Right Wing Librarian

Go to http://shush.ws first

June 18th, 2006 by Matthew_site admin

Go here first Read the entry from (07:48 am) re: FIRST LADY AT ALA.

Here are my responses:

1) Look ya Marxist perhaps some of us would actually like to see her. Not everyone in the country is a whackjob, some actually appreciate the administration. If you don’t want to hear her don’t go. I certainly don’t want to hear anything you have to say which is why you never see me at meetings where you speak.

2) Rochelle, invited means invited. If something important comes up she may not be able to make it. I know you remember 9/11/2001 … something like that might keep her secreted away somewhere for her own safety. Keeping people out after the program starts, it is standard practice at all of the Broadway theaters, it certainly is standard practice when visiting dignitaries visit, and it is just good manners to be on time. Don’t start trouble because you don’t like her, after all there are unique security concerns involved in any of Mrs. Bush’s trips. The same thing was done for Mrs. Clinton when her husband was president.

3) Mr. McGroaty, yep, nail::head. Exactly, controversy. However Laura Bush is not an enemy of any library.

4) Ms. Conkling, a losing battle for what? What you want or what the parents and voters want? Now you won’t be attending, great now there will be space for me. I think I’ll get there at noon because there might be a security check. How many people do you figure think you don’t have a clue?

5) Pam from NIH, thanks for the voice of reason. Stop being so wishy washy (or don’t feel obliged to do so).

6) Oh, D.C. again. ALA policy, event security. Hmmm I wonder which trumps the other. Didn’t Andre Codrescu violate ALA policy when he had an opinion on Cuban librarians that differed with Gorman’s? Remember they didn’t say you can’t go, they didn’t say you can’t have a different opinion. All they said was be on time. What do you care if they sacrifice virgins on the dais, you aren’t going you said so yourself. STFU whiner.

7) Pam, excellent idea. I would buy a video. ALA could make some money off me that way. (of course you can get a transcript at whitehouse.gov)

8 ) Rory I’m sure her staff does. Try calling 202-456-1111. You’re a librarian you can look up things like that. Don’t wonder, confirm.

9) Ruth, good question. I hope so I have a number of questions I’d like to ask Mrs. Bush and they are all library/librarian related. (D.C. don’t the taxpayers mind you screwing off all day?)

10) Al, the ALA invited her. You know the group sponsoring this whole shebang. If no questions are allowed librarians should protest? Let me help you out Al, the average American does not give a shit about librarians, the average college student does not give a shit about librarians and if you can find one person out of 100 non-librarians that knows you need a masters degree to be a librarian I’ll buy you a book. No one cares about librarians vigorously protesting. Trust me on that one.

11) I like Mr. Rogers. I think he had a great deal of influence on me growing up. You know helping others, not seeing myself as the center of the universe, wearing cardigans. I was very sad when he died. Oh, yeah they probably try to get popular speakers. Eduardo Stein (Barillas) would not be very popular but I saw him in the Miami airport a month or so ago and even spoke with him about Guatemalan coffee. Nice man.

12) Yep OK we are all OK on the security bit.

13) Pinochet? Rozenzweig probably wouldn’t come, he’d be at home washing his Salvador Allende t-shirts.

14) Sorry, nope the open meeting policy:
here does not address those who can’t bother to show up on time. I guess someone had manners when they wrote it. Mark you’re a librarian you could have looked that up. I know it is not in Russian, but you probably could have found it.

15) Hey Al. how are speeches by high government officials relevant here? Mrs. Bush is not a high government official. I realize that Co-president H.R.Clinton thought she was a high government official, but alas she was just the wife on whom the president was cheating.

Well since those are all of the messages Greg has posted I’ll stop here, but suffice it to say if you don’t want to hear Mrs. Bush don’t go. If you do go don’t make arseholes of yourselves so those of us who wish to hear can.

Posted in ALA 10 Comments »

10 Responses to “Go to http://shush.ws first”

P.B.I. Librarian wrote on 06/19/06 at 8:13 08 :

A-F*cking-Men, brother.
Peter wrote on 06/21/06 at 11:08 11 :

Thank God for your rebuttal points. I found the ALA site and was astonished at some of the postings. Don’t these people understand the honor it is to have a First Lady address the meeting? Unfortunately, they see things only through their personal political prism. They are incapable of even being civil to anyone who disagrees with their point of view. And they use their non-political job to push their political views! Thank you for your efforts. I have and always will support the local library as long as people such as yourself are involved. Good luck and best wishes for a successful conference!

Peter (not a librarian)
spion wrote on 06/21/06 at 11:25 11 :

Bravo.

I am waiting on the screening of FahrenHype 9/11 as a bit of balance to that lie-filled, psuedo-documentary presented as something “important” at ALA in the past.

