Spokes model for millennials

Alyssa Ahlgren is a millennial who's made a name for herself by being blunt and unapologetically conservative, calling out her generation, including AOC, for being spoiled and naive.

She wrote a nice piece in late May about standing up to fear. Now it's nearly October and I think maybe she was wrong about Americans and what they would put up with.

"Americans were willing to take temporary hits to their liberties to flatten the curve. We followed the rules. We were compliant with the “15 days to slow the spread.” What we are not compliant with is the continued abuse of power backed by zero evidence and practiced in the name of the “common good” and “safety.” As the country’s leaders remain divided on locking down and reopening, Americans are starting to stand together. We will not be vulnerable. We will not be complacent. And we will not shrink in fear. After all, the American spirit was derived from rebellion and the desire to be free. Good luck keeping that locked down."

My church has timidly offered some parking lot and mid-week services, and my library still has closed branches and appointment only computers. I guess our walk doesn't match our talk, especially on the First Amendment.

https://alphanewsmn.com/alyssa-ahlgren-what-the-shutdown-has-taught-us/

Scandal around Obama’s role grows, but will it be reported

The Flynn “justice” scandal and the Trump impeachment fiasco. It all points to the top.  Based on any past bad news about Obama, the media will run for cover, or not cover the growing scandal clearly laid out in the documents that the Democrats were pulling off the biggest vote theft in their history--the attempt to undo the 2016 election.

https://nypost.com/2019/11/20/when-the-villain-is-obama-not-trump-news-suddenly-becomes-not-worth-reporting/?

I know what happens in libraries, and it's probably the same in news. Librarians don't purposely "ban books" and that whole ALA "Banned books" week/month is just hype to get you into the library (before they were closed by the government). Library collections become liberal because the banning goes on in the back rooms where books are ordered from favorite review sources, which are liberal. It's a massive, circular system--conservative professors don't get promoted or don't get published so the liberal publishers don't pick up their material, which then circulates through smaller, independent publishers. And at the root the banning goes much deeper. Conservatives may decide against a career in academe or anything that influences the culture because the deck is stacked against them. You'll hear about women or minorities being shut out because that fits the liberal agenda of grievance, but what liberal would ever write about discrimination against conservatives! Just doesn't happen. It's "banned."

Much the same in the news. News media don't fabricate fake news, they don't have to--the people who post on FB and Twitter do that for them by reposting memes and fake stories. What the media do is edit out the part of real news they don't like, major in minors, or just choose to not report something. That's why liberals bad mouth Fox News--its coverage of Trump is only 50% negative, so therefore liberals believe it must be fake if it isn't filled with negative, insulting information. Or they point at Hannity or Levin, which are opinion shows (very pro-Trump), not news. Because the MSM like Washington Post or New York Times contain so much opinion in their regular news coverage, liberal readers are confused between factual reporting and biased opinion (all opinion articles have a bias, as they should, even this one). So if the media cover a political or cultural event that is a current topic, then later find out it actually happened under Obama and not Trump, they scramble to quietly pull it, or don't report it at all.

Who locked the church doors?

The entities in our society who've disappointed me the most during the pandemic are the public libraries and the Christian churches—particularly  the large ones with healthy budgets and large staffs. Both are evangelists, although for different causes. One for information and learning and the other for Jesus Christ and a life style that includes worship, charity, and good works.

I was a librarian for many years (Slavic studies, Latin American studies, cataloger, bibliographer, Agriculture, Veterinary Medicine) and have worked in libraries since I was a teen-ager, I know what they mean to people seeking health information, assistance with school work, leisure activities, access to computers, and mind-numbing recreational reading--all of which should have been considered essential during a pandemic. It's just not difficult to "social distance" in a library, or for the staff to keep a library clean. One summer my assistant Sarah and I moved our entire 50,000 volume library across the hall to an empty lab so painters could give it a fresh look. And no, heavy, back breaking labor wasn't in our job description. I don't know a librarian or para-professional who hasn't done something outside the standard guidelines in order to keep her job. And usually, willingly because they love what they do and see their work as a service to society.

I've been part of a Christian faith group for as long as I can remember--from the days when I wrapped my little arms around my mother's leg as she chatted with friends after the service to the funeral of Ann Hull in February 2020 when we all hugged and cried with her family and friends. Do you know that half of the churches in the U.S. have a congregation below 75 (the median)? The average congregation has about 185 people--and that was 10 years ago--it's probably less now. They do a lot, those little churches--food pantries, hospital visits, volunteering at the local nursing home, after school classes in the faith, preparing the youth for confirmation, serving at all the funerals of the "old folks" who didn't move on to something with more glitz and glam, gathering the faithful 10 or 12 for a choir, and some don't have a full time pastor--they have sort of a circuit rider like the 19th century rural churches.

