This is not a rebel song.
I'd like to play a rousing number for you fine people tonight, something to get your toes tapping, your hearts pumping, your minds racing. A rhythmic walking bassline in a minor key, some nice smoky sax and muted trumpet playing in unison, a twangy lead-line on a reverb-drenched vintage guitar, like something out of a modern day film noir soundtrack. It's dark, and it commands your attention.
This one goes out to all of you. It's a little about intellectual freedom, a little about privacy, a little about government intrusion, and a lot about what we, as the librarians of the future, can do to stand up for ourselves and our patrons. They might have the USA PATRIOT Act, but we've got ourselves one hot lounge act!
As most of you know from this week's assigned reading, the USA PATRIOT Act is actually an acronym for "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act" (Kranich, 2004). Passed by a Republican-controlled Congress after the tragic attacks of September 11, 2001, the Act allowed for government agencies such as the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security to obtain records of books checked out by library patrons, among other things, as part of investigating terrorist activities. Needless to say, this flies in the face of the American Library Association's well-publicized stances on not only privacy, but also freedom of information for all.
The ALA has several subdivisions devoted to upholding the Bill of Rights, particularly the First Amendment: the Intellectual Freedom Committee (IFC), the Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF), and many others (Kranich, 2004). When I encouraged all of you to join the ALA and get involved, I had many of these subdivisions in mind, where we can join the good fight and protect the values we cherish most as Americans, and based our civilization on. The ALA has been politically active ever since its inception, and mostly throughout the 20th Century and into the 21st. The article by former ALA President Nancy Kranich recounts many of the ALA's triumphs for library advocacy over the decades, and it was a fascinating read. Now more than ever, there is great cause for librarians to play a role in national politics, as local opinion leaders and crusaders with very loud voices. Good thing every night is open mic night here at the Library Advocacy Lounge, huh, kids?
In his 2003 article, Albanese wrote about all the attacks on librarians by the political right:
In an editorial, the Wall Street Journal mocked librarians by calling them "'former collectors of fines' involved in an array of 'loony firefights'."
The conservative National Review accused the ALA of having an "ideology you expect to find among naive college students and destitute Latin American peasants."
Former Attorney General John Ashcroft, while drumming up support for the Patriot Act in 2003, mockingly referred to librarians as "hysterical" and claimed that the ALA was "duped by the American Civil Liberties Union."
Former Attorney General Ed Meese told a national audience that librarians were "more interested in allowing pornography to go to children than they are fighting terrorism," referring to the Children's Internet Protection Act (controversial legislation that the ALA was not successful in having the Supreme Court overturn) and the Patriot Act.
So we have our work cut out for us, true believers. There's a lot of misinformation floating around out there about librarians and their values, and there are many politicians and pundits who would dare paint us as "unpatriotic" or "un-American," when in fact, librarians and the ALA represent the purest core ideals America was founded on. As advocates, we need to continue to fight the good fight: defending the First Amendment, combatting ignorance in all its forms, and speaking out against hypocrisy and injustice when we find it. We can take the slings and barbs and taunts (we know they're wrong, and it's not like they're even funny), but by becoming aware and active, we can truly stand up against those who would seek to censor our information and curtail our intellectual freedom. Don't be afraid to take a stand for what you know is right. Left or right, liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican, we're all on our way to becoming librarians, so we all have to be in this together.
The band builds to a crescendo, and we fade out -- but we're not done. Does anyone have any first-hand experiences dealing with the ramifications of the Patriot Act in your libraries? Any anecdotes or articles to share? Any ideas for getting involved on a local or national level, or links to relevant information online? I know we have our big papers coming up, but I'm just speaking in general terms tonight. I certainly hope I haven't offended anyone, but I'd be surprised if I did. As we become professionals, we really are going to be in for the fight of our lives, so it never hurts to start thinking about how to stand up for ourselves.
Sources:
Albanese, A.R. (2003). The public's lobby. Library Journal 128 (19), 32. Retrieved March 6, 2006, from Wilson Library Literature and Information Science Index online database.
