Skip to main content

New Inquisition talk for Illinois Library Association

It was at the Navy Pier, just a few hours ago. It always does my soul good to see the Lake again. And I'd never been to Navy Pier -- a cool place.

I got to see Carl Volkmann (and got him to sign his book, "Springfield's Sculptures, Monuments and Plaques"). Saw Carl Lorber, who left Lincoