sneaking is because he knows its wrong (possibly from reading B Bear
books). Let's make sure we keep it in that context.
The final page of the article lists a series of
steps when dealing with parent challenges. They're not bad if you actually thought
the parent had a right to complain but based on the previous 2/3s of the article
Mr. LaRue seems to use them as a way of pacification not actual interaction.
The article takes the word 'control' and treats it
as an extreme. Well, if you say you control something you can also say you are
guiding it. The materials we make available for children and teens should be seen
in that light. We should always be aware of what direction we are guiding them in
and we should never undercut our own control over those who could be looking up to
us and whose parents place a certain amount of trust in.
Let me take a page from Mr. LaRue's Buddhist theme
and share a bit of SHUSH philosophy: I can't stop a river, but give me a box of
dynamite and I can change its direction.
Monday December 06, 2004
Getting lazy aren't I? Not really though. You're going
to be bored but I'll tell you about it anyway.
I had three Christmas parties since Thursday past.
One was actually political oriented. I got to meet some of the fine folk of the
Lowell Republican City Committee. I've always been lax with the local issues and
this was a good jumping in point. The other parties were for town employees and the
library staff. Would you believe that the librarians were the ones having the most
fun at not one but both?
I've also been very busy with the job that pays me
money, and therefore the bills. Which means it gets priority #1. One of
my duties is to produce a half-hour program once a month for the library that
broadcasts on the local cable channel. At this time of the year I take digital
video footage of the trees in the library, plus the staff, and make a little
Christmas greeting card to play on the program. The regular program I edit using
basic editing tools and VHS tape. The digital is different and uses different
software. I had a 4 hour crash course using the new upgraded software. The clip
came out great but I was a walking zombie when done.
I've been taking piano for almost 5 years now. I was
switched to a new teacher this fall, partly because I think my old teacher didn't
think I was motivated anymore. She may have been right because I'm coming at it
from a whole new angle now and its great. Exhausting but great. I'm learning the
Blues and I spent last weekend trying to get my II-IV-I's down. I'm better at it
but I'm not there yet, and now I'm working on my dominant chords, A & B voicings.
Its fascinating but frustrating. I used to just take a piece a music and play it over
and over again. Now there is no written music and I actually have to learn it by
writing it out myself, in letters and notes. Music is Math and there is an interconnected
wholeness to it that's hard to describe and just as hard (for me) to see. I'm
seeing a lot more now then I did before but there's still a long way to go.
I'm halfway through Christmas shopping though I can't really
say much about that can I? Shopping isn't really my specialty. I don't mind it but
I'm not really one to spend all day doing it. I do like to go into the more eclectic
shops just for fun. And I have no idea how music and movie stores make money in malls,
I get way better prices online or at K-Mart and Wal-Mart.
I have SHUSH because I think about SHUSH-things. I also
think about other things that take up time that can't really be covered here. So this
is me defending all my non-shared non-library navel gazing. I will say one thing that I
have no intention of debating. I'm just saying it because I think it needs to be said but
I don't want to go out of my way to offend people on this. At this point I know multiple
people directly or indirectly who have adopted babies via China. 1. We have a binder
in our reference collection filled with kids here in Massachusetts that need good homes.
2. If people don't like buying cheap goods from China because it supports cheap labor and
child labor think about why that child is up for adoption and also why its probably a
girl. Nuff said on that.
Okay, some quick shout outs: Shoe's showing us her
Linux chops and more power to her. She's almost got me convinced to try it out.
The Heretical Librarian is on the political job and
Coffee Spills is a little slice
of life from someone who must drink way to much coffee. Also, I've mentioned the
In Season Christian Librarian before but she recently got lumped in with us
barbaric big 'C' Conservative Librarians. She's not big 'C', probably little 'c',
so if you're a big 'L', be nice.
Bored? That's fine. I'm done for the day. I'll
have a special extra-controversial posting in a day or two which has also eaten up
a little outside time. I'll keep you posted.
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