[LAW-LIB:56548] RE: Sarah Palin and Libraries

From: Moller, Rachael Hope (rmoller@proskauer.com)
Date: Thu Sep 04 2008 - 14:48:42 PDT

  • Next message: Gaunce, Charles: "[LAW-LIB:56549] RE: Sarah Palin and Libraries"

    The post is entirely appropriate to a law librarian list-serve.
    Censorship is legal issue because it has questionable legal (and moral)
    standing. One can argue that is appropriate in certain circumstances...
    and we all know this debate. Librarians provide access to resources and
    information in the course of our jobs. Censorship is about the
    restriction of resources and information. Obviously this pertains to
    our livelihoods. It certainly pertained to the livelihood of the
    librarian in Wasilla.
     
    None of those statements are political or unreasonable.

    Rachael H. Moller | PROSKAUER ROSE LLP
    Reference Librarian
    1585 Broadway | New York, NY 10036-8299
    V: 212.969.5019 F: 212.969.2900
    rmoller@proskauer.com | www.proskauer.com
    <http://www.proskauer.com/index.html>

     

    ________________________________

    From: owner-law-lib@ucdavis.edu [mailto:owner-law-lib@ucdavis.edu] On
    Behalf Of Jim Milles
    Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2008 5:09 PM
    To: Stephanie Huthmacher
    Cc: Frye, Nanna; Library; law-lib@ucdavis.edu
    Subject: [LAW-LIB:56545] RE: Sarah Palin and Libraries

    *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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