She Throws the Book at Liberal Librarians

The thought of having a “favorite” librarian has never crossed my mind, but Norma over at Collecting My Thoughts just hit rock star status in my book. In a post titled Progressive and Radical Librarians, she details the rise of Progressivism in professional organizations of public libraries and the way they are trying to shape the library system into an agent of social and political change.

They are political first, second and third, and librarianship, if it exists in their thought process, ranks somewhere below… PARL never asks what can be done for the working librarians, the profession or the library user, only how can they mold the library culture into meeting their social reform goals.

Read more below the fold...

Apparently the Progressive Librarians Guild has joined with the United States Social Forum and Radical Reference for a meeting in Atlanta for the express purpose of bringing “partisanship” to the library system.

…if another world is possible: another US is necessary -- reflects much of the work both groups have engaged in over the past years within the field of librarianship, PLG for 17, RR for 3 years. We consider the opportunity of the U.S. Social Forum a vital step in the development of our work as librarians who are opposed to neo-liberalism and imperialism, and dedicated to political, economic and cultural democracy, and to the building of infrastructures that heal the environment so badly damaged by industrial nations in the past century.

Thank goodness I am not the only one that is getting a little upset that anything, regardless of its veracity, that is anti-bush or anti-conservatism is being unfairly hyped to the point of disinformation to the public library user.

They are against "value-neutral" libraries, whatever that is, because they sure want to see their values well represented on the shelves, like the 16 copies of a popular anti-Bush title, or 25+ titles of everything Michael Moore ever produced on film or in print at my public library, or fighting community groups trying to keep pornography out of the hands of children using libraries.

Gone from my mind is the stereotypical passive librarian; just like the majority of the media and academia the public library system has chosen to promote a progressive (say it with a sneer) agenda. At least I can rest a little bit easier knowing there are people like Norma who are not content to let others do their thinking, and actually have READ THE HISTORY BOOKS!

Cross posted at Redstate.com and Hinzsightreport.com

BBK