# Mayor Palin tried to force her local Library to ban books she didn't like. **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 3, 2008, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayor-palin-tried-to-force-her-local-library-to-ban-books-she-didnt-like/461900 "2008-09-03T18:31:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayor-palin-tried-to-force-her-local-library-to-ban-books-she-didnt-like/461900/221 "2008-09-05T15:53:29Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > This was **NOT** a Civil Service Position, nor was it a Librarian. She was a Political appointee who served at the will of the Mayor. You need to keep up with the thread and read the new info. Admittedly, info was sparse to start. She was the head of the dept that overlooked Library, museum, etc. It doesn’t matter except in terms of legality. If the end result was that Palin was trying to get certain books banned, or install someone more amenable to book-banning, she’s a friend of thought control and an enemy of free speech. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayor-palin-tried-to-force-her-local-library-to-ban-books-she-didnt-like/461900/222 "2008-09-05T15:57:18Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > In the time that I’ve been gone I earned my Master’s in library science and began my career as a professional librarian, so this thread seemed like an auspicious choice for my return to GD. 🙂 > > **Bricker** , as a lawyer you must have some understanding of what it’s like to be a member of an oft-misunderstood profession. A librarian isn’t just a glorified Barnes & Noble cashier. Librarians are members of a profession with certain ethical standards. You can see the Code of Ethics of the American Library Association [online here](http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/statementspols/codeofethics/codeethics.cfm). I’ll quote a couple of relevant passages: > > That said, I don’t see why the mayor’s opinion on the matter should carry any more weight than that of other community member. I’ve never heard of a town where the librarian reported directly to the mayor. The librarian typically reports to a library board, the members of which may be either elected or appointed depending on local practice. If the mayor doesn’t approve of the librarian’s collection management decisions, he should take it up with the board. > > Really though, your scenario is just a big straw man. In real life, Mary Ellen Emmons behaved in accordance with the ethics of her profession. . All very nice and all, but Emmons was not the Librarian. She was the "city’s library director " a poltical appointee who served at the will of the Mayor. She does not seem to have been a professional Librarian, altho of course she may have had a degree in that field. She was a politician, not a professional; a appointee, not a civil servant. Emmons was the person to whom the “real” Librarian reported to, apparently, and Emmons reported to, and was appointed by- the Mayor. Palin’s political foe did a pretty good job of this swiftboat attack. She called Emmons a Librarian- giving the impression of a non-political civil servant, whearas Emmons was a politcal appointee who served at the whim of the mayor. She said Emmons was fired- Emmons wasn’t. She implied it had somthing to do with Book banning but she’s the only person who apparently remembers that incident- it wasn’t in the local paper, or in Minutes, meeting notes, a Memo or even a email. The firing letter was given to Emmons due to the fact that Emmons had very publically supported Palin’s foe in the election. After Emmons and Palin met, and Emmons compromised by agreeing to merge the museum and Library dept (and likely to stop attacking Palin publically) then Emmons wasn’t fired after all. No “firestorm” no “public outcry” just a meeting between the two and a little compromise. So “Palin fired librarian over refusal to ban books” is every word a lie, a perfect swiftboat. This was a pure 100% swiftboat attack. You guys fell for it. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayor-palin-tried-to-force-her-local-library-to-ban-books-she-didnt-like/461900/223 "2008-09-05T15:58:58Z")
> [@Cosmic Relief](#): > > It doesn’t matter except in terms of legality. If the end result was that Palin was trying to get certain books banned, or install someone more amenable to book-banning, she’s a friend of thought control and an enemy of free speech. There is no evidence at all the Palin was trying to get any books banned. The firing had nothing at all to do with “book banning” the only one who remembers anything about book banning is a political foe of Palin. There is nothing whatsoever to support it. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayor-palin-tried-to-force-her-local-library-to-ban-books-she-didnt-like/461900/224 "2008-09-05T16:03:39Z")
