To the best of my knowledge there is not an American Library Association accredited masters program anywhere in the nation that doesn’t require Collection Development courses as pre-req to graduation. I’ll spare you the trade names and jargons, but there’s also ALL KINDS of development databases and literature and forums all to ensure that it’s done fairly and represents the widest array of users while also remaining true to the largest patron groups.
And the whole “anyone who works in a library is a librarian” thing… argh! Yes, it’s true, J. Edgar Hoover and Golde Meir were librarians, but that was a very different time. The games changed a lot in the last 90 years.
Did you read the cite? In that town at least the "city’s library director " is an appointed political position, who serves at the will of the Mayor. It is apparently the position to whom the MLS Civil Service Librarian reports to. You know, somewhere up the chain is a *Political position *that the *Civil Servants *report to.
Which could be why the compromise to merge the Museum and Library depts? I dunno why they did things like that. It’s a small town in Alaska, that explains a lot to me.
I am not casting any vote as to whether a balanced collection is or is not a good thing. I’m merely suggesting that “reflecting a community” is not what I would consider as a criterion for “balanced collecting.” There is little point to a library that doesn’t cater to its community (no one goes), but there is little point to a library that only caters to its community (this is a bookstore).
I am in no position to describe what books libraries should have. This is the job of librarians, a position I am not trained for. I am merely suggesting that while defining what constitutes a balanced collection is may be difficult, “reflecting the community” is not indicative of balance, it is indicative of bias. A good library may necessarily need to reflect the community to some extent. I would imagine in must, in order to be relevant at all.
It is not at all obvious how to aggregate the preferences of an entire community when making individual book decisions. Aggregation of preferences into singular social choices is fantastically difficult. I cannot imagine doing it fairly for every library book purchased by the local branch.
As others have pointed out, this is why we have librarians.
You probably also think that a U.S. attorney is merely a politician. Your method of appointment doesn’t make your *job *a political one. Neither a library director, nor a police chief, regardless of whose “whim” they serve at the behest of is a “political” job.
I don’t see why in a small town you’d need a political appointee to oversee either. You’d need a Librarian - because that’s a professional job with a specialized skill set - but that shouldn’t be a political appointment. And you MIGHT choose to have a curator of the museum - if your community was really flushed with cash - most small towns its pretty much volunteers running those things (it is in my town of 35,000). Paid positions should answer to the city manager - that’s why you employ a city manager - which - if you are sensible - shouldn’t be a political appointee either since being a city manager is also a specialized job with a specialized skill set - and its very hard to get a good city manager when you are a 'burb in the Twin Cities - I can’t imagine trying to find a good city manager as a political appointee in small town Alaska. Volunteer positions should be turned over to non-profit foundations.
It was in that town, no matter what you think it should be elsewhere. That’s simply the facts in this case. you opinion of what should be or what occurs elsewhere is meaningless.
That’s all fine and well, but room is not infinite. You know this. At some point old books will have to be removed to make room for new ones. Every library goes through this. A Librarian, even when selecting new books, is accepting some and rejecting others.
But who gets to define balanced? We go back to my O’Reilly/Olberman analogy. Who has the final word? And I’m not talking about kowtowing to every whim, but if a community, over time, feels that its library would serve them better with more x and less y, and the Librarian insists on more y and less x, doesn’t the community have the right—or responsibility—to replace him?
Becuase you didn’t read (isn’t that a job requirement for librarians?) the cite that said Emmons position *in that town *was a appointed political postion, serving at the will of the Mayor.
No books were censored. No one other than Kilkenny has any recollection of Palin asking about book banning.
"Were any books censored banned? June Pinell-Stephens, chairwoman of the Alaska Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Committee since 1984, checked her files Wednesday and came up empty-handed.
Pinell-Stephens also had no record of any phone conversations with Emmons about the issue back then. Emmons was president of the Alaska Library Association at the time.Books may not have been pulled from library shelves, but there were other repercussions for Emmons.
Four days before the exchange at the City Council, Emmons got a letter from Palin asking for her resignation. Similar letters went to police chief Irl Stambaugh, public works director Jack Felton and finance director Duane Dvorak. John Cooper, a fifth director, resigned after Palin eliminated his job overseeing the city museum."
All of the cities *Top managers *were asked to resign: http://www.mceades.com/graphics/palin_article1.jpg
Thus Emmons was not singled out. She was a “top manager” who was a political appointee who served at the will of the mayor. All dept heads were asked to resign. Emmons was not fired, Palin rescinded her request that Emmons resign after working out a compromise with Emmons about a dept merge.
