Banned Books Week 2010

Individuals must be free to express and consume ideas. Without this ability true democracy cannot take place. In honor of this year's American Library Association celebration of banned books I am posting a manifesto from Ellen Hopkins.

To you zealots and bigots and false

patriots who live in fear of discourse.

You screamers and banners and burners

who would force books

off shelves in your brand name

of greater good.

You say you’re afraid for children,

innocents ripe for corruption

by perversion or sorcery on the page.

But sticks and stones do break

bones, and ignorance is no armor.

You do not speak for me,

and will not deny my kids magic

in favor of miracles.

You say you’re afraid for America,

the red, white and blue corroded

by terrorists, socialists, the sexually

confused. But we are a vast quilt

of patchwork cultures and multi-gendered

identities. You cannot speak for those

whose ancestors braved

different seas.

You say you’re afraid for God,

the living word eroded by Muhammed

and Darwin and Magdalene.

But the omnipotent sculptor of heaven

and earth designed intelligence.

Surely you dare not speak

for the father, who opens

his arms to all.

A word to the unwise.

Torch every book.

Char every page.

Burn every word to ash.

Ideas are incombustible.

And therein lies your real fear.

— Ellen Hopkins

Volunteers extending library hours is a good thing imo.

The Library Journal recently wrote an article about the Charlotte Library's use of volunteers to extend hours. Some have questioned this move stating it could cause funders to believe libraries can operate off of a smaller budget. I think that's an unfounded fear as many institutions both public and private benefit from unpaid labor. Washington D.C. has the highest volunteer rates in the nation, so clearly volunteering for public institutions is not unheard of.

Besides what better way to spend one's time than volunteering at a local library. Some would argue there is no greater cause than facilitating knowledge acquisition. When I set-up a volunteer opportunity in the community college library, I had more students interested than I could place in positions. I think this is a great way for libraries to expand upon their services. While volunteers are manning the desk, staff can be developing new projects and fine-tuning their budget needs to ensure the institution remains vital.

Buying whatever they are pushing.

Publishing in the Higher Education world receives some of its support from journal subscriptions of libraries.  While in the past librarians played key roles in the selection of these items today with the rise of aggregaters like Ebsco, the decision becomes less about content and more about the IR system and the price.  With package deals such as Academic Search Elite or Curriculum Essentials, it is difficult to know what exactly one is buying.  The vendors push various products claiming more full-text or more images but deciding which one offers the most quality can be overwhelming due to the sheer number of titles.  Having access to so many titles is surely a good thing, but not so when the overall quality is lacking.  The task of deciding which aggregaters to license is beyond most individuals capacities.  These products have not been around long enough for us to truly know how to best to evaluate.  Often purchasing decisions are made on usage statistics alone, which may have more to do with product placement than quality content.  What’s even more troubling concerning purchasing quality content is how deals are negotiated by vendors.  Whereas with the onslaught of electronic publishing journals and publishers dealt with all the major vendors, now we are seeing more exclusive contracts such as the one between Ebsco and Time Inc.  Our reliance upon big vendors to tell us what to buy, causes concern for the role of academic libraries in supporting scholarly publishing.