Those churches of less than 200 (many elderly or ill) probably didn't have enough people who could put together a task force or committee to drive to the state house and convince the governor that churches are just as essential as Lowe's and Walmart to the community. And do you think those little old ladies who have served at a thousand funerals and weddings don't know how to keep a church clean?

But where were the big brother churches who could have shouldered that burden? Playing with their computers, Zooming and Skyping and listening to confessions in the parking lot of their cathedrals. I don't like Teledoc and have never been one to watch TV preachers, although I am fond of old reruns of Bishop Sheen and Billy Graham.

Years ago--probably the 1970s or 1980s, an era when churches really began losing ground to the culture--my mother wrote an essay about how discouraged she was after a lifetime of service in the church to see so few young families in her small town church. I wish I could find it—never one to promote herself, she may have written it as fiction. She'd taught Sunday school, Bible school, sewed the curtains for the fellowship hall; she'd been the Christian education director, she'd birthed and raised the church organist, she'd decorated and served in the church nursery; she'd made thousands of casseroles and Jello salads for church dinners, she volunteered for 30 years in the local nursing home; she donated her garden produce, she taught sewing to migrant workers, she led a Friday morning Bible study in her home for years, and used her own funds to create and manage a religious retreat center. She may have even had a stint running the church library because she loved libraries. And I might add, she did it all (except for gardening) in a dress, hose and heels.

I think her essay was directed at my generation, or maybe just me. I wasn't doing a fraction of what she and her generation did. My generation  gathered to sit on the floor in focus groups and have consciousness raising discussions on what it meant to be a woman in the 20th century. We were petitioning for more power on the male dominated church boards and going to the state house with signs to demonstrate for the ERA. We went back to work in droves until a second income was essential for all families, as was a 2nd car and a bigger home.

As we women discovered who we were, went off to seminary and joined the boards back in the 1970s, our children just walked out of the church after confirmation or after baptism depending on the denomination and became the "nones." Somehow, I just can't see the women who struggled through the Great Depression and WWII, whose husbands and brothers had gone off to defend our religious freedoms and assembly and speech freedoms putting up with the government making rules that would cause the pastors and church boards to put a lock on the church door.

Why retirees have problems cleaning out the files

Have you ever tried to clean out your storage or files and found out it takes days to go through one drawer or file cabinet or closet? For me, the big mistake is sitting down to read something I wrote 25-30 years ago. I don't know what happens in the offices of retired pastors who preach every Sunday and lead Bible studies or school teachers who saved reams of projects and lesson plans, but it's a nightmare for librarians like me who have attend hundreds of meetings and who had publishing requirements for promotion and tenure and saved all their notes.

For instance, my notes (never published because they were for me) for "The Ohio White House Conferences on Library and Information Services--Literacy," September 27 (1990?) held at the Worthington Holiday Inn. I'm not sure why I attended--it seemed to be for public librarians, and not academic. We live in different worlds and focus on totally different problems and clientele. Ohio doesn't have a "White House" so the title means each state or region was having meetings to funnel information back to the President--George H.W. Bush--information on which any administration rarely acts, but the money would have come from the federal government. My writing style always includes off topic ideas that occur to me, so before I wrote out my notes, I commented on the poor representation of the media at this conference and I blamed my profession, not the media.

"Librarians have been notorious for not being able to market their product. Distilleries put their information on billboards in the inner city and at interstate exchanges. Librarians put notices on bookmarks which can only be picked up in libraries. Cigarette companies give away cigarettes to induce a life time addiction. Librarians give away time and effort registering voters and showing movies in hopes that the user might check out a book. Librarians sponsor National Library Week when for the cost they could probably create one of those phony commercial talk shows for cable television that are on every channel from midnight on. Targeting neighborhoods with direct mail campaigns has sold millions of dollars worth of goods, but when was the last time you received a doorhanger from the library except at levy time? Have you ever received a phone call from a telemarketer interrupting your dinner to ask if your library card in current?

There are millions of literate people who never set foot in a library. They either don't need them, don't like them, or have had bad experiences in them. They join book clubs, subscribe to magazines and newspapers; they visit book stores and book sales, but not libraries. There are also millions of literate people who are non-readers. . .

The largest, single common denominator identifying all librarians is that we are members of that particular cultural group--the readers. We are so chauvinistic we cannot imagine anyone could be happy who doesn't share this common trait. Librarians have created every imaginable network, coalition, association, and service organization to lure people into their libraries, but they haven't been able to keep libraries in the schools, not even with all the dues we pay. We can't even get a librarian appointed as the "Librarian of Congress." [note: that did finally happen under Obama--a 3-fer, Carla Hayden, black, female, librarian]."