When my students can disassemble via basic first source fact-checking something embraced by our book-loving-bretheren it makes you fear for the future of our libraries.

Sometimes I am struck at the ignorance and intolerant attitudes of others among the membership of the ALA – being a sports spectator myself, I am however, able to understand how these spectators of history, librarians in general, can get so worked up over something they not only fail to contribute to, but also, are unfit to comment on.

Proof of that is seen in Rosenzweig’s Haditha mention. I guess he missed the memo that this story is quickly devolving into being an obvious construct by our enemies and not something based in fact.

I can’t wait to walk up to Rosenzweig and tell him how much I respect and like him – with my fingers crossed. He’ll never know I wished spitting on him would not place me among the other screaming liberal banshees we have to endure at these conventions.

Excellent post.
Akaky wrote on 06/21/06 at 12:53 12 :

I dont know why no one calls Rosenzweig what he is. Even Malkin simply points out that he is the head of the Reference Center for Marxist Studies in New York, as if that explained everything there is to know about this particular member of the ALA. The fact is that the Reference Center for Marxist Studies is a branch of the Communist Party USA. Mr Rosenzweig is a long time Communist whose influence, along with that of other Marxist leaning members of the ALA Council like Ann Sparanese, has led the ALA to ignore the ongoing oppression of the Cuban independent library movement and any step the US makes to defend itself against terrorism. People like Rosenzweig and Sparanese are one of the reasons I am no longer a member of the ALA; my dues are not going to support a professional organization that stands foursquare for the right of dictators to suppress libraries and librarians.
Diedre Conkling wrote on 06/21/06 at 1:56 13 :

I have tried to work with the local school district board and previous administrators (the current one is good and trying to clean up the mess left to him by past administrators) to understand the affect that school libraries have on the education of children. I have pointed to the studies of several of the speakers on the ALA program and had hoped to have the opportunity to here more. The local community does not get to vote on school funding or how it is dispersed in the school system. I don’t know of any place where this does happen but maybe you do. The local newspapers ran many editorials from individuals wanting to keep teacher/librarians in the school libraries. There were no editorials against this concept.

I am sorry to miss the program. I had hoped, as with other ALA programs, to be able to slip in for an hour and then slip out, since I have other commitments. If Laura Bush was not going to be there I could do this and now I can’t. I really would not mind having Laura Bush at the program at all if there was not this closed door, security issue, making impossible for me to meet my other obligations and also attend this meeting.

Yes, I was responding to the Council list while at work, sort of. However, I was well into my 53rd hour of work for the week so I don’t think that it was a real problem for anyone. My Board does know that I am an ALA Council member and I have let them know what that involves, including discussions on the ALA Council list.

Thank you for being concerned for our local tax payers.
Matthew_site admin wrote on 06/21/06 at 7:30 19 :

53 hours at the library. I did that once or twice. Never again. It is apparent that that taxpayers are getting their money’s worth.

The ALA should be helping you on your quest to keep teacher librarians (Library Media Specialists around here) in schools. These people who are certified teachers as well as Masters degreed librarians are the persons best suited to provide library services to schoolchildren. But no, the ALA is doing little as usual to help. Search school librarian in the basic search at the ALA site and you find little relevant. School librarians are getting canned left and right due to the dreaded budget cuts (thank the teachers union for screwing the school systems). Who is showing the value of school librarians, nobody. If people could see a ROI, a benefit for their tax dollars then they would keep the librarians. Both you and I as librarians know the value of school librarians, but the public and the parents think it is just volunteer work that can be done by the PTA reshelving the books. Librarianship is a profession and school librarianship is a subspecialty and the ALA needs to show that value to the public. The search for school librarian at ala.org that yielded few if any results showing how we should get the value added message across, that speaks volumes about the ALA. Primarily it shows that they react rather than act. They wait until a problem occurs before doing anything about it. Think Salinas, think Buffalo, think Clark Atlanta. Where was the ALA to raise community support for these important American Library related issues?

As usual they were off discussing Michael Moore, or resolutions about Iraq or arguing against Cubans who maintain private libraries and truly be called librarians. They deal with nonsense leftist whacko crap when they should be paying attention to American Libraries.

If there were another professional body for librarians in the States I would join in a heartbeat. I even joined Cumann Leabharlann na hÉireann to keep current with a national body that was not so far removed from the practice of librarianship as to be ineffective.

The fringe groups that have taken over at the ALA are what is alienating the public. People don’t care how the ALA feels about the USA PATRIOT Act; people don’t give a damn about ALA resolutions against torture, resolutions supporting Iraqi libraries, resolutions against the destruction of antiquities. No one but the whack jobs and self-important blowhards on the various roundtables and councils cares.

