A library director's worst nightmare

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/03/us/politics/03wasilla.html?hp

Others have commented on the first amendment issues involved in a newly elected fundamentalist mayor trying to censor books at the public library. That's horrendous, but only the tip of the iceberg of a story about abuse of power in multiple directions at once. I just retired as a public library director in a rural county in Virginia, and before that directed two other Virginia library systems and was in regular communication with scores of fellow directors over the years. I have heard plenty of horror stories about people being fired by boards or city managers, sometimes for unfair reasons. But fired by an elected official? Absolutely unheard of in my three decades of experience. My colleagues experienced various controversies with local governments, and I had a few such situations that made me feel a bit uneasy about my job security. BUT I HAVE NEVER HEARD A HORROR STORY LIKE THIS STORY ABOUT PALIN. To have a newly-elected mayor fire the library director along with the museum director, planning director, police chief, head of public works, etc. immediately upon taking office shows that she views all city positions as spoils for her supporters. She is an absolute devotee of unapologetic cronyism. The epitome of Alaska Republicanism. Intellectual freedom, public safety, public works, cultural life in the community, be damned. Out with the old, in with the new Pentecostal regime.

Ms. Emmons owes it to our profession to speak out. I wonder if she fears for her safety.

Are you able to talk the story up with other library directors / personnel -- call it to their attention?

It isn't clear to me that this is getting really thorough coverage on the corporate media.

Thanks for the suggestion; I'll log off and email several of my colleagues and see what they know about it. Maybe Virginia is just a clean government state and our standards don't apply in a place like Alaska, but I think this is extreme abuse of power by any standard.

Just went to the ALA website for statements and found nothing. ALA's pretty good at issuing statements from the Intellectual Freedom Office when controversies arise, and this seems to be a good opportunity.

of America.

Remember Michael Moore's book, Stupid White Men which was due to be released immediately after September 11, 2001, but the publisher thought that no one would want to read it. They wanted him to rewrite large portions of it, and pay for the reprinting costs involved. A couple of months later at a talk in New Jersey he told the story in great detail, and a librarian in the room was so incensed by this that she sent out emails to other librarians an library-type organizations. Next thing the publisher knew it was getting hundreds of letters a day from angry librarians everywhere.

The book was released.

Here's a link to the Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stupid_White_Men

Librarians are the true defenders of this country.

I knew this would generate a reaction, and it was fast:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x6966847