And I went on to mention the dropping numbers (30 years ago) for literacy among children, even in families where moms read to them. Then I wrote about the activities at my public library that week for children: 4 programs involving movies, and 3 for Halloween crafts.

I went on and on for pages--have no idea what happened at the conference. This was 8 typed pages, and no information on what resulted from the meeting. There is a printed report listed on Amazon as out of stock, Jan. 1, 1990, and a copy in the OSU library.

Maybe some attitudes have changed in libraries the last 30 years. I'm no longer an insider. If there were two institutions that should have been considered essential during this shut down it was churches and libraries. Both are filled with evangelists for their passion, and both were silenced, submissive and shuttered.

Racism in the library profession

I've often mentioned at my blog the overwhelming list to the left of the library profession--a study done about 20 years ago said 223:1, making the profession more liberal than the ACLU, most university faculties, and probably the American Communist Party. So Library Journal (the "premier" publication of the American Library Association) this week tweeted "Library collections continue to promote and proliferate whiteness with their very existence and the fact that they are physically taking up space in our libraries." The journal's Twitter account then linked to an article [it was a blog] written by a Sofia Y. Leung, who describes herself as an "academic librarian" and lists intersectional feminism, social justice, and cats as things she likes. LJ should be ashamed for providing such drivel and being so racist--even if it was a blog post by a nobody.

I'm not surprised libraries are rolling in whiteness. The public library movement was started by women's clubs who thought literacy was important for 20th century Americans. The clubs, were social and educational and like the nation, segregated, but both white women and black women developed what came to be known as the public library--open to all who lived in the community or a small fee for those outside the jurisdiction. Libraries were established by white middle women, they were intended to serve the middle class and promote middle class values (education, family, children, marriage, religion, patriotism, leisure, home making skills, etc.), the library schools graduate primarily white middle class students and through bond issues have traditionally been supported by middle class white people.

Librarians have been promoting every progressive goal, especially women's rights, civil rights, environmentalism, and Democratic politics for as long as I can remember--and I first worked in the town library in Mt. Morris when I was a teen-ager. They have burdened themselves with LGBTQ movement, the HIV epidemic, income gaps (although they've not been successful in raising their own salaries above the EITC level), health disparities, domestic violence, etc., and I'm sure 90% of public librarians (and staff) are on board for the Green New Deal.

Being a middle class white institution brings some baggage, particularly guilt, for living and working in such abundance and freedom--our public support, our education, our wealth as a country. So this intersectionalist librarian Ms. Leung (an academic near as I can tell) is just following in the steps of her foremothers believing in 2019 that white people just take up space. Maybe her library can create separate restrooms, water fountains, and separate entrances for white people. It worked before for Democrats when they created Jim Crow facilities.

Bob Woodward has another book

"After reading Mr. Woodward's "Bush at War," it seems to me that the U.S. officials who either approved or participated in passing the information—in documents and via interviews—that is the heart of Mr. Woodward's book, gave an untold measure of aid and comfort to the enemy." And that was 2002.

Now he's at it again. Smearing Trump. He also wrote about Obama's wars but I don't think anyone cared or read the book. Now HE was a Teflon president. I can't even remember how many volumes were in Woodward's exposes of Bush, but I checked our public library at the time and wrote at my blog:

"UAPL LOVES Bob Woodward and Michael Moore. Oh. my. gosh. They must own stock in those men. Woodward's latest book had 15 copies (I noticed the other day they are ALL on the shelf--nothing checked out--just taking up space collecting dust). I think Farenheit 911 had 17 copies (and it has been proven to have so many errors from a number of sources that I'm surprised they hang on to so many copies.)"

The Woodward Trump book will sell well to public libraries--most public librarians are Democrats--more so even than the ACLU, Hollywood and Planned Parenthood. Just go in, check the shelves and ask for some balance. Best to have a title in mind, because they rely on review publications, and librarians write the reviews. You pay for this and deserve something you aren't ashamed to have on the coffee table at home.

Today I noticed this in the American Library Association State of America's libraries 2017 report. All the buzz words that can fit left of center. Did you pass a bond issue to combat Islamophobia, or have a Democrat tell you what is fake news? Have you ever suggested a Christian magazine or a pro-life title and been told there's no demand?  Try asking for a reading list on social justice for the unborn.

"Our 9,082 public libraries play a vital role in such community services as early childhood literacy, computer training, and workforce development. In addition, they provide a safe place for everyone, reflecting and serving the diversity of their communities in their collections, programs, and services. The thousands of public libraries in towns and neighborhoods across the United States invite community conversations and actions that further understanding and address local needs.