> [@Cosmic Relief](#): > > It doesn’t matter except in terms of legality. If the end result was that Palin was trying to get certain books banned, or install someone more amenable to book-banning, she’s a friend of thought control and an enemy of free speech. I wonder if all those in this thread who are of the opinion that decisions should be left to the Librarian, because they’re the ones with the training, would agree with that. I doubt it. It seems to change things completely. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayor-palin-tried-to-force-her-local-library-to-ban-books-she-didnt-like/461900/225 "2008-09-05T16:07:07Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > This was **NOT** a Civil Service Position, nor was it a Librarian. She was a Political appointee who served at the will of the Mayor. You need to keep up with the thread and read the new info. Admittedly, info was sparse to start. She was the head of the dept that overlooked Library, museum, etc. What part of “Library Director” is librarian jargon for the person that used to be called the “Head Librarian” don’t you understand? To say she was not a “librarian” is absurd. And I repeat, a new mayor firing a librarian for any reason other than poor performance or gross negligence is borderline criminal. You keep ignoring the fact that a community outcry led the librarian to be rehired. Whatever the reason for her firing, it obviously was without merit as Palin rehired her without a fight. > [@magellan01](#): > > I wonder if all those in this thread who are of the opinion that decisions should be left to the Librarian, because they’re the ones with the training, would agree with that. I doubt it. It seems to change things completely. Right. At this point, we’ll probably never know if Palin was asking if there was a policy in place to remove objectionable books or if Palin was asking to ban books. One is acceptable, the other is not. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayor-palin-tried-to-force-her-local-library-to-ban-books-she-didnt-like/461900/226 "2008-09-05T16:08:20Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > All very nice and all, but Emmons was not the Librarian. She was the "city’s library director " a poltical appointee who served at the will of the Mayor. She does not seem to have been a professional Librarian, altho of course she may have had a degree in that field. She was a politician, not a professional; a appointee, not a civil servant. Emmons was the person to whom the “real” Librarian reported to, apparently, and Emmons reported to, and was appointed by- the Mayor. A town of 9,000 people had a Library Director AND a Librarian? Wow. I grew up in a town three times that size and we didn’t even have a Library (outside of the one in the elementary school) - the next town over had one - it was run by one woman and only open about 40 hours a week. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayor-palin-tried-to-force-her-local-library-to-ban-books-she-didnt-like/461900/227 "2008-09-05T16:09:21Z")
> [@Cosmic Relief](#): > > That’s a strawman, though. Nobody is saying all libraries have to have identical collections. In reality they’re limited by what is available, what people donate, what the library can afford. What I said, and I believe the other anti-ban posters are saying, is that the community should be free to add what they wish but should not be allowed to exclude books. > > As long as responsive doesn’t mean banning the books that some don’t like, that’s fine. If you’re a conservative in SF Castro then you should be entitled to add some Ann Coulter trash to the collection, and nobody should try to stop you. > > There’s nothing at all tyrannical about being inclusive in a library. If you don’t like my sort of book, then nobody’s forcing you to read it. If you don’t want your children reading it, then do not let them in the library unaccompanied… exercise your parenting responsibility. But you can’t prevent the librarian from stocking books that I donate, because I live in the community. You don’t get the right to force me to drive to another city or state to use a public library just because of your prejudices. It’s a PUBLIC library, not a conservative or liberal library. I’m not talking about or advocating banning anything. My point is that many/most books will have to be excluded. And someone has to make the determination as to which books will be in the collection. should the collection reflect the tastes of the Librarian or the Community. I think we’ve established that no two collections will be alike, so who should have the final word. Again I refer you to my hypothetical: > [@](#): > > Let’s compare apples and apples. Take three libraries in different parts of the country. The communities they serve are identical in population. The libraries themselves are identical in size and the number of books they can hold, according to you (if I’m understanding you correctly), they should all have identical collections, right? And the collection in South Miami cannot have more books on the Latin-American experience or Cuba than the library in Harlem which cannot have more books on the African-American experience than the library in lily white New Canaan, CT. If the Librarian in South Miami moves to Harlem and tries to create the same perfectly acceptable collection she had there, is not the community within it’s rights to replace her? