Throughout my career as a professional librarian and library director, I faced this problem as long as 50 years ago. Granted that things have only gotten worse, we must not treat this as a new trend, and we must fight it strongly and openly using tactics that have been successful in the past. The story in this article about the Louisiana parish that voted to spend money on a library not a prison needs to be followed through at every level. Since 1968, at least, reactionaries of all stripes have been quietly electioneering their way into local and mid-level jurisdictions: school boards, library boards, township and county governments, and others. I have a friend who has seen her local Democratic party units taken over by Republicans in Donkeys skins until those party units operate as Republicans in all but name. Who is responsible for this? We, the politically aware who call ourselves liberals, progressives, Democrats, and even Independents, have let this happen because of our own lack of participation in the political processes from neighborhood organizations all the way to Presidential elections. We must begin, now, to reverse this everywhere and with any cost of time, money, energy, and smarts. Once libraries with actual paper books in them disappear, we may well never have the opportunity, much less the power, ever again to control what information we want, need, or whatever. Every reading group in this country needs to immediately assign Ray Bradburys Fahrenheit 451, both the book and the movie, as their next choice. Read, see, for yourselves what a society without physical books would be like. Then get to work! dailykos/story/2014/03/08/1283154/-The-library-is-the-last-best-socialized-institution-in-America-today-and-you-re-about-to-lose-it
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 02:17:32 +0000
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