Public libraries nationwide are taking action, using signs and social media to proclaim “everyone is welcome”; creating reading lists on demographics, voting, social justice, and other hot topics; partnering with community organizations to combat Islamophobia and racism and to connect with disenfranchised populations; and developing programs to help community members spot “fake news” (such as false or misleading statements, video or images shown out of proper context, dubious statistics, manipulated content, partisan propaganda, or satire) and evaluate information online."

Make new friends, but keep the old . . .

Spending time with old friends is one of the joys of retirement and my age. However, meeting new people and hearing their stories is fun too. (It's challenging for us oldsters to listen--we'd rather talk-- but it's good practice.) At our retirees luncheon on Friday at the OSU Golf Club I sat by another OSU library faculty retiree, Barbara, who had come on staff the year I retired (2000), so we'd never met. She's had a fascinating career with many twists and turns. I'd prepared packages of homemade cookies, and passed out our Christmas card with Bob's painting of the Marblehead Lighthouse in the snow.

Then on Sunday I chatted across the dinner table with a new friend from church, Carol, who told me all about the Winona Public Library where she'd worked in college. I've checked out the links she gave me--fabulous architecture, and like many community libraries it started as a lyceum and private organization with paid memberships and then a wealthy donor. Going to Minnesota is not on my bucket list, but if you're in the neighborhood, it would be worth the visit.

Today is our book club December gathering at Carolyn A.'s home.  We'll be discussing The Annotated Alice,The Definitive Edition by Martin Gardner. 

 
 I've never read Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, don't care much for fantasy, and his fascination with Alice Liddle, from what I'd read, seemed a little creepy viewed from our 21st century sensibilities.  And to make it worse, Martin Gardner was a mathematician (he died at 99 in 2013), and my skills in that area were never strong, and are now zip, nada, zilch.  But I did read in the introduction that Carroll began this whole adventure making up stories to amuse the three Liddle sisters on boat rides and later wrote them down and gathered them into a gift book. Makes me wish my mother had written down the stories she told me while braiding my hair when I was little (to keep me from screaming in pain!).  The ladies of the club are dear, and my goodness, what bibliophiles and scholars they are! And eclectic tastes.  I'd never read a mystery nor would have found Maisie Dobbs which my husband adores if it hadn't been for this lovely group. 

Wednesday is our Conestoga Christmas Party at The Boathouse at Confluence Park, which has a gorgeous view of downtown Columbus, with reception at 6 and dinner at 7. Dancing has been taken off the menu--either we're all too old or it got too expensive.  Conestoga is a friends group or auxiliary  established in 1986 to enhance support for the Ohio History Connection (aka Ohio Historical Society). To date, its members have raised over $500,000. Conestoga members participate in a wide variety of social and educational events, tours of historical sites and museums and lectures. Membership currently costs $100 for a single membership and $150 for a couple membership. Dues include admission to all regularly scheduled Conestoga social events and educational programs, as well as all the benefits of the Plus Family membership.

On Thursday the Pregnancy Decision Health Center, all locations, is having its annual Christmas get together at the Amelita Mirolo Barn in Upper Arlington about 2 miles from here. It can be rented for banquets, parties and weddings/receptions.  I've been to several events there, which is located in Sunny 95 park.  The original barn was constructed in 1838 near Reed and Fishinger roads before there was suburban development for Columbus. In December 1928, it was moved to Lane Road to replace a barn that had burned down on the McCoy family farm. It was used as storage for about 40 years. I remember driving past it many times on Lane Rd.  Residents could even purchase eggs from the location. In 2007, the City of Upper Arlington was planning the new Sunny 95 Park  and an organization was created to save the barn and move it. Mainly it was the timbers and framing--doesn't look much like the old barn. I'm just blown away by the commitment and love exhibited by the staff and volunteers of PDHC. All I do is answer the phone, greet clients, and assemble some papers and sort baby clothes. They do the really tough things, and often can only save one baby out of ten, but they don't get discouraged.

“Norma, I was wondering how in the world you survived in the librarians' world.”

The only librarians he knows are his two cousins and they are very liberal, so he asked me and I responded.

Norma demonstrating CD-ROM system in 1988

"Until 2000 I was a Democrat. That was the year I retired. However, I was actually apolitical, and all my core values were the same as now—pro-life, pro-business, creationist, Christian. Because I had always been concerned about the poor, racial issues, various injustices, the environment, the Democrats seemed the logical party since that was what they preached. I never voted for Reagan, or Ford or Bush I. But the worm had been turning actually since my husband went into business for himself in 1994 and I was the researcher and staff.  Slowly, slowly, along with some personal problems in our family, I learned about “enabling behavior” and how much of the good we think we do for others,  we do for ourselves to control them or the circumstances. I began to take Matthew 25 very seriously, and realized in those passages about meeting Jesus in person, we are never told that the other people will change or that we will change the circumstances of their lives—poverty, prison, hunger, etc.

