Censorship and ALA program in Chicago

It really annoys me when folks who have absolutely no clue about how the American Library Association operates, leap to conclusions, and mis-state what happened.

My issues start with the Annoyed Librarian (who at least professes to be a librarian and an ALA member at an academic institution). The good thing about AL, is that he/she actually states most of the facts fairly correctly. And he/she is correct that "I doubt the ALA or the ALA Council will have much to say about this." But for the reason he/she is wrong.

First, this was a program organized and sponsored by a Round Table. Round Tables (as units within ALA) are among the looser of the kinds of units. They have no ability to speak for the organization, and at best can get ALA Council to act by getting the Round Table Councilor (or another of their members) to bring it up.

Second, the main reason why Council did not act is that there was nothing to do! What can you do if you invite a panel of people, and suddenly all but one quit! You no longer have a panel! (A panel of one?) What to do? I think the Round Table did the right thing and canceled the program.

The charges by folks like Steven Emerson are ridiculous. An ALA unit (part of a professional organization) is supposed to replace a panel discussion with a presentation by a single individual? I think not!

Then there is Dan Kleinman who runs a web site and blog alleging to be "Safe Libraries" but who has been on a long campaign against freedom of speech in public libraries. In his blog, he shows his complete lack of understanding about conferences and how they are organized by challenging "the ALA to include Robert Spencer in next year's panel."

[Side note: In the library world you can usually tell when someone does not like or understand ALA because it is "the ALA" rather than just "ALA" for me it is a red flag -- almost every time!]

What is most interesting is that the speaker who did not cancel has written a much more even handed treatment of the incident. While Robert Spencer does not explicitly accuse ALA of censorship, he does take a little jab. It seems that he is more interested in being heard than in denigrating an organization which actually invited him to speak.

ALA Annual Round-up

I am back, safely, and with only one snafu (which will remain unnamed, since it was my own fault). And thanks to Aaron Dobbs who got me from the Convention Center to my hotel to O'Hare in time to catch my plane.

If you follow ALA "stuff" you may find this site interesting: ala2009 @ flexyourinfo

Heather Devine has created a site which tracks both the Twitter feeds with #ala2009 and the Flickr photos with a similar tag. So you can see the events and read the short messages about them also. Thanks Heather.

She also has a thoughtful post on her blog about the ALA Doctoral Options Fair.

My friend Jessamyn did not go, but captured several links to events.

Fellow Councilor-at-Large Jim Casey has been doing an excellent summary of his activities for many years. Each year it seems that he finishes it sooner and sooner. He posted it to the Council list, but John Chrastka posted it on the ALA Member Blog.

ALA Council -- What's up?

Here we are, about a month away from the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago. [I consciously chose not to link. I hate the way ALA Conference web sites are set up.]

The ALA Council list has been incredibly quiet, and free of content.

Interestingly the two most recent "hot topics" were about whether documents would be posted to the Council list or we had to go to ALA Connect to find them and a discussion about loyalty oaths brought about when a councilor found a 1950s era resolution on the topic.

[Geezer alert] I remember the day when the Council list [ALACOUN] was a very high traffic list with lots of posts and discussion of issues being raised before coming to the floor of Council. That has changed dramatically. I am unsure of the reason why, but I have a "gut feeling" that some of it has to do with the shorter terms. One point that proponents of shorter terms made was about having an opportunity for "new blood." Well, it seems we have had that, and the folks now elected are not nearly as vocal as those in the past.

Some of you who read this are my constituents (since I am a Councilor-at-Large). I welcome, indeed solicit, input. I will continue to speak out when I feel a need, but if there are burning issues, let me know.

ALA Calendar

Here is my attempt at inserting my ALA calendar using Google Calendar.

The only info in here is my ALA Schedule from July 10 - 15. It is (of course) still subject to revision.



Update 6/9: revised to actually work....I hope.