Dr. Laura is on topic (long)

[CD McLean]

Hi,

While I understand your point, I think we ignore this discussion at our peril.
I have read many articles about the increasing conservatism of the American
public and I think that we as librarians are in danger of becoming targets of
that group if we don't listen to what they have to say and then try to come up
with innovative and positive ways to deal with the issue.

I don't have children, but I know I wouldn't want any yahoo parent (I apologize
for the pejorative) to be deciding what my child reads.  If we push this issue
back on the parents, in essence, say, you want to censor your child, fine.
Come into the library and I will give you a list of all the potentially
offensive books we have, then you can mark all the ones you don't want your
child to read and we won't check them out to your child.  Make the parents take
responsibility.  A better way would be to allow this to happen electronically
and create an interface that allows parents to become part of the discussion
and not feel left out.  I think people get belligerent and emotional when they
feel they aren't being taken seriously.  Even if the parent is an ignoramus,
they have the right to voice their opinions.  They just don't have the right to
force that opinion on the education of another family's children.

Home schooling is on the rise and while I may be wrong about this, my feeling
is that deeply conservative and religious families are more likely to home
school  That brings the public and academic libraries into this discussion.
What are they going to do when parents browse the catalog and find material
they feel is objectionable?  Instead of ALA attacking these people and always
taking a legal stance, where is our compassion and understanding for their
point of view and turning our technological know-how into a savvy answer to
their needs?  I think it is going to be our web librarian whizzes (is that a
word? 8-) who are going to be most important in solving this very vexing
issue.  I would hate for this issue to become the next abortion debate where
the debate was long ago lost in a sea of hateful talk and bitter fights with
librarians on hit lists.

IMHO this is a serious issue that needs to be considered by all of us.  Sure
Dr. Laura is easy to laugh at and dismiss, but she is also (the last time I
heard the polls) the top rated radio talk show host and a best-selling author
(she beat out Rush); so she is speaking for and to a large group of people.

I don't usually post to the lists I am on.  I am usually a lurker who takes in
all the info and will post to members privately.  I can't begin to express why
this issue has hit me with such a passion, but it has and I would like to hear
if there are any other technical ways we could use to defuse the situation and
bring people back from emotional bickering and into a calm talk about what they
need.

let's see, that's four cents for today! 8-)

cd
Nick Arnett wrote:

> Perhaps those who challenge you with Dr. Laura's ideas should be asked what
> they think are the missions of your respective institutions.  No matter how
> she might see herself, radio stations are in the business of delivering
> listeners to advertisers; whatever does that best is what gets on the
> air.  Library missions are not even faintly along those lines.  As
> alternative sources of information -- points of view -- become more
> accessible, I would hope that people begin to think more about why messages
> like Dr. Laura's get air time.
>
> Personally, I see her as a predator, pandering to both callers and her
> audience, helping neither one.  Perhaps it is overly contemptuous, but I
> have a hard time believing that either one has any real desire for
> counsel.  It's entertainment masquerading as the truth, which is very
> dangerous, especially when it turns people against institutions whose
> missions are not so cynical.
>
> Nick

--
  CD McLean
  Research Librarian/Library Services Manager
  Paradyne Corp.

  cmclean at paradyne.com
  8545 126th Ave. N.
  Largo, FL  33773
  727-530-8206 (phone)  727-532-5949 (fax)

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Librarians like to be given trouble;
they exist for it, they are geared to it.
For the location of a mislaid volume,
an uncatalogued item, your good librarian
has a ferret's nose.  Give her a scent
and she jumps the leash,
her eyes bright with battle.
                           Catherine Drinker Bowen
                           professional biographer
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