What the ALA council needs to pass is a resolution to STFU and help the library patron as directed by those you serve. If the community wants a book removed, remove it. They paid for it they can throw it away. If the community wants 87 linear feet of books on knitting then collect them. If the community wants filters on the Internet terminals then filter them. Librarians remember for whom you work, and I bet it is not yourself but the taxpayers. So keep the politics out of librarianship.

Librarians also need to reestablish the professionalism of librarianship. Speak up when they replace librarians with paraprofessionals in roles that should be filled by degreed librarians. Stop taking minimum wage for your work. Value yourselves; don’t let some bureaucrat value you. If I could pay my doctor or lawyer or plumber $8.13 per hour I would and that is what some libraries in my state are getting away with paying MLS degreed librarians. Why, because some librarian will put up with it. As a minimum a librarian has six years of higher eduation. Is $27K a reasonable salary. No, I worked for that when I first became a librarian in 2004 and I’ll never do it again. If fact I won’t even consider offers that are lower than my student loan balance.

Further devaluation of the profession occurs because library school is a joke. Sure there are some good schools, there are even some good tracks at schools that you can slide through on other tracks, but face it library school is not medical school. I have a cat that could finish library school. High school was harder.
Stop letting anyone into library school and more importantly stop letting everyone out. Make it tough but rewarding. Flunk those who can’t handle it. Perhaps we will be taken seriously when we are serious about requiring substantial effort and learning in library school.

Still have the basic search up at ALA.org? Search for Iraq. What does that have to do with America and Libraries? IFLA can cover the big picture; let ALA worry about the USA.

Thanks for responding. Have a great time in New Orleans and stay safe.
Ann Ewbank wrote on 06/21/06 at 8:12 20 :

Posted over at Malkin’s TownHall Column

As with any event that a major political figure attends, there is bound to be controversy. However, the comments being made on both sides of the argument are taking the focus away from school libraries, which does a disservice to kids. As a member of ALA, newly elected Councilor, and former school librarian, I am glad that Laura Bush has been invited to attend ALA and draw national attention to a serious issue in American public education. In Arizona, where I live, only 50% of elementary schools have a certified librarian. Some schools do not have libraries at all, and some schools have a library that consists of 150 ratty paperbacks in a closet. Under federal accounting guidelines, school library services are considered a non-instructional expense, like transportation and food services (expenses like prom and athletics are considered to be instructional). Yet, there are fourteen replicated studies that indicate that a strong library program is a major factor in student achievement on standardized tests. In January, the ALA Council passed a resolution that recommended that school library services be considered instructional. School librarians are not required to be highly qualified as part of No Child Left Behind. In 2003, the ALA Council passed a resolution that supported the inclusion of librarians as required to be highly qualified under NCLB. What does this have to do with rebuilding school libraries after disasters such as Hurricane Katrina? It has to do with student achievement. It has to do with providing opportunities for literacy. It has to do with rebuilding a community. A library is so much more than a collection of books in a room. It is a community cornerstone. When your entire community has been washed away, you need normalcy. You need information. You need kids to get back to school as soon as possible so that they do not lose valuable learning time. This is why Laura Bush has been invited and this is where the focus should be. Please remember that ALA is an enormous organization of 60,000. There are many viewpoints within the membership and within ALA Council. Thanks, Ann Dutton Ewbank, Ph.D. ALA Member, ALA Councilor 2006-2009 (my term begins at the close of the 2006 Annual conference)
Matthew_site admin wrote on 06/21/06 at 10:47 22 :

Thank you Dr. Ewbank, how very interesting. I’m glad you posted. I know the ALA can do so much, I am unfortunately disappointed that it frequently loses it focus.

If there were more Councilors who acted on facts and not political grandstanding I’d pony up the hundred bucks for ALA.
Greg at SHUSH wrote on 06/24/06 at 12:06 12 :

Ewbank – the ALA passed several good resolutions at MidWinter. If it didn’t have to divide its time, money, and energy to deal with the numerous crackpots on council it could probably be a very effective organization. But I have sat in on several Council meetings now and the amount of time arguing and debating over the political while more important things are glossed over and forgotten is amazing and it makes ALA inept and uneffective. Quit dithering and call a spade a spade.
Ann Ewbank wrote on 06/25/06 at 11:38 23 :

For Greg at shush.ws:

I definitely appreciate your opinion. In an organization this massive, the cacophony of voices can be deafening at times, can’t it?

However, after working on the Midwinter resolution, I felt like I wanted to have a voice. I wanted to be involved rather than sitting from the sidelines. My primary concern is access to exemplary school library programs for kids. That is why I chose to run as a petition candidate for Council. Involvement gives me a sense of ownership, and ALA is what its members make of it. I hope that librarians with all kinds of viewpoints run for and are elected to Council.

Topical commentary by a librarian and of interest to librarians and those that like libraries.

Go to http://shush.ws first

10 Responses to “Go to http://shush.ws first”

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