Librarians have a reputation for being flaming liberals. Left of Left. I’ve met more than one who wears the label “pinko” with pride.
So that makes one of the latest discussions to pop up on library listservs an interesting one. Yesterday, a subscriber to the American Library Association’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Round Table listserv posted links for YouTube archives of the speeches given at the Democratic National Convention. Immediately another subscriber reminded people that the listserv was not to be used for “partisan purposes” and warned against “pushing the envelope” — which, the subscriber said, could lead to the ALA’s losing its nonprofit status. Other subscribers responded by saying that they were merely passing around information, and they posted links to other candidates’ YouTube speeches, including John McCain’s.
The debate might seem odd, especially for librarians and the GLBT Round Table, a group that advocates improving the “quality, quantity, and accessibility of library materials and service of particular interest or usefulness to lesbian, bisexual, gay, and transgendered people of all ages” and works for “eliminating job discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered employees of libraries, archives, and information centers,” according to the round table’s mission statement. Those goals seem to be part of the current political debate. How do you avoid politics in passing around information about such topics?
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