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayor-palin-tried-to-force-her-local-library-to-ban-books-she-didnt-like/461900/228 "2008-09-05T16:19:07Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > What part of “Library Director” is librarian jargon for the person that used to be called the “Head Librarian” don’t you understand? To say she was not a “librarian” is absurd. > > And I repeat, a new mayor firing a librarian for any reason other than poor performance or gross negligence is borderline criminal. You keep ignoring the fact that a community outcry led the librarian to be rehired. Whatever the reason for her firing, it obviously was without merit as Palin rehired her without a fight. > . Becuase in this case, she wasn’t a Head librarian, she was a poltical appointee- what aprt of Dept head POLITICAL APPOINTEE SERVING AT THE WILL OF THE MAYOR don’t you understand? She had every right to fire any position that served at the will of the mayor, they were Political appointees. Not civil servants. Nor was there any “community outcry”. There was a meeting between the two and a compromise. Palin did not go through with her intent to fire letter as Emmons met with Palin and agreed to a compromise. No outcry, no “rehired”. Read the cite dammit. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayor-palin-tried-to-force-her-local-library-to-ban-books-she-didnt-like/461900/229 "2008-09-05T16:24:28Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > A town of 9,000 people had a Library Director AND a Librarian? Wow. I grew up in a town three times that size and we didn’t even have a Library (outside of the one in the elementary school) - the next town over had one - it was run by one woman and only open about 40 hours a week. No, again, you aren’t reading the cites. _The Wasila library (system) served a population of 24,000 people in 1996 with one MLS-holding librarian and three librarians total._ Emmons was a poltical appointee on the mayor’s board, who supervised the library, museum, and other things. She was not any of those 4 Librarians. I doubt if she even had a degree in Library science. The “MLS-holding librarian” is the person you dudes are thinking of as the civil servant “Librarian” , and of course that position would not be one that Palin could fire. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayor-palin-tried-to-force-her-local-library-to-ban-books-she-didnt-like/461900/230 "2008-09-05T16:27:46Z")
> [@Cosmic Relief](#): > > It doesn’t matter except in terms of legality. If the end result was that Palin was trying to get certain books banned, or install someone more amenable to book-banning, she’s a friend of thought control and an enemy of free speech. And what is the evidence that Palin sought to do so? The recollections of a single political foe years after the fact. No meeting minutes, no public or private records of any sort. Folks, regardless of your stance on Ms. Palin, you’ve got to have stronger evidence than that. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayor-palin-tried-to-force-her-local-library-to-ban-books-she-didnt-like/461900/231 "2008-09-05T16:28:33Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Becuase in this case, she wasn’t a Head librarian, she was a poltical appointee- what aprt of Dept head POLITICAL APPOINTEE SERVING AT THE WILL OF THE MAYOR don’t you understand? > > She had every right to fire any position that served at the will of the mayor, they were Political appointees. Not civil servants. > > Nor was there any “community outcry”. There was a meeting between the two and a compromise. Palin did not go through with her intent to fire letter as Emmons met with Palin and agreed to a compromise. No outcry, no “rehired”. Read the cite dammit. The mayor is her direct supervisor, but that does not make her a “political appointee.” I serve at the pleasure of my Branch Manager, does that mean she can fire me because I like horror movies (and purchase them for the collection) and she doesn’t? She may have had the legal right, but what she did was CLEARLY (there’s that word again) wrong. And I did read the cite (I posted the damn thing after all). The compromise meeting was preceded by an angry community reaction to Palin’s office and other city council members: [QUOTE=Anchorage Daily News] The actions have caused a stir in Wasilla, a town of about 4,600. City Councilman Nick Carney, who has been an outspoken critic of Palin, said he received several calls at his home Thursday night and Friday from outraged citizens. [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayor-palin-tried-to-force-her-local-library-to-ban-books-she-didnt-like/461900/232 "2008-09-05T16:36:09Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Becuase in this case, she wasn’t a Head librarian, she was a poltical appointee- what aprt of Dept head POLITICAL APPOINTEE SERVING AT THE WILL OF THE MAYOR don’t you understand? The part I don’t understand is where you’re getting this from. As far as I can tell you’re basing all this on a misunderstanding of what the term “Library Director” means. Perhaps I’ve missed some crucial link here, but nothing I’ve read about this case indicated that Emmons was not a librarian and your claims are inconsistent with what I know of how public libraries operate. Granted I am not an expert on public libraries (I am an academic librarian) and small towns have their quirks, so if you’ve got an actual cite here I’d be happy to read it. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayor-palin-tried-to-force-her-local-library-to-ban-books-she-didnt-like/461900/233 "2008-09-05T16:36:48Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > No, again, you aren’t reading the cites. _The Wasila library (system) served a population of 24,000 people in 1996 with one MLS-holding librarian and three librarians total._ Emmons was a poltical appointee on the mayor’s board, who supervised the library, museum, and other things. She was not any of those 4 Librarians. I doubt if she even had a degree in Library science. The “MLS-holding librarian” is the person you dudes are thinking of as the civil servant “Librarian” , and of course that position would not be one that Palin could fire. Now who’s using facts that aren’t in evidence? The fact is that Emmons was serving as the President of the Alaska Library Association when Palin fired her. I highly doubt she didn’t have an MLS. Also, there were three librarians, not four. Please try to keep up. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayor-palin-tried-to-force-her-local-library-to-ban-books-she-didnt-like/461900/234 "2008-09-05T16:38:49Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Becuase in this case, she wasn’t a Head librarian, she was a poltical appointee- what aprt of Dept head POLITICAL APPOINTEE SERVING AT THE WILL OF THE MAYOR don’t you understand? Because it’s flat wrong. Just because you can be fired by a elected official doesn’t make you a “political appointee.” A library director is _never_ a “political” position, regardless of how they are hired and fired. And yes, library director == head librarian. It’s the same damn thing. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayor-palin-tried-to-force-her-local-library-to-ban-books-she-didnt-like/461900/235 "2008-09-05T16:42:12Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > If the Librarian in South Miami moves to Harlem and tries to create the same perfectly acceptable collection she had there, is not the community within it’s rights to replace her? Not as long as she adds all books that the community requests or donates. If she’s removing or banning books, then off she goes. You can keep on swapping code words for ethnicities all you want, it isn’t going to change the answer. Book banning is censorship and anyone who supports it is an enemy of the first amendment. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayor-palin-tried-to-force-her-local-library-to-ban-books-she-didnt-like/461900/236 "2008-09-05T16:48:55Z")
> [@erislover](#): > > Not to argue against your position, but I am fairly sure his point was that that developing a balanced collection may not be the most straightforward thing. It’s a lot easier than some people here would have you believe. > [@](#): > > _If it were, then we wouldn’t have a jolly time imagining any of these people as librarians, because they’d still all pick balanced collections after their training._ If Hugh Hefner were actually a librarian then his library wouldn’t _really_ be full of nothing but “gentleman’s magazines”, because if Hugh Hefner were the sort of person who wanted to be a librarian, went through library school, and got a job at a public library, he wouldn’t be the same Hugh Hefner we all know about. Not even close. It might be amusing to imagine The Hef or Bill O’Reilly or any other unlikely figure being suddenly dropped into the role of small town librarian, but this kind of game doesn’t tell us anything about how libraries function in reality. If the question is how people with strong opinions manage as librarians, then the answer is they do it by drawing a distinction between their personal views and their public duty and by reminding themselves that their job is to provide a variety of information to the public. People in other professions have to deal with things they dislike or disapprove of as part of their jobs, it’s not an issue unique to librarianship. