Libraries Aid and Abet Pedophiles, Destroy Evidence, Retaliate Against Whistle Blowers, Claim Dubious Privacy and Free Speech Rights; ALA At Fault

In a scathing report, a self-described "recovering librarian" has reported how American Library Association [ALA]-accredited schools indoctrinate students, and, as a direct result, her eastern university school library, for example, allegedly aided and abetted pedophiles, destroyed physical evidence, retaliated against a whistle blower, all the while claiming dubious privacy and free speech rights under the First Amendment for a child pornography viewer.

Please read "Liberals, Libraries, and Child Pornography by Jenn Q. Public," by Afrocity, Autographed Letter Signed, 3 May 2009, which references "Librarians Still Enabling Pedophiles," by Jenn Q. Public, Red Alerts, 16 March 2008.

I have already reported:

• how a patron was kicked out of a library for reporting someone viewing child pornography,
• how a library employee was fired for reporting child porn to the police (more stories here),
  
• how the ALA decried the reporting of a 9/11 terrorist to the police, and
• the general lack of ALA ethics,

but this "recovering librarian" story is truly shocking.

I have already reported:

• how the ALA whitewashed child rape in a public library,

but now you will hear how she "discovered that this extremely liberal east coast college had disappeared the incident." Another whitewash? The library ensured "network logs had been wiped clean, the hard drive had been destroyed," all to protect the child porn criminal. Compare that treatment to the library employee who reported the child porn: "[N]ot so subtly, he was pressured into resigning his position."

You must read this. It is very specific and detailed. It will make your blood boil.

Isn't it time we knocked members of the American Library Association off their high horses, or at least ripped those First Amendment cloaks from their shoulder?

Here are shocking quotes from Jenn Q. Public (2008) that may literally scream out for a criminal investigation of the libraries and of the ALA, emphasis mine:

• She helped officers catch Chrisler in the act of viewing kiddie porn images, resulting in his arrest. .... When she told her supervisor what she had done, Biesterfeld was admonished for lack of loyalty to the County, and even threatened. .... Two days later, Brenda Biesterfeld was fired....


• But I do want to impress upon all of you that this type of situation is more common than you think, and is symptomatic of a larger problem with the “professional ethics” drilled into future librarians by graduate programs and the American Library Association. I ought to know - I’ve been through it.


• If nothing else, my indoctrination into librarianship drove home one point: never, ever give law enforcement officials information about a patron.


• Those who obstruct law enforcement are deified as defenders of First Amendment rights, while those who adhere to legal mandates by cooperating with local or federal officials are pariahs in the library world.


• And then it happened. A technically savvy coworker came to me, pale and visibly shaken, and told me he had found horrible, unspeakable images of children on a library computer. The hard drive, he said, was completely filled with movies and stills. He also said he knew who had downloaded the pornographic content.


• Weeks later, I discovered that this extremely liberal east coast college had disappeared the incident. The network logs had been wiped clean, the hard drive had been destroyed, and my questions about whether the FBI had been notified were skillfully evaded.


• I watched my coworker, the guy who initially found the child porn, literally make himself sick as he struggled with whether or not to circumvent the academic administration by reporting the issue directly to law enforcement. Unlike me, he wasn’t sure we should trust they had been notified. I decided he was probably right when subtly, and then not so subtly, he was pressured into resigning his position.


• Today my concern is that [a subset of] librarians continue to aid and abet pedophiles in the name of free speech and that highly dubious sweeping right to privacy that I have yet to find in the Constitution or Bill of Rights. Their mission to promote intellectual freedom by ensuring patron confidentiality nearly always seems to trump their responsibility to protect our children from pedophiles.


• Librarians cite the protection of personal liberties as a reason for withholding records or failing to report crimes to law enforcement.


• Isn’t it time we knocked members of the American Library Association off their high horses, or at least ripped those First Amendment cloaks from their shoulders?


• Unfortunately, after attending library school, I can tell you unequivocally that critical thinking and good judgment are not part of the curriculum.


• And that’s what makes supporting librarian heroes like Brenda Biesterfeld and decrying public library policies that enable criminality all the more important.

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ALA Conceals Policy Outrage by Ignoring Fired Librarian

The American Library Association has again ignored the plight of a librarian who acted in the best interests of the community. In doing so it has covered up that its policies are often reflected in local library policies, and those local policies sometimes defy local law, community standards, and common sense.

Scott Savage got ignored by the ALA after he was accused of discrimination for recommending a balance of political viewpoints in a college freshmen reading list. Brenda Biesterfeld is getting ignored by the ALA after she violated ALA-style local library policy by reporting criminal activity to the police.

The Scott Savage story from Ohio State University is best told by the victim himself. Please read "Persecuted Librarian Censored Again," by Scott Savage, 9 May 2006. Mr. Savage has filed suit to right this wrong, no help from the ALA, of course. See "The Columbus Dispatch : Librarian Sues OSU to Get His Job Back." As one author put it, "Predictably, as the Virginia Tech librarian told WND, 'the American Library Association has had an incredible silence about Scott Savage. Here's a librarian under attack for recommending a book!'" See 'Marketing of Evil' Locked Out of College Libraries; Bestselling Book Stocked Only in Fraction of Facilities Carrying Liberal-Left Titles, by WorldNetDaily, 26 Apr 2006.

Along comes Brenda Biesterfeld working in the Lindsay Library, part of the Tulare County Library System in California. She catches someone in a criminal act and is ordered by her supervisor not to report it to the police. She follows the supervisors advice, but when the criminal shows up again on another day, she calls the police against those same direct orders. For this she is fired.

