"During the past few years, we have seen a bizarre militancy from librarians who are keen to 'decolonise' their collections or berate people for their reading habits. I am not suggesting here that there has been some kind of conspiracy among ideologues to infiltrate libraries by stealth, but rather that the role seems to attract activists who are convinced that society can be re-engineered through censorship of the words we say and the books we read."
The bit about the profession attracting activists is truer and deeper than the writer understands. The profession of librarianship is one perfectly suited for the casual activist personality who must earn a living: government work, mostly indoors, largely sedentary, and it affords a veneer of intellectual legitimacy and reasonableness to even the most anti-intellectual/unthinkingly convinced ideological sorts. Just as it's never a surprise when hardcore right-wingers are cops or soldiers, it's never a surprise when left-wing slogans and sentiments dominate the t-shirts of the attendees at library conferences..
Perhaps more importantly, the evaporation of the demand for reference service has left librarianship in need of purpose. Becoming protectors and enforcers of RightThink meets that need. Once they embrace that exercise of power, I don't expect them to give it up. Especially when they believe they are saving lives and the world. We are all in Salem.
Reference service has shifted online and not entirely disappeared face to face, and library staff, especially at Public Libraries have been saddled with additional roles to fill the many gaps left by non-existent or crumbling social safety - nets. New librarians leave the profession because they have no desire to be First -responders to the opioid crisis, social-workers, or thought-police. Library staff have more than enough to do without taking on the emotional labour for every group that ever faced any level of discrimination or marginalization. Libraries have had diverse and decolonized collections since the 60's and 70's. Generations of librarians have been actively improving and expanding our collections and working to be as 'just', accessible and welcoming as possible. It is deeply insulting to our profession that people, who are completely ignorant of the decades of progress and hard work they are attacking, swan in with their manufactured "Urgency" based on flippant assumptions that amount to ageism and racial profiling.
Back in 2006 I moderated a panel at the NYLA annual conference during which the idea of affixing ratings (or any other sort of warnings) on library materials was greeted with pretty universal derision (and it was a darn big room!). Fast forward 16 years and the entire profession can't wait to do exactly that, and far worse. We have landed on Bizarro world and gone to the Yrarbil...
For further context on the state of censorship in Canadian libraries I recommend this article on Quillette written by Greg Barkovich. https://quillette.com/2022/02/06/watching-my-beloved-once-eclectic-library-become-just-another-bastion-of-orthodoxy/
This is an excellent article. Thank you.
I agree, excellent article, another one I missed.
Doyle wrote in that piece:
"During the past few years, we have seen a bizarre militancy from librarians who are keen to 'decolonise' their collections or berate people for their reading habits. I am not suggesting here that there has been some kind of conspiracy among ideologues to infiltrate libraries by stealth, but rather that the role seems to attract activists who are convinced that society can be re-engineered through censorship of the words we say and the books we read."
The bit about the profession attracting activists is truer and deeper than the writer understands. The profession of librarianship is one perfectly suited for the casual activist personality who must earn a living: government work, mostly indoors, largely sedentary, and it affords a veneer of intellectual legitimacy and reasonableness to even the most anti-intellectual/unthinkingly convinced ideological sorts. Just as it's never a surprise when hardcore right-wingers are cops or soldiers, it's never a surprise when left-wing slogans and sentiments dominate the t-shirts of the attendees at library conferences..
Perhaps more importantly, the evaporation of the demand for reference service has left librarianship in need of purpose. Becoming protectors and enforcers of RightThink meets that need. Once they embrace that exercise of power, I don't expect them to give it up. Especially when they believe they are saving lives and the world. We are all in Salem.
Reference service has shifted online and not entirely disappeared face to face, and library staff, especially at Public Libraries have been saddled with additional roles to fill the many gaps left by non-existent or crumbling social safety - nets. New librarians leave the profession because they have no desire to be First -responders to the opioid crisis, social-workers, or thought-police. Library staff have more than enough to do without taking on the emotional labour for every group that ever faced any level of discrimination or marginalization. Libraries have had diverse and decolonized collections since the 60's and 70's. Generations of librarians have been actively improving and expanding our collections and working to be as 'just', accessible and welcoming as possible. It is deeply insulting to our profession that people, who are completely ignorant of the decades of progress and hard work they are attacking, swan in with their manufactured "Urgency" based on flippant assumptions that amount to ageism and racial profiling.
Some further reading for those interested:
1. Lester Asheim’s Not Censorship but Selection essay that is posted on the American Library Association's website.
2. Kenneth F Kister's essay "Educating Librarians in Intellectual Freedom"
3. Majorie Fiske "Book Selection and Censorship: A Study of School and Public Libraries in California"
1. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/NotCensorshipButSelection#:~:text=Selection%20seeks%20to%20protect%20the,faith%20only%20in%20his%20own.
2. https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/items/6499
3. https://www.amazon.com/Book-Selection-Censorship-Libraries-California/dp/B000MZMB00
Thank you for writing this concise and coherent article!
Thank you. I am grateful to everyone who has jumped in and discussed the issues.
Thank you for catching the Doyle pieced-- I had missed it.
Back in 2006 I moderated a panel at the NYLA annual conference during which the idea of affixing ratings (or any other sort of warnings) on library materials was greeted with pretty universal derision (and it was a darn big room!). Fast forward 16 years and the entire profession can't wait to do exactly that, and far worse. We have landed on Bizarro world and gone to the Yrarbil...
That is an AMAZING statistic, thanks for making it more widely known!
“saw the largest number of complaints initiated by library staff in the history of the survey”
Andrew Doyle comments on authoritarian acts by librarians in Canada and England in this recent video clip https://youtu.be/SDjVuQ7cLOo