Aside from all that, I know now I would not have been promoted or published (I was Associate Professor at Ohio State University when I retired) if I had been an open, out of the closet, conservative. My publications are/were apolitical, a lot of stuff about journals and 19th century women writers for farm journals, articles about veterinary titles, how to use databases, etc., but if I had been as outspoken then as I am now (social media wasn’t an issue although I was on Usenet) my career would have been toast. A conservative faculty member will not get grants, office space, research time, or appointments to important committees in most of academe. It’s not dissimilar to the problem blacks had in the 1920s when there was a quota in almost all universities (I also did research on black veterinarians turn of 20th century). Conservative faculty are tokens. 

Academic libraries are a little different than public libraries, (the profession has 4 types—school, special, academic and public).  Politics may not be as important for a health librarian or a physics librarian—some of the publications they purchase might have a political edge, but most would be straight research. Fields like Education, Women Studies, Black studies and social work would be much more political. But public librarians? 223:1 liberal to conservative (2004 figures). That’s higher than Hollywood or the ACLU. You can imagine how the budgets are spent for those libraries! 

For years and years I battled our local public library. They flooded the shelves with anti-Bush titles during his term—I think they purchased every one ever published. For instance, there are 3 large Lutheran churches in our area, and there was one book on Lutheranism copyright 1945 on the shelves. It was easier to find a new title on the occult than anything Christian. Even main-line. Lots about the Amish titles, who are sort of considered “cute” and interesting around here, but don’t actually live in our town. Any book on Martin Luther King, Jr. was classified as Christian, so that’s how “balance” was achieved. Everything Michael Moore ever did was available in multiple copies and formats.

It has improved somewhat, and I now see popular titles by well known TV Christian preachers or best sellers on the shelves, but I think most Christians learned years ago to just go to the book store or Amazon and avoid the library. My public library had about 50 journal titles on various technology/computer topics, everything from popular computer stuff to high tech production, and only three Christian titles. It was good enough for a small college library. And when I pointed this out and made suggestions, their reasoning was those publications I recommended were not on their lists of reviewed titles—you see, the same people control the review publications that control the library systems and it’s a closed loop. 

Your cousins don’t even realize the “liberal privilege” their profession provides. Their own publications and professional organizations protect them. It’s really the same complaint that blacks have about “white privilege,” in that when you live in it and it is your life, career, and friendships, it is just normal, not privilege. But to add to the mix, I’ve never met a librarian who wasn’t also a missionary for the importance of information and knowledge (can no longer say reading, too old fashioned). Their personal beliefs and values strongly affect their professional lives. 

If this doesn’t sound like the librarians you know that’s because most of the staff you meet in your public library are not librarians. They may be highly skilled para-professionals or shelving clerks or interns, but the librarians with a double master's or PhD are in the back room with the door closed working on the budget or a local committee report or a snag in the computerized circulation system or a speech for the next professional meeting.

So, that’s why you don’t know any conservative librarians (other than me)."

(Spacing is off because I copied this from an e-mail to my friend.)

Start and stop cleaning

While cleaning my office shelves, I came across some requests I’d made to the Upper Arlington Public Library in 2008.  These days I don’t bother.  These are just the requests I saved on a printout; although 4 out of 7 isn’t bad. Because of the age of these books, it’s hard to know if requests for an additional copy was filled, because by now they would have been withdrawn.

Twenty-first century gateways,, immigrant incorporation in suburban America (2008) Brookings Institution Press  Not filled

Immigration Solution (2008) Manhattan Institute.  Filled

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks had 15 holds and 1 copy. I asked for an additional copy.

Obama nation. 13 holds, 3 copies. I requested an additional purchase.

What’s the matter with California. Filled. UAPL owned 3 copies of What’s the matter with Kansas.

