February 3rd, 2021

Director

I am disheartened to see ALA taking what appears to be openly one-sided positions on various political and cultural topics as evidenced in the articles selected for ALA publication. How will we come to a place of unity and understanding if one of the biggest apolitical entities in the country is taking part in causes that are divisive in nature. Our mission and the thing that drew me to librarianship was to provide the best quality information and resources to our communities uncontaminated by our personal views allowing individuals to make up their own minds. When did that stop being our mission?

Tags: Censorship, ethics, information literacy, Knowledge

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Comments (5)

Comments (5)

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"To provide the best quality information and resources to our communities" - is that not exactly the purpose of this project?

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Is taking a position the same as taking part in a cause? Its not like ALA is taking a position on religion or the illusion of free will. How is diversity and equal access divisive? I suppose if you believe diversity and equality is a negative outcome. Imparting facts does not prevent an individual from making up their own mind, it give that individual positive input to determine a position for themselves. How do ALA positions contaminate personal views?

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I think it was Dr. King who said " we are complicit if we tolerate injustice. What is wrong with taking a stand if it is well reasoned and strives for equality and justice?

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Hi Michele:

Thanks for joining our conversation. Can you give us some examples?

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http://www.ala.org/news/press-releases/2020/06/ala-executive-board-stands-bcala-condemning-violence-and-racism-towards-0

If ALA makes a stand like this it should be with regard to all forms of violence against all people.

http://www.ala.org/advocacy/diversity

This entire section on promoting diversity seems an unnecessary use of time and money. Isn't that already who we are? We already promote diverse cultures via collection development, programming, hiring practices. It just seems like virtue signaling. I'd rather take money spent on these studies and put it toward library grants that actually bring diverse programming into our facilities.

I guess what I'm saying is that I prefer walking the walk to talking the talk.

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