Monday, July 20, 2009

ALA Change-Agents Seek Local Control of Public Libraries

The American Library Association [ALA] has been directly targeting local communities for so long that it no longer hides its goals: "Members of the American Library Association are change-agents within their communities." This from the ALA's "MemberBlog" mission statement.

Excuse me? ALA members are "change-agents within their communities"? Previously, voting citizens were the "change-agents." No longer, I guess.

"From public to academic to school to research and special libraries, ALA members have an immediate, dynamic impact on the quality of life in a community...."

You can say that again.

Claim ALA rules control local communities,
Refuse to call the police,
Get angry when librarians call the police on porn viewers,
Apply ALA propaganda in local communities,
Claim forgetting reports of child pornography,
Are themselves child molesters,
Mislead the library board,
Are not sure how porn got past the selection process,
Seek to lift R rated movie restrictions.

They are having "an immediate, dynamic impact on the quality of life in a community." But what kind? And these people are supposed to be "change-agents within their communities"?

Quick poll. Is this what you want for your community?

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6 comments:

  1. There's no reason to call the police if someone is viewing porn in the public library. As long as the individual isn't exposing him/herself, what are the police going to do?

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  2. Or like the thousands of librarians like me and rest of the sisters who put on a badge every day and:

    -teach kids to read so they have a fighting chance in crappy schools.

    - provide a cultural life for their patrons, for many of them, the only one they have.

    -provide technical instruction were little exists, or internet access where there is none

    -to the grunt work of academic discovery

    -teach children on the cheap and make it look easy

    -PREVENT perverts, diddlers, and teenagers from porning it up all over the place

    -work in bad neighborhoods with nothing more than a pink collar to protect them

    - etc.

    Dan, if I tried to tar you with the same brush as every baby-bumbing, mistress-banging, collection-plate thieving Christian in American you'd look like an oil slick in an hour and a half.

    I like coming here and arguing with you because though I think you are wrong I think you are genuine and honest. Usually.

    If you would like to smear me and the Sisters as a bunch of porn-loving sex offenders then you can drop the rhetorical artifice and go to hell.

    -Chuck

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  3. Paige and Anonymous (Chuck), thanks for writing.

    No, Chuck, there's no smearing here, just reporting and commenting on the news.

    And, as you likely know, the vast majority of library directors are likely not like those exampled above. Indeed this blog is filled with examples of decent library directors, the ones who get in the news for DEFYING the ALA propaganda, though usually not in the ALA-sourced news.

    Be that as it may, I was surprised to see, in print, in the open, right from the ALA itself, what I have been exposing, namely, "Members of the American Library Association are change-agents within their communities."

    How hard is it for me to say this and be believed when the ALA is saying it itself?

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  4. ALA members "in their communities", as the text says, are tax-paying citizens. They have as much influence as any other citizen, who might also be a member of a professional association.

    So what's your point?

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  5. "Members of the American Library Association are change-agents within their communities."

    Yes, and so are members of the Kiwanis Club, the Rotarians, the Fraternal Order of Police, etc. EVERY organization within a community tries to be change-agents. Really, you're tilting at windmills here, apparently desparate to find anyway possible to shed the ALA in a bad light. It is very unbecoming of you.

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  6. Anonymous, that's why I included numerous specific examples of library directors defying their communities, in one case even defiling his community. You rarely see "the Kiwanis Club, the Rotarians, the Fraternal Order of Police, etc." doing that, do you. And if you do, it rarely negatively affects children, does it.

    Oh it's not windmills I'm after--it's certain ALA policies that enable people to defy local communities and thereby endanger children. I have praised the ALA before and I'll do it again when warranted, so I'm not "apparently desparate to find anyway possible to shed the ALA in a bad light." Your attempt to put the focus on me instead of the issue at hand is cute, but not effective.

    ReplyDelete

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