Reinventing Jesus. Filled

The dirty dozen; how 12 supreme court cases radically expanded government and eroded freedom (2008) CATO . Filled

The way of improvement leads home. (2008) U. of Pa press. Not filled

Our man in Mexico; Winston Scott and the hidden history of the CIA (2008) University Press of Kansas.  Not filled

Mid-Ohio Food Bank and Upper Arlington Public Library

The cover of the slick PR magazine for the Upper Arlington Public Library shows two staffers, a stack of packaged food and boxes, plus a banner in the background about "Donate food and reduce fine" with a logo of Mid-Ohio Food Bank. I couldn't find an article in the magazine to go with the cover so I googled it. The January 31, 2011 issue of This Week Community Newspaper Upper Arlington explained it: one Saturday afternoon from 1-5 p.m. library patrons could donate one non-perishable item and get $1.00 off their fine. Other people could donate too. I wonder about the time and effort to do this. And then, did the people just pay off the rest of their fines, was that the point? If you donate a 79 cent can of beans and get $1.00 off the fine--and you spent time and gas money to get to the library, how does that work out? Or do you just take something out of the cupboard you weren't going to use anyway, like past due date noodles from Israel or canned mushrooms from China? I've worked at the food pantry, and really, the odd things people donate. . .

I have several problems with this gimmick for paying fines. First of all, the Mid-Ohio Food Bank is primarily tax supported--either by USDA food directly, by farm produce supported by the USDA, by direct payments from the federal government, by direct payments from the state government which probably dipped into a federal grant, through tax deductions given to businesses, or by donations from foundations which receive their money from gifts which are tax deductible. Second, the public libraries are also supported by local taxes. Third, the mission of the public library, a tax supported institution, is not to support other tax supported institutions. It has a very specific purpose in the community that no one else, no other organization can do. It should not be teaching people to read--the public schools do that; it should not be offering craft classes, hobbies, and art classes and other lyceum type programs--there are other community and private groups that do that.

If you can't make your case for being an outstanding library without this type of "volunteer" for the community poor, then hire a new PR staffer, or revise your fine schedule.

That reminds me, I have an overdue book. Crazy love by Francis Chan. It's a Christian book--a very rare find at the Upper Arlington Public Library. Take your food items to the collection box at your church. This is one area where I favor separation of church and state.

The Lakeside Christmas Party

It's tonight. Always fun to see our old friends. We meet at Wesley Lodge, enjoy a dinner, and usually sing carols or have a program or both. Many have already closed their cottages for the year, but we don't since ours is a "real" house with plaster walls, gas furnace, storm windows, etc. We bought it from the original owners who were year around residents. If the sun is out, our porch acts as "passive solar." I'm taking along the book "Dewey," the story of the Iowa library cat because I'm leading a discussion at book club on Monday and need to review, since I read it in March. This time around I'm looking at it much more closely and enjoying some of the stories even more, like Dewey's special relationship with a handicapped girl, Crystal.

I moved my winter coats from storage (a downstairs shower we never use) yesterday. It's time. I'm hoping to get a little walking in along the lake. It actually stays warmer longer there because of the lake--but boy is it a killer walk in February or March! This will be our first road test for our new van, purchased a week ago.

I was checking a weather blog yesterday and it looks like Ohio and the eastern U.S. will be having a fairly mild winter, but Illinois and Indiana, where we have so many relatives and friends will really be blasted. My "guest blogger" Murray has already gone to his Florida home--said it got cold very early in Illinois, or maybe he's just got old bones like the rest of us.

There's an excellent letter in today's Dispatch written by Kim Pickett on the importance of libraries in hard times and how they serve the community. If you get a chance, take a look. I think they only stay up a short time. Unfortunately, she weakens her good points with the last two paragraph by moralizing. Judges the one she says is being judgmental. And closes with some phony stats that were going around when unemployment was 4.5%. Could be wrong, but I'm guessing she's left of center. But other than that, she really knows her stuff.

Update from party: Big turn out!

The Library on Mulberry Street

McGraw Hill’s Construction video library for Architectural Record has some fascinating projects (some really ugly, but most not so much)--over 100--I really enjoyed this one about a library on Mulberry Street where Rogers Marvel Architects inserted a grand stair into an old loft floor, allowing light to penetrate into two subterranean levels.

Ohio's Democratic Governor wants to cut library funding

It's hard to even imagine what Ohio's librarians would be doing if Strickland were a Republican (librarians vote 223 to one for Democrats). I'm sure they'd have a lynch mob ready, maybe they'd organized something like a tea party. But as it is, library patrons are getting e-mails (UAPL sent one to me) since there was only about a week's notice that his was going to happen. Oh, and also some day care funding for poor kids will be cut.

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland has proposed cutting Ohio Public Library Fund by a jaw dropping $227,000,000 in his biennium budget. This could possibly cause the closure of many libraries relying solely on state support. Ohio is home to many of the nations highest ranked and rated public libraries. LISNews.

Remember, all you liberals, Obama's economic plan was only going to hurt the evil rich. He had to poke his long, sticky government fingers into our economic dyke that had a leak, but all he did was enlarge the holes and create a flood. Just because Obama's plan is destroying investment in business which brings in taxes which pays your salaries, or directly employs you, it's all going to be sooooo fair. This man never intended to save anything--only to destroy. Wake up! FDR managed to drag out the Great Depression for a decade; Obama could even beat his record.