The library's policy ignores local law and common sense. But it does mirror the guidance it receives from the ALA. "As for obscenity and child pornography, prosecutors and police have adequate tools to enforce criminal laws. Libraries are not a component of law enforcement efforts...." [ ALA source. ] So not only has the fired librarian defied her supervisor, she has also defied the ALA. Result? She's fired, and the ALA is silent.

Here's the story. On February 28, 2008, Ms. Biesterfeld first observed the criminal activity and was ordered not to call the police. On March 4, she called the police who then arrested the criminal who had returned to the library for more. There's a reason why we have laws, and had they been followed the first time the criminal activity might not have been recurred. Be that as it may, on March 6, she was fired.

The City of Lindsay is furious with the County of Tulare, accusing its employees of lying, "Both Mr. Lewis and Ms. Hill [, the fired librarian's supervisors,] have reinforced a culture of control and misrepresentation of events and facts." Undeterred, the County covers its tracks by refusing to reveal specific justifications for the firing and by back filling the librarian's record with new, negative information. Before the firing, the librarian, on probationary status as a new employee, had good work reviews. After the firing, suddenly the record changes and her previous good work can be summarized by this coverup: "Overall her performance is way below passing and she just doesn't utilize her time well." Source: library letter dated day after librarian was fired.

Where is the ALA in all this? In almost a month the ALA has published only one story on the issue. The ALA Council, quick to attack the Bush administration and support various radical causes, has said not a word. The ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom, quick to browbeat local communities nationwide or wishing it could "drown" jailed Cuban librarians, has said nothing to question why a library employee for almost ten years (in different locations) is fired, why is she told her loyalty belongs to the County instead of the community, why is her record back filled with derogatory information, etc. The ALA is right there in Sacramento supporting the ACLU in its effort to make p*rnography legal in public libraries by saying, "One person's 'p*rnography' is another person's 'Venus de Milo' or Michelangelo's 'David,'" but here, in Tulare County, silence.

Silence.

Even the former ALA Councilor Jessamyn West has sadly noted this silence: "I really wish ALA had come out and made some sort of a statement on this, but I'm not sure what it would have said." [ Librarian.net source. ] I have commended Ms. West in the past for exposing the ALA's silence about the truth about so-called "Banned Books Week."

Exactly what is it that the ALA wants people to ignore by maintaining radio silence so loud even its own former councilors recognize it. Might it be its own policies as exemplified in Tulare County are totally in opposition to local community law and interests and should not be adopted into local libraries? Might it be waiting for this story to disappear from the news so other communities do not become aware, thus do not remove similar ALA policies from their own public libraries?

They are public libraries, after all, not ALA libraries. The ALA's silence speaks loudly that the ALA is hoping other communities will not examine their own library policies too closely. The ALA likes the status quo where most libraries revere ALA policies over local law, common sense, and community standards.

Is this what you want in your own communities? Will the ALA's silence help bury the issue so you'll take no action to remove similar policies from your own public libraries?

Comment below and tell everyone what you think.

Response to Fresno Bee Re Fired Librarian

Below is my response to "Internet Poses New Challenge to Libraries; Tulare Co.'s Flap Over Child Porn Raises Concern," by Tim Sheehan, The Fresno Bee, 31 March 2008:

Dear Tim Sheehan,

FOR PUBLICATION IN FRESNO BEE:

Deborah Caldwell-Stone is quoted as saying, "it's up to the local library to decide what's in the best interest in its community." She is correct. And she adds, assuringly, "The ALA clearly does not condone child pornography." But what does not appear in the article is the heavy handed approach by the ALA in directing local libraries what to think is in their best interests, essentially leaving many libraries as satellites of the ALA--and open to child pornography.

Here is the advice the ALA provides to local libraries in one of its sample policies: "As for obscenity and child pornography, prosecutors and police have adequate tools to enforce criminal laws. Libraries are not a component of law enforcement efforts...." http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/challengesupport/dealing/internetusepolicy.pdf So in public the ALA opposes child pornography and says local libraries should decide what is best for their own communities, but in reality the ALA is directing local libraries to ignore child pornography. Ignoring child pornography seems to be what happened in the Lindsay Library. Coincidence?

As further confirmation of how the ALA leads local libraries to follow ALA policies instead of community standards, notice how both the library and the ALA argue that no one can really judge what is child pornography. Caldwell-Stone puts it best, "One person's 'pornography' is another person's 'Venus de Milo' or Michelangelo's 'David.'"

"What one person might object to is constitutionally protected material," says Caldwell-Stone. Correct, but that is intentionally misleading. According the US v. ALA, public libraries are not open public fora where anything goes. All constitutionally protected material does not get automatically included in all library collections. Indeed libraries are created by some legal instrument that describes explicitly or implicitly what material is acceptable in the public library and what material is not acceptable, even if that material may be constitutionally protected. For example, US v. ALA explained Internet filters may be used to extend existing book collection policies and practices over the Internet, and those existing policies exclude certain constitutionally protected material. So, thanks to local library enabling legislation, otherwise constitutionally protected material may represent a violation of local law. The ALA should not be advising local libraries to violate the very local laws that created them.

Most shocking is that the ALA and Caldwell-Stone lost on these issues in US v. ALA, yet they are continuing to argue these same issues already asked and answered by the US Supreme Court five years ago. Notice the use of ad hominem argument to further obfuscate the issue, "Libraries are truly a democratic institution and should represent everyone, not just a loud majority," said Deborah Caldwell-Stone. What if the "loud majority" is legally correct?

Shame on the ALA, but more shame goes to local communities if they continue to be misled by the ALA or allow the media to report ALA misinformation without question. It does appear, however, that Lindsay leadership is not fooled by the ALA, and Tim Sheehan's article was even handed. Slowly, communities are waking up to the negative influences of the ALA's grip over local library policy. That is good news for children and communities nationwide.

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