Editorial

Unthinking of American Intelligence

This commentary from LewRockwell.com on critical thinking skills and its relationship to intelligence (as in military intelligence and CIA type stuff) is notable for the following comment:
"You can receive all the information you want, but if you are incapable of processing it and establishing patterns and relationships from disparate sources, you may as well be a librarian."
I dunno about you, but I get the feeling this guy, William Buppert, doesn't think too much of the work we do.

The Truth about Fearless Librarians

Steve Fesenmaier writes "Several recent events have made me write this essay. First there was Attorney General Ashcroft's direct attack on the American Library Association and librarians in general, calling them hysterical about the effects of the Patriot Act. If Ashcroft had bothered to actually talk to a few librarians personally, he would have discovered that very, very few were actually shredding their records and going bonkers about the Patriot Act. -- Read More

Putting condos above library very patriotic

Kind of an Odd Little Letter to the editor form The Palm Beach Post.
The author says, in his "Dear Mr. Ashcroft" letter:
"The USA Patriot Act, in its zeal to find terrorists among us, has managed to inflame Americans across the political spectrum, not just the political lefties.

You may think this is no big deal. But you've got the librarians against you.

The librarians!

This isn't good. These Dewey-decimal drones may talk softly, but they're very organized people."

Cyber rights at ALA.org, Your Personal Information May Be For Sale

The new ALA website has a Communication
Preferences section that deserves close attention from
current and future ALA members. The decisions being
made at ALA could affect your privacy and set
troublesome precedents for the way your personal
information is used. ALA\'s new communications
preferences page will have a default setting of \"opt-out\"
forcing members who do not want their personal
information sold to mailing list to log in to change it. An
\"opt out\" setting means that your personal information
is considered available for marketing and mailing list
purposes unless you opt out. With an \"opt in\" setting
members must specifically request to have their name
and information used for such purposes. Privacy
advocates support \"opt in\". -- Read More

Copy to: King George

Fourth of July again: a day for barbeques, lemonade and speeches. I’ll keep this one short so that you can get back to your recliner. -- Read More

Our great public libraries

Peter writes "Take a bow all you public librarians. This Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial points out the value of Milwaukee public libraries and is probably true of most of the country.


"When, as a young man, Benjamin Franklin organized a private library association in Philadelphia, the idea was to make more books accessible to those who wanted to broaden their horizons in pursuit of their particular American dreams." "

It Takes a Team of Davids to Persuade Goliath to Change His Ways

Marilyn LaCourt writes "Large publishing companies and the press choose what books are available for the public to read, and their choices are not necessarily based on the merit of the books they promote. The very sad part of this story is that the public gets spoon-fed by the big publishing companies and the press. A lot of very fine literature never makes it to the readership for which it was intended.

How many people have you heard say, "I’m going to write a book someday"? Perhaps you are one of them. How many stories have you heard about writers getting their books rejected by a hundred publishers before they find one that will publish it? -- Read More

Questions raised about ALA\'s handling of Toronto decision

First off, let me start by saying I’m not particularly worried about getting SARS in Toronto. My chances for hangover are far greater than catching a fairly well-contained respiratory disease. What has concerned me, though, is the less-than-complete job of sharing information about the situation by ALA. I don’t envy the Executive Board one bit. This is a monster conference, planned for years, and a sorely needed bit of fellowship during one of the worst budget crises in decades. To have canceled or relocated the conference would have been a nightmare, financially and logistically, not only for ALA, but for Toronto, conference attendees and presenters, and exhibitors. With yesterday\'s spike in cases, the WHO is again taking a hard look at Toronto, deciding today to not issue another travel advisory. -- Read More

ALA, others, indicted in 'queering' of American schools

A lengthy rant about the vast queerwing conspiracy to de-hetero the youngsters of America by Marjorie King in FrontPagemag.com. King focuses on a group called Gay, Lesbian and Straight Educational Network (GLSEN), but ALA, NEA, and the APA are indicted for supporting GLBT awareness in schools. King pulls out some extreme examples to make her point (a teach-in for teachers and youth ages 14-21, including a workshop on fisting), but seems, uh, bent on keeping any aspect of GLBT culture in the closet.

Public libraries need the public's support

SomeOne noticed this nice OP-ED By Desda Moss over at the USA Today.
She says state and local leaders need to work to prevent a tragic ending because millions of Americans rely on public libraries and tey deserve to have them maintained as vibrant centers of learning, not turned into the desiccated byproducts of political shortsightedness.

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