Libraries out of their depth

You probably can’t pray or hold religious services in this library, but you can buy clothing. Call me stodgy, but I think libraries should serve the community with information about services, not the services themselves.

“The Good Buy Room has some great deals on gently used clothing. The Spring selection of wares are here and are very reasonably priced. When you come into the main library in Buckhorn next time, go downstairs to the lower level and checkout the wonderful selection.”

So many librarians really wanted to be social workers at heart. They wanted to help people save the world without seeing blood or a classroom or digging a well. In career counseling they were warned about the paper work, documentation, constant meetings, low pay and seeing no change in people’s lives, so instead, they gravitated to library science. No one alerted them . . . that. . .well. . . it’s supposed to be about information--collecting, storing, preserving, guiding and providing (plus all the above listed stuff). Increasingly it’s about networks, computers, licensing, and fund raising, but all with the goal of providing people with information they can use. Some libraries rent tools and supply day-care. Some have reading classes. Or teach crafts. Show movies. Put on rock shows with air guitars. Anything to raise stats.

Does this community not have a Women’s Club, or Veterans Group or Church or Hospital Auxiliary that is looking for a service project? Is there only one public building? Let the schools teach; let the churches read and follow Matthew 25; let the volunteer groups raise funds.

Progressive and radical librarians

aren't very different from any progressive and radical fill-in-the-blank folk. They are political first, second and third, and librarianship, if it exists in their thought process, ranks somewhere below. I don't know how many of the PARL are out there on the fringes of the profession, but their noise level is high because so many in the profession are liberals and Democrats, sort of the first cousins of the Progressives. However, like those food/drug reform groups (Center for the something of the something) or church committees (Council of the whatever for the thingamajig) they make a lot of noise and put out tons of announcements and pack their party faithful on the faculties of our tax supported institutions.

They are joining us with the United States Social Forum. They are against "value-neutral" libraries, whatever that is, because they sure want to see their values well represented on the shelves, like the 16 copies of a popular anti-Bush title, or 25+ titles of everything Michael Moore ever produced on film or in print at my public library, or fighting community groups trying to keep pornography out of the hands of children using libraries.

PARL never asks what can be done for the working librarians, the profession or the library user, only how can they mold the library culture into meeting their social reform goals. Annoyed Librarian has renamed them the Regressive Librarians, and it does beg reflection on just what the word "PROGRESSIVE" means when used by any American political group. Progressive does not mean better benefits or unionization of retail employees of very large companies, because they really want the company destroyed; progressive doesn't mean a safer and healthier environment if that means the US economy could survive; nor raising the income of the bottom quintile but bringing everyone else down to their level, and if that isn't successful, import more poor people (illegal immigration); a progressive value is not saving wild animals or habitat, but valuing animals above humans. It's not about cooperation among religious groups, but destroying any faiths and putting Marxist principles first. Their plans, methods and goals have brought misery in every country that tried them, but they are so progressive they are desperate for it to work here in the U.S. Now, what's so progressive about these folks' tired, failed ideas? Nothing that I can see?

Get a church!

Yesterday I was reading a chatty, well-paced blog by a self-identified atheist librarian. She was ridiculing the fashion tastes of the Christians who were gathering in the meeting room of the library. They must have been more joyful than allowed to be in the halls of the inner sanctum of a public library, because she said, "Get a church!" I wonder if she says "Get a kitchen" to the amateur chefs, or "Get an agent" to the wanna-be writers, or "Get a concert hall" if they sponsor the very loud hip hop groups for the teens that gather at my suburban public library as part of their "reach out to youth" program.

I truly wish the women I see at church were as modestly and attractively dressed as the ones she described and found so hilarious. I'd much rather see a floral print and lace collars than tight jeans and skinny tee's that leave the cleavage and muffin tops bursting in all their fullness for God.

Of course, what is really funny is a librarian, even me, giving out fashion advice. We're known for being tenacious, directional and investigative, but somewhat fashion challenged. And we're proud not to be taken for Paris or Rosie or some other clothes-hanger type. There are exceptions, of course. There's Matthew, the Well Dressed Librarian, and then there's Pam over at Health Sciences, and I'm sure there's more, but it's a pretty short list.

I recently saw some Christian women dressed similarly to the group she described. They were part of a prison ministry--feeding and clothing and job mentoring for some ex-cons. I wonder if atheist-librarians do that?

