The Volokh Conspiracy is considered a “blawg” as it is written by law professors and lawyers. A wide variety of issues are discussed there. The blog typically comes in between center-right and libertarian in its viewpoints expressed.
David Bernstein, a law professor at George Mason University, recently wrote his thoughts about book-banning there. Dale Carpenter, a law professor at University of Minnesota, also wrote a post on his own thoughts there. These are both in comparison to the commentary presented by the podcast engineer in this week’s podcast.
Now, for a little bit of synthesis. Where is the ALA in this? In our hysterical rants over this matter, librarians online have apparently created a very real erosion of authority for the profession at large. As noted by Bernstein and Carpenter, the MLS seems to be not worth a whole lot if that incident in Alaska is typical of librarians nationally. Bernstein already questioned collection development authority in terms of it being censorship itself.
Unless and until librarians calm down, there are very real dangers being presented to the livelihood of libraries. Libraries might not be set upon by book banners if Mrs. Palin secures federal office. Rather than ban books, a very real danger that this continuing hysteria episode creates is that it may alienate budget decision-makers. Anonymous or not, hysterical remarks in the case may well come back to haunt attempts at seeking budget increases let alone tax levy issues on the ballot.
Rather than hysterical rants online filtering outward for all to see, would it have benefited the profession more to engage in a massive PR campaign to educate people effectively about these issues?
one point
Stephen,
I must disagree on one point. Any kerfuffle between obscure bloggers, library nerds, Internet libertarians, blogo-journalists and the like is the very definition of unimportant, unsubstantial and harmless. No policy or decision makers will be affect at all by this unless they are policy and decision makers with a blogroll, podcast and a favorite lolcat.
Just because this is our world doesn’t everyone lives in it with us. Very few people do.
This is, as they say, nuthin’ but a soldier’s fight. The world will be as unaware about anything have to do with libraries and librarians as they they were before. Which is to say, completely.
But you are spot on in asking what can librarians and ALA do to educate with PR and improve our standing and “stock” as it were. It does nothing now and it could do a great deal.
I’ve gone through following tax levy campaigns before
One of the bad things about having been a member of the fourth estate off and on since 1998 is that I have covered multiple local elections. I have watched tax levy ballot contests go down in flames over just such things. One poor school district kept trying over and over and over at the ballot box in hopes of eventually securing a victory. It got old when we hit the third go-around in a row.
What does it take to poison the waters and kill a tax levy? There is never one single thing to do such in. That means, though, that we should not provide kindling for use by somebody else. As I have seen over the past ten years, while the making of such kindling is perhaps innocent the biggest worry comes when somebody comes along with a bit of a spark who can put such to use. Comments alone are just comments. Comments in the hands of someone like a Dr. James Dobson railing about how librarians are evil people trying to impose their values on others is frankly far more dangerous.
This whole tizzy expand outward beyond the world of LIS. As I saw from the bot reports, more mainstream news outlets caught wind of these concerns. Obscurity can be nullified in fairly short order due to media integration today. With the difficulties facing the print news market, most of that content has been racing towards online distribution as well as merged presence. The company that owns KLAS here not only has TV capability but also cablecast work in partnership with CNN and a separate online platform. The only thing they are missing is a radio station and a print outlet. Between that and membership in a system like the AP one single reporter could yank an obscurity blogger into the spotlight far, far too easily.
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Stephen Michael Kellat, Host, LISTen
PGP KeyID: 899C131F
Well what exactly do you
Well what exactly do you think the remedy for that would be, though? You’re never going to be able to shame or crack down on all the obscure bloggers out there. The e-mail forwards with the bogus list of books cited a comment on librarian.net, not even the blogger herself. Do we make all comments moderated in response to that? Is there ever going to be a way to keep Dobson from finding a quote somewhere from some random person that he can’t rail against? I don’t think so.
I haven’t seen many actual librarian bloggers raise a stink out of proportion to what happened. Raised concerns about the reports of Palin firing of a librarian, sure, but not with any inflammatory judgmental language or false info. You might be able to find some random one somewhere, but that would just prove my point above.
Remedy?
Again, what do ALA members pay for? Where are they in advocacy? If the ALA could promote a single campaign setting out what is mainstream in libraries, that would be the best way to go.
The biggest problem right now is that we have no single point of contact advocating effectively for libraries. There is no way we could pull off a biblioblogosphere equivalent to Kellogg-Briand Pact. Until such time as librarianship is the US is not as fractured as it is with so many rugged individualists going their separate directions such would be impossible.
I wish I could say there would be a magic fix. There isn’t. The biggest thing that would have to be accomplished would be to somewhat unify the profession. Right now, it isn’t. After that you can get away with a single PR campaign to promote the authority of librarians in terms of selecting books as well as emphasizing the trustworthiness of libraries.
The NEA is an example of an entity that could pull off such a campaign. The NEA as well as the American Federation of Teachers are both unions. The ALA is instead a membership-based non-profit organization. Until the profession has a tool similar to NEA & AFT, we won’t be able to start working on a coherent single PR campaign.
Unless there is a sudden surge in interest to cause action at Mid-Winter, I don’t see this being rectified.
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Stephen Michael Kellat, Host, LISTen
PGP KeyID: 899C131F
Dobson or You?
Considering how liberal the ALA and librarians in general are, I’m a bit surprised you see Dobson as the problem. Do you just think the public is stupid?
Are they?
I pull out Dobson solely as just one example of someone to be worried about. Although he is regarded as supposedly a religious leader, his background is actually in child psychology. Dr. Dobson does know how to whip up a crowd, though.
Is the public stupid? No, not necessarily. With the climate we’ve got right now where banking institutions are collapsing, though, hysteria is fairly easy to whip up perhaps. As I said, comments alone are nothing to worry about. Comments in the hands of someone who can hold them up decontextualized is a problem regardless who is on what side of the political spectrum if that person has an issue with libraries.
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Stephen Michael Kellat, Host, LISTen
PGP KeyID: 899C131F
the problem
I’m surprised that you think either the ALA or Focus on Someone Else’s Family is the problem.
Actually, no. I’m not. But other people think that too.
Dobson et al certainly think we’re stupid
People who wish to enslave us all to their ideology generally profess to do so because we need to be protected from ourselves. In short: that we are too stupid to be able to live our own lives.
In this case, however, the name Dobson was thrown out there only as an example. That point was perfectly clear within the context of the message.
There is nothing that cannot be found offensive by someone, somewhere.
Hysterectomy
Though my comment may provoke a fainting spell or even the vapors, I’d like to point out that using the word “hysterical” so often to describe a female governor and VP candidate and the female library director she fired to blog readers in the woman-heavy library profession is saying more than you think.
As an injunction to curb perceived excesses, which everyone can appreciate, you could find a more accurate and inclusive term. (Imagine of a bunch of shirtless guys in face paint at a Packers game during overtime and see what adjectives bubble up.)