My SA has a piece about the popular “Radical Militant Librarian” button that ALA has been selling in response to the FBI calling librarians that in e-mail correspondence.
“I saw it and I couldn’t resist,” Krug said of the librarian-slam-turned-money-making button. “The head of our store said it was the fastest-selling button he’s ever seen. They were flying off the shelves.”
Proceeds from the buttons, which cost between $1.25 and $2, depending on the number purchased, go to the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom.”
“Krug acknowledged the buttons fly in the face of conventional stereotypes of librarians.”
Fantastic…
Now I have to write a letter to the editor rebutting the nonsense that all librarians are militant radicals. Some of us prefer not to be called radical and militant.
Some of us also don’t believe that the ALA has taken a strong enough stand on the plight of Cuban librarians, or as Gorman calls them so-called librarians.
Re:Fantastic…
Well, if powerful elements of my government are going to call key tenets of my profession (reader privacy and free access to information) militant and radical, than I am going to OWN what they call me. These are key tenets of American freedom and we can’t stand by — even if we find ourselves forced into a position that some in our government want to label radical.
For another source of buttons, if you are disenchanted with ALA and would like profits to go to another organization, or if you just don’t like the ALA design, try http://www.cafepress.com/mrlibn.