Unchecked Self-Aggrandizement—A Review of an Interview
New York Times interviewer Ana Marie Cox seems to be devoid of critical-thinking capacity. Should one be surprised? Not really. After all, isn’t this the age of fake news? “Carla Hayden Thinks Libraries Are a Key to Freedom” is an interview she did on the new librarian of Congress. So, was banning library patrons like me without warning or due process a “key to freedom”? If so, then that freedom really meant the freedom of librarians to be unaccountable and punish criticism of librarians.
Cox begins her interview by asking what the best preparation for a librarian of Congress might be. Hayden responds, “to have an open mind,” then notes that “Each librarian has been almost perfect for the time that they served.” Does Cox challenge that statement? Not in the least! And yet a minimum of research on her part ought to have provoked challenge! For example, the previous librarian of Congress, James H. Billington, lived a one-percenter lifestyle (e.g., “first-class airfare, $1,000-a-night hotels in Rome and Florence, chauffeured cars and Acela trains”), thanks to the dubious James Madison Council of exclusive one-percenters he created to purportedly fund-raise for the Library of Congress. Long-time librarian Maureen Moore noted: “He likes to associate with rich and famous people. To my knowledge, they’ve never put money toward anything useful.”
Now, does that sound “almost perfect”? And what about the congressional investigation that criticized the Library of Congress for its “technological failures”? For details on that less than “almost perfect” librarian of Congress, see “Librarian’s trips abroad, posh hotels all paid for by James Madison Council.”
An independent, critical-thinking capable mind might have also wondered how the autocratic selection of poets laureate could be perceived as “almost perfect.” And was “almost perfect” having to persist over and again for nine months to obtain a simple response from the Library of Congress?
Dear Dr. Slone:
My apologies for not having responded to your earlier message. The Library has determined that it will not acquire your serial.
Thank you.
Beacher Wiggins bwig@loc.gov
Director for Acquisitions & Bibliographic Access
Library of Congress
Then when I asked what the criteria for acquisitions were, Wiggins would not respond. Period. So, I wrote a lengthy Open letter to the Library of Congress, which unsurprisingly did not respond. Was non-response to questioning and challenging citizen-plebes like me “almost perfect”? So, why didn’t Cox question and challenge? Ah, back to square one: the new librarian of Congress was a black female appointed by Obama!
Well, it’s funny that you mention that each librarian appointed seems to have turned out, in retrospect, perfect for the time, because you’re a very particular librarian. You’re the first woman and the first African-American named to the role, and some people have called you a radical librarian.
Yes, a radical librarian who will likely not respond to citizen-plebes like me just like her predecessor. And what is the librarian stereotype? Well, Hayden gets it right, though not of course meaning it as I see and have experienced it.
Maybe I’m a romantic, but I do think of librarians as inherently radical. There’s something political about access to information. And it has been throughout history.
Yes, indeed, “something political about access to information,” including the acquisition of (i.e., access to) some periodicals, but rejection of others. Well, “access” probably means precisely that in the Orwellian world of librarian gatekeepers. Cox asks, “Do you think libraries can help in this epidemic of fake news and lack of trust in the media?” And Hayden responds.
Librarians have been pounding on this issue in a different way for a while—that just having computer literacy is great, but as information professionals, we’re always looking at what’s the most authoritative source for the information and teaching information literacy.
“Information professionals” is of course a euphemism for information gatekeepers. In other words, librarians like Beacher Wiggins, for example, guard the library collection, determining what enters and what must not enter into it. Might I be wrong in assuming that “information literacy” probably means the ability to reject that information which conflicts with pc-approved information and dogma? It’s a frightening brave new world today, especially the world of librarians.
Hayden notes regarding her past that “In being elected to head the A.L.A., I became the face of the association.” Well, the American Library Association will not publish any criticism with its regard. And its “Office for Intellectual Freedom” is another of those librarian euphemisms, for it is really an Office for Intellectual Constraint and Impotence. Well, now Hayden is “the face of the Library of Congress.” Any difference? Likely not in the least! Will Hayden deign to respond to this review of her interview and that 2014 open letter? Well, I shall not hold my breath…
No comments:
Post a Comment