[LAW-LIB:56545] RE: Sarah Palin and Libraries

From: Jim Milles (jgmilles@buffalo.edu)
Date: Thu Sep 04 2008 - 14:09:20 PDT

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    *sigh*

    This "issue" comes up every election year...

    We're all professionals here, and we're all adults. We may disagree, but
    over the years we've generally disagreed in a civil fashion. Politics is
    important, and this election in particular presents a very clear choice--if
    you don't think so, no matter which side you come down on, you haven't been
    paying attention. Trying to declare this listserv a politics-free zone is
    both pointless and misguided.

    Jim Milles

    On Thu, Sep 4, 2008 at 4:51 PM, Stephanie Huthmacher
    <shuthmacher@lglaw.com>wrote:

    > Spoken like a true member of the legal profession…
    >
    >
    >
    > I, too, am a legal librarian. I find the banning of books repulsive and
    > any intrusion into ones personal library records abhorrent.
    >
    > Perhaps if parents were to talk to their children, or pop their heads into
    > their rooms once in a while, they could get an idea on what the kids are
    > doing, rather than relying on the librarian to monitor behavior.
    >
    >
    >
    > If you don't like a book, don't read it – if you don't like a movie, don't
    > watch it. No one holds a gun to anyone's heading forcing them to do
    > anything they find offensive. Time to take responsibility for your own
    > actions without impinging on the rights of others…
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    > Stephanie N. Huthmacher, MLS
    >
    > 42 Delaware Avenue, Suite 120
    >
    > Buffalo, New York 14202-3924
    >
    > Phone: 716.849.1333 ext. 330
    >
    > Fax: 716.855.1580
    >
    > E-mail: shuthmacher@lglaw.com
    >
    >
    >
    >
    > ------------------------------
    >
    > *From:* owner-law-lib@ucdavis.edu [mailto:owner-law-lib@ucdavis.edu] *On
    > Behalf Of *Frye, Nanna
    > *Sent:* Thursday, September 04, 2008 4:42 PM
    > *To:* Library; law-lib@ucdavis.edu
    > *Subject:* [LAW-LIB:56539] RE: Sarah Palin and Libraries
    >
    >
    >
    > Ah, but you did inject partisan politics into it, Paula, by the manner
    > in which you related these facts. Is anyone in doubt as to your position on
    > Sarah Palin after reading your posting? You certainly did not supply both
    > sides of the story. Reasonable minds could differ on the legislation you
    > mentioned below on whether parents could learn about the books their
    > children are borrowing from a library. If your teenage child has been moody
    > and you discover a library book on suicide in the teenager's room, shouldn't
    > you be able to find out if the child had borrowed other books on suicide?
    > Many would say "yes." Was the censoring a blanket act that applied to
    > adults and children or just to children? Are we talking about literary
    > books or titillating junk novellas that Palin wanted to censor? Again, we
    > don't have both sides of the story. After many, many years of working for a
    > court, it is very rare when there are not two sides to a story.
    >
    >
    >
    > I will reserve judgment until I have ALL of the facts. I would prefer
    > that we avoid political postings on law-lib about the presidential election
    > even if they do allegedly deal with "library topics."
    >
    > Nanna Frye, Law Librarian
    > Court of Appeal
    > San Diego, CA
    >
    >
    >
    >
    > ------------------------------
    >
    > *From:* owner-law-lib@ucdavis.edu [mailto:owner-law-lib@ucdavis.edu] *On
    > Behalf Of *Library
    > *Sent:* Thursday, September 04, 2008 10:54 AM
    > *To:* law-lib@ucdavis.edu
    > *Subject:* [LAW-LIB:56536] Sarah Palin and Libraries
    >
    > I know this isn't the place for partisan politics and I'm not going to
    > discuss what I think of Sarah Palin's positions on abortion or foreign
    > policy or whether polar bears belong on the Endangered Species Act. But she
    > did try to censor books in the Wasilla Public Library and she did try to
    > fire the librarian for not agreeing to do so. And she did support a bill in
    > the legislature that would have forced librarians to tell parents what books
    > their children had checked out of the library.
    >
    > I thought, as librarians, you might want to know her position on libraries
    > and censorship.
    > There is a well documented anti-Palin librarian's web site that discusses
    > this. issues:http://librariansagainstpalin.wordpress.com/
    >
    > Paula Lichtenberg, Librarian
    > Keker & Van Nest LLP, San Francisco
    > 

    -- 
Jim Milles
Vice Dean for Legal Information Services and Director of the Law Library
Professor of Law
University at Buffalo Law School
208 O'Brian Hall, Buffalo, NY 14260
(716) 645-2089, jgmilles@buffalo.edu
http://ClaimID.com/jmilles
http://www.retaggr.com/Card/jmilles
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