Kranich, N. (2004). ALA and political action: Ensuring the public's right to know in the digital age. Argus 33 (3), 17-23. Retrieved March 6, 2006, from Wilson Library Literature and Information Science Index online database.
This one goes out to all of you. It's a little about intellectual freedom, a little about privacy, a little about government intrusion, and a lot about what we, as the librarians of the future, can do to stand up for ourselves and our patrons. They might have the USA PATRIOT Act, but we've got ourselves one hot lounge act!
As most of you know from this week's assigned reading, the USA PATRIOT Act is actually an acronym for "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act" (Kranich, 2004). Passed by a Republican-controlled Congress after the tragic attacks of September 11, 2001, the Act allowed for government agencies such as the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security to obtain records of books checked out by library patrons, among other things, as part of investigating terrorist activities. Needless to say, this flies in the face of the American Library Association's well-publicized stances on not only privacy, but also freedom of information for all.
The ALA has several subdivisions devoted to upholding the Bill of Rights, particularly the First Amendment: the Intellectual Freedom Committee (IFC), the Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF), and many others (Kranich, 2004). When I encouraged all of you to join the ALA and get involved, I had many of these subdivisions in mind, where we can join the good fight and protect the values we cherish most as Americans, and based our civilization on. The ALA has been politically active ever since its inception, and mostly throughout the 20th Century and into the 21st. The article by former ALA President Nancy Kranich recounts many of the ALA's triumphs for library advocacy over the decades, and it was a fascinating read. Now more than ever, there is great cause for librarians to play a role in national politics, as local opinion leaders and crusaders with very loud voices. Good thing every night is open mic night here at the Library Advocacy Lounge, huh, kids?
In his 2003 article, Albanese wrote about all the attacks on librarians by the political right:
In an editorial, the Wall Street Journal mocked librarians by calling them "'former collectors of fines' involved in an array of 'loony firefights'."
The conservative National Review accused the ALA of having an "ideology you expect to find among naive college students and destitute Latin American peasants."
Former Attorney General John Ashcroft, while drumming up support for the Patriot Act in 2003, mockingly referred to librarians as "hysterical" and claimed that the ALA was "duped by the American Civil Liberties Union."
Former Attorney General Ed Meese told a national audience that librarians were "more interested in allowing pornography to go to children than they are fighting terrorism," referring to the Children's Internet Protection Act (controversial legislation that the ALA was not successful in having the Supreme Court overturn) and the Patriot Act.
So we have our work cut out for us, true believers. There's a lot of misinformation floating around out there about librarians and their values, and there are many politicians and pundits who would dare paint us as "unpatriotic" or "un-American," when in fact, librarians and the ALA represent the purest core ideals America was founded on. As advocates, we need to continue to fight the good fight: defending the First Amendment, combatting ignorance in all its forms, and speaking out against hypocrisy and injustice when we find it. We can take the slings and barbs and taunts (we know they're wrong, and it's not like they're even funny), but by becoming aware and active, we can truly stand up against those who would seek to censor our information and curtail our intellectual freedom. Don't be afraid to take a stand for what you know is right. Left or right, liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican, we're all on our way to becoming librarians, so we all have to be in this together.
The band builds to a crescendo, and we fade out -- but we're not done. Does anyone have any first-hand experiences dealing with the ramifications of the Patriot Act in your libraries? Any anecdotes or articles to share? Any ideas for getting involved on a local or national level, or links to relevant information online? I know we have our big papers coming up, but I'm just speaking in general terms tonight. I certainly hope I haven't offended anyone, but I'd be surprised if I did. As we become professionals, we really are going to be in for the fight of our lives, so it never hurts to start thinking about how to stand up for ourselves.
Sources:
Albanese, A.R. (2003). The public's lobby. Library Journal 128 (19), 32. Retrieved March 6, 2006, from Wilson Library Literature and Information Science Index online database.
Kranich, N. (2004). ALA and political action: Ensuring the public's right to know in the digital age. Argus 33 (3), 17-23. Retrieved March 6, 2006, from Wilson Library Literature and Information Science Index online database.
posted by Lou @ 10:43 PM
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