A rededication to openness and inclusiveness is necessary. It means being willing to serve the information needs of the public regardless of who they supported in the last election and being willing to push the boundaries of the collection and programming to show the largely conservative population here some perspectives outside of their own. This is not, I think, a prescriptive position. A library is, in one sense, a gathering of resources that tell the whole story, from multiple angles. Some parts of the story, some perspectives, the community is not going to agree with. But the availability and the introduction to those varying viewpoints can widen someone's personal perspective or comfort someone who finds him/herself in the minority. Personally, navigating this stuff requires that I stay grounded in the present. Going off into speculation about what the future holds, fighting battles not yet ripe to engage, is not only a waste of time but a distraction that costs me my peace of mind and my effectiveness in the present. It is difficult at times to remember this, but it is necessary.
I have much to learn, and I won't learn it if I'm not open to whatever the moment holds for me.
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I know the bit about getting rid of the Library of Congress was a joke. However, we have to ask, from a conservative point of view, what functions does the public library perform? What is its value in Trump's nation?
Public libraries preserve the best of American culture, but the best according to whom? How many voices will be counted in making these decisions? Libraries provide equitable access to information, but that costs money. And why should the “winners” in Trump’s America pay for the “losers” to have access to the Internet or other sources of information? Public libraries connect everyone to information, but will information flow in the same way? I won’t call anyone a fascist … not right here, right now, in this context. Still clinging to some vestige of professional neutrality, I guess. But let’s say fascism were to creep in. Let’s say a figure at the center of a cult of personality gained some degree of unchecked power. Let’s say that that happened. What’s the history of libraries under fascism? Books burned, intellectual freedom suppressed. The majority would be privileged and everyone else is abused, on a scale that would render the problems we see today insignificant. What libraries remain would be tools of the State. |
AuthorJeffrey Babbitt, MLIS, is a graduate of the School of Library and Information Science at Wayne State University who is pursuing a career as a librarian in Michigan. Subject Headings
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June 2021
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