[WEB4LIB] Re: New Member

[Daniel Messer]

"Joyce M. Latham" wrote:

> Dan has quite an answer, that I largely agree with, however, we do have
> to deal with how our responsibility for technology has made us the
> target of the right wing activists who are actively engaged in viewpoint
> promotion.  People who never bothered about libraries before are now
> attempting to interfere with library policy making, and that is a result
> of the expansion of technology in libraries.

    You're absolutely right. Librarians know that libraries have been more than "just
books" for a long time now. We've been checking out tapes, records, CDs, VHS and the
like for years now. Now several libraries are starting to check out e-books, DVDs,
CD-ROMs, and more. I think most librarians will agree that the introduction of the
Internet into the public library was a natural extension of the goal to provide as
much free  information to the masses as we possibly can.
    Technology has brought the library out of intellectual isolation into a grim
spotlight on a stage of grotesque villains and paladinian saviors. Who the villains
and the saviors are depend on which side you favour.
    I watched a tape of a recent 700 Club where they bashed libraries and Internet
saying things like Libraries have become a haven for porn fiends, child molesters, and
anarchist perverts bent on conquering the world through sex, bomb building, and the
careful sacrifice of virgins. (Exaggeration is intentional and unapologetic.) After
their report, which was one of the most biased pieces of journalism I've seen since
Germany 1939, Pat Robertson and his legal expert discussed the merits of the CIPA.
During which Robertson freely admitted in passing that he had not read the bill! The
ignorant pin head is fighting for a bill and he doesn't even know what it says!
    It's was laughable watching this gross display of ultra right wing uber-Christian
political propaganda dancing across the screen. And indeed I laughed out loud at a few
parts and made several none-too-kind references to Pat Robertson, his political
"career", and even got a couple of shots in on his mother. But in the back of my mind,
I knew that there was a harsh side to this situation. People actually listen to this
man. Sure, these are the kind of people that spend their children's college savings by
supporting the 700 Club while they're talking to God on a cellular telephone. Yet
apparently, there's enough of them to keep Robertson filthy rich and the 700 Club on
the air for years. That, meine Freunde, is what scares me the most.
    The problem I've seen recently is that, even though libraries are taking a stand
against this wave of right wing censorship, it's not really the IT folks doing it.
Usually the director of a library stands up at a conference or at a press meeting or
some such thing and states their library's official stance on the "Internet matter." I
don't remember seeing many IT Managers walking in and saying, "Filtering is useless,
and here's why." I think it would be more effective if a few directors took a stand
against Internet censorship and filtering, and then moved aside to let the IT
department, aka the Real Deal, explain various aspects of the realities of
technologies and why certain things are possible while others are not. Far too many
people, even librarians, see computers as being able to do anything. All someone has
to do is write a programme for it. A lot of right wing arguments follow on that. Good
filtering is possible, we just need to write the programme to do it. I'm not knocking
any director's abilities with computers, but in the public eye, there's a reason that
someone's a director and another someone is an IT manager. Obviously, one knows more
about computers.

Dan

--
Mondai wa
The subject in question...
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Daniel Messer, Technologies Instructor
Yakima Valley Regional Library
102 N 3rd St Yakima, WA 98901
(509) 452-8541 x712
dmesser at yvrls.lib.wa.us
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When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
                     -Hunter S. Thompson