3726

Ask at your local library

Dear Home Editor,

I am a regular reader--my husband is an architect, I'm a retired librarian. I note that you suggest to your readers that to apply for "a chance to win great prizes," one of which is a $35 acrylic throw, they need to have internet access and an e-mail address. Then you offer the services of their local library where the staff will help them set up a free e-mail account and, presumably, teach them how to get onto your website, find the right page, the correct window, and enter all the appropriate information. Whether a person would actually go to this much trouble to get a "chance to win" a $35.00 throw, I don't know, but I do know it would cost about $100 in staff time to teach someone who knew nothing about the internet how to set up and manipulate an e-mail account.

Also, once this person is up and running on the internet, she must enter your giveaway site by noon Eastern Time. That would be 9 a.m. in California. Are libraries even open that early on the west coast? As you well know, nothing is free, not even giveaways which are part of marketing. Libraries are definitely not free, nor is information. Please be responsible in your own offers and suggest a phone number or snail mail option if people don't have, don't want, can't learn, or physically can't get to the internet. You are a print medium.

I have 10 blogs and 2 e-mail addresses, and use the internet 4-5 hours a day. My husband does not know how to turn on the computer and I don't mow the lawn. It's not for everyone.

Norma Bruce
Faculty Emeritus
Ohio State University Libraries

3365 What puzzles me about libraries

Keep in mind that I was never trained to be a librarian in a public library (there are four types--academic, public, government and private/special/business). I didn't receive the official indoctrination, and never joined the American Library Association. However, I use the library maybe twice a week, and get great benefit from it.

What I've never understood in all my years of using a public library is why they are adjunct lyceums, chautauquas, amusement parks and community centers for meetings. It's not like our community has no outlet or opportunity for activities. Our suburb (and others in the Columbus area) has a "Life Long Learning" program, tax supported through the city, and federal grants, I believe. These classes meet in a variety of community buildings from churches, to fraternal halls and public schools. You can take accounting, furniture refinishing or Swahili--there's a huge variety. Various universities and colleges in the area also offer continuing education or credit for college courses. The local churches also offer both religious and non-religious programing on everything from politics to art to financial management, plus personal growth classes and lectures on marriage and parenting. The Columbus Museum offers classes as do local environmental and history societies. There are community art groups all over the place--the Worthington Art League, Dublin Community Arts Council, etc. who bring in speakers and programs. The mega-lumber sites like Lowe's and Home Depot offer home maintenance and interior decorating classes. The whole foods stores teach cooking and health classes. The local hospitals and medical networks send out quarterly announcements about their classes on everything from cancer to coping with stress. Every imaginable sport training and league is offered through the community programs, or you can go to a local sports mega-store and climb their indoor mountain. Our senior centers located throughout Columbus offer a wide variety of lectures, how-to-classes, and recreational opportunities.

So why is the public library offering writing classes, or music lectures, or quilting discussions, or this noisy gathering for middle schoolers:

The library “turns it up to 11” as we invite guitar heroes of all ages to join us in our first all-new videogame themed events. Play the Playstation 2 versions of Guitar Heroes 1 and 2 on our giant 12-foot screen as we transform our Theater into a Virtual Rock Venue, complete with sound system and lights. Sign up is limited to 50 and we expect to be “sold out.” We’ll provide snacks and everything needed to play. Feel free to bring in your own custom Guitar Heroes controllers.
UAPL program for winter

There may have been a time long ago--maybe during the Great Depression--when people didn't have much to do in their leisure time. But those days are gone.

I think it is time to privatize the libraries. They've lost their mission and are searching for something to do with their staff and money.

2556 This should alarm librarians

Although public library staff consider blocking or filtering certain sites to protect children to be against their ethics, their budget and their technological know-how (see comments at #2542), I'd read in Wired that Gina Trapani had created a simple little hack for her own computer to block MySpace so she wouldn't waste time at work. So while browsing that site, I came across the story taken from New Scientist, that the data on MySpace and other social networking sites might be used for data mining. Government snoops really get librarians' shorts all twisted. So that, and not protecting children, could raise an eyebrow about these sites. Heaven forbid the NSA be lead back to a library computer.

"Pentagon's National Security Agency, which specialises in eavesdropping and code-breaking, is funding research into the mass harvesting of the information that people post about themselves on social networks. And it could harness advances in internet technology - specifically the forthcoming "semantic web" championed by the web standards organisation W3C - to combine data from social networking websites with details such as banking, retail and property records, allowing the NSA to build extensive, all-embracing personal profiles of individuals."

I don't bank or buy on-line, but I think there are way too many public records online--like photos and floor plans of our homes with neighborhood maps at the state auditor's site. How handy is that for burglars? And Ohio State University hasn't been able to figure out how to stop using my social security number for ordinary transactions like checking out a book.

data mining