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayor-palin-tried-to-force-her-local-library-to-ban-books-she-didnt-like/461900/237 "2008-09-05T16:56:59Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > And I did read the cite (I posted the damn thing after all). The compromise meeting was preceded by an angry community reaction to Palin’s office and other city council members: > > [QUOTE=Anchorage Daily News] > The actions have caused a stir in Wasilla, a town of about 4,600. City Councilman Nick Carney, who has been an outspoken critic of Palin, said he received several calls at his home Thursday night and Friday from outraged citizens. [/QUOTE] How many calls is “several”? Six? Seven? I’m sure that most of us could get six or seven outraged friends and relatives to make some irate telephone calls. Mind you, I’m not saying that there was no public outcry. I’m just urging people not to jump to conclusions. I’d want to see some hard facts and more specific numbers before concluding that there was some massive upwelling of community support for the employee in question. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayor-palin-tried-to-force-her-local-library-to-ban-books-she-didnt-like/461900/238 "2008-09-05T17:08:32Z")
> [@Cosmic Relief](#): > > Not as long as she adds all books that the community requests or donates. If she’s removing or banning books, then off she goes. You can keep on swapping code words for ethnicities all you want, it isn’t going to change the answer. Book banning is censorship and anyone who supports it is an enemy of the first amendment. I’m not using code words. I was explicit about those communities in a previous post. Now the point is that if she adds the books you indicate, she has to remove some others. Space is finite. And can try to digest this: I am NOT talking about banning books. But if you repeat the process of the Librarian adding books that are donated or requested, and her removing others to make room, in essence, the community is choosing the collection. You seem to think this is fine. As do I. At the same time, one wouldn’t want a library to mimic a community’s mindset. Particularly, one that had little diversity of thought. So there’s a conflict between those two things. That’s what I’ve been exploring. Not the banning of books but the culling and building of a collection that would result in certain kinds of books not being available. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayor-palin-tried-to-force-her-local-library-to-ban-books-she-didnt-like/461900/239 "2008-09-05T17:29:52Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > I’m not using code words. I was explicit about those communities in a previous post. Now the point is that if she adds the books you indicate, she has to remove some others. Space is finite. I would dispute that most libraries are constantly having decide which books to toss out because of overwhelming requests for other new books. More often it would be because they are worn, lost, or damaged. I’d also dispute that space is as common a problem as you think. Even if books can’t be put on a shelf, there is generally reserve space elsewhere that can be used. > [@](#): > > But if you repeat the process of the Librarian adding books that are donated or requested, and her removing others to make room, in essence, the community is choosing the collection. You seem to think this is fine. No, not fine. I say it’s inevitable to a small degree, but if it drifts too much then the librarian needs to keep it balanced. This does not mean a librarian should be fired if they don’t respond to the community’s every passing whim, or ensure that the composition is satisfactory to the local majority, which is what you seemed to be suggesting. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayor-palin-tried-to-force-her-local-library-to-ban-books-she-didnt-like/461900/240 "2008-09-05T17:32:29Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > No, again, you aren’t reading the cites. _The Wasila library (system) served a population of 24,000 people in 1996 with one MLS-holding librarian and three librarians total._ Emmons was a poltical appointee on the mayor’s board, who supervised the library, museum, and other things. She was not any of those 4 Librarians. I doubt if she even had a degree in Library science. The “MLS-holding librarian” is the person you dudes are thinking of as the civil servant “Librarian” , and of course that position would not be one that Palin could fire. What I’m saying is thats a LOT of librarians for a community that size, and I wouldn’t have a political appointee library director either. I’m surprised a reformer and fiscal conservative like Palin would have folded on that. There doesn’t seem to be a job here. You need a head librarian preferably with an MLS, and a volunteer committee for the museum. (This is where I go from liberal to conservative. Don’t waste my tax dollars hiring employees that sit on their thumbs). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayor-palin-tried-to-force-her-local-library-to-ban-books-she-didnt-like/461900.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayor-palin-tried-to-force-her-local-library-to-ban-books-she-didnt-like/461900.md?page=13)