I must say that I'm surprised there hasn't been more discussion on this
important topic. I agree with Ted Koppel's implication that the use of
this list for ALA electioneering is inappropriate, regardless of any
individual's qualifications. I'm not a member of ALA, but I'm sure that
each official candidate for their Council is given the opportunity to
have a bio-blurb about them presented to the voing members of ALA. That's
done in CLA and OLA, to which I belong *and* to AJL! So why would we want
to clutter up our listserv with these things?
Edith Lubetski said: "I think it is a service to us to be informed of
ALA candidates who would be, at the very least, sympathetic to our
interests as AJL members. In fact, when there is an ALA election, I
would appreciate hearing from our members which candidates would
support our issues. I do not know any of the candidates personally or
professionally so that any input is helpful."
Where should this stop? Should we include comments about various people
running for public office of all kinds that would impact libraries, or
only Jewish libraries? Should we allow actual full blown lobbying? What
about having comments about people who do *not* "support our issues"?
Besides all that, what in fact ARE "our issues" and on which ones have
we registered consensus so we know which way we as a group are prepared
to allow candidates who support them to have their names touted to us?
I think this should be stopped here and now before it gets out of hand!
Shabbat shalom,
Bernard Katz, former head, Special Collections and Library Development
McLaughlin Library, University of Guelph
founding former treasurer, AJL-Ontario Chapter
author, descriptive bibliog. of L.M. Montgomery's books (in progress)
and chair, Ontario Library Association Copyright Task Force
Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author
and are not necessarily endorsed by the AJL
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