[Publib] Dismay and worse

[Backwage at aol.com]

In a message dated 12/4/2008 7:47:50 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,  
KOkelly at minlib.net writes:

And I  will admit that I sometimes love the idea of banning  books.


The problem with banning books is that they never get the right ones.   Ever 
notice that they tend to try to stamp out good reading, on the whole?  
 
I come from the last days of the era when librarians had genuine opinions  
about book quality, and voiced them.  That didn't keep me from reading the  
Ripley's Believe it or Not series, but it did let me know that:   1. Somebody knew 
I was reading junk, and 2.  They thought I was worthy  and capable of reading 
better.  
 
I think those days are gone, not so much because of the official views of  
any association, but because librarians as a whole aren't as literate as they  
used to be.  Give me the days when they had tough entrance exams for  library 
school, complete with long reading lists that applicants were expected  to have 
understood.  An old mentor of mine, out of UCLA's first library  class, said 
that she was interviewed deeply, and in a definitely hostile  atmosphere, 
about her past and present reading.  Mind you, she had Master's  degrees in French 
and Comparative Literature.  I don't suppose we could  demand that today.  
 
I've always riled my colleagues by saying that there are stupid questions  
(the vast majority) and there are worthless books (same here).  The  attorney 
doesn't question whether his client robbed the bank; he just acts as an  
advocate.  And the important part is that the attorney doesn't support bank  robbery, 
and he couldn't be employed if he had ever robbed a bank.  See how  that 
works?  Much of the defense of lesser books arises not so much from  the support 
of patrons as from the lack of suitable background in the  librarian.  And, of 
course, that old professional lack of a sense of humor  which plagues many of 
us.
 
M. 
**************Make your life easier with all your friends, email, and 
favorite sites in one place.  Try it now. 
(http://www.aol.com/?optin=new-dp&icid=aolcom40vanity&ncid=emlcntaolcom00000010)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.webjunction.org/wjlists/publib/attachments/20081204/1c63aa48/attachment.htm