It is possible the Emmons has a MLS, I can’t find any biographical info for her.
Many libraries are designed to grow with their collection. New libraries especially are built with extra space that is meant to be filled (eventually) with book shelves. And most libraries do not have to decide what to cut to make room for new books. Removing outdated books and damaged books will usually create more than enough room.
As for a balanced collection, you’re looking at it too closely. The community would never examine the individual books inhe collection close enough for your scenario to come to pass.
I’m done with you. Your refusal to even consider arguments beyond your own is too much for me. If want to you continue to harp on the “appointed political position” argument, then I’ll see you in The Pit because I can’t say here what I’d like to say to you there.
Actually, that article, which has been brought up earlier, says something different than what you say. Something tha, to me, seems very odd. It says that
What???
This sounds as if she’s saying “Everybody give me a signed resignation. If you do, I’ll probably keep you on, since by doing so you’ve proved your loyalty.” That’s weird in the extreme, and I think it a highly suspicious move. It allows her to later say “But they resigned themselves – See? I have their signed resignation.”
Only the Chief of Police and the Librarian (and possibly others – it hasn’t been made clear) obviously didn’t willing commit career seppuku. They had letter announcing their termination dropped on their desks. In the case of the librarian, the townspeople complained.
That’s a weird set of actions. It’s not simply the new mayor firing the Old Guard. And that’s independent of whether these are appointed “political” positions. I don’t know if its all kosher, but it has a sneaky feel to it.
As I said, I’m comfortable that enough space gets freed up through wear, damage, theft, failure to return, and additional library space that I don’t see it as a significant cause for culling existing books in favor of new ones.
It has been noted elsewhere in this thread that librarians go through a great deal of intensive training to maintain what is well-understood to constitute a balanced library, and that in general those who become librarians consider this a serious responsibility.
If you got some sort of rogue librarian that stocked it with 90% bowling equipment trade magazines or something outlandish, of course they should be removed. But that’s so far into the hypothetical that it isn’t really relevant to this discussion. Have you ever heard of a community complaining because their library, overall, didn’t represent the balance that they liked because of attrition or bias? No, of course not. That’s a hypothetical that doesn’t even come up. It’s always always isolated incidents of people asking to ban titles due to religious objections, language, mature subject matter, things like that. Not just balance of collection - banning the book from being stored, lent, or even ordered from a reserve collection. That’s always wrong, and no community has a moral right to stifle free speech, not even if you can imagine some purely theoretical corner case where a power-mad librarian decided to commit career suicide by going against all their professional training.
Becuase 'what is usually done in the libraries I have experience with" is good info. But when it directly conflcits with the facts in this particular city, that general info is no longer useful.
Let me put it with way- you are a librarian, right? I assume your boss is a Librarian, and maybe her boss also. But I have no doubt at all that if you go up the chain enough we will encounter a political boss of the Library system. Perhaps we have to go all the way to Mayor or City Manager. But somewhere, some elected or appointed political official is the boss. In this case, the chain seems to have been 3 librarians, one MLS Librarian (note caps) (a civil servant), the city dept head (Emmons, a political appointee) then the Mayor. Why that little pissant AK town did things that way is beyond me-* but they did*. It may be be silly, stupid, unusual, weird, un-economic or whatever- but that’s still the way it was. You have the cites, you can read them for yourselves. For some reason- known only to the City Fathers of that dinky little town- *all *the Dept heads are political appointees, subject to firing by the will of the Mayor. Gawd only knows why, but that’s the way it is.
Why are you trying to dispute *the facts in this particular case *with general info? General info was handy before we knew the facts.
Generally- most Mammals don’t lay eggs. That doesn’t mean the Platypus doesn;t exist.
Never heard of anythimng like it in Small Town Politics. It smacks of delusions of grandeur.
I’m not anti-Palin. So far, I like the lady. But if someone pulled a stunt like that in my hometown or where I now live, they’d be talked about.
Platypuses aren’t mammals. They’re monotremes. We like to keep our definitions tidy.
Perhaps you didn’t read the first few pages of this thread, but that is not how it works in New York state. I have no “political” boss.
If Emmons was choosing the books and was who Palin went to to talk about banning them, she was not a dept. head. She was located in the library doing librarian things. Again, it is IMPOSSIBLE for her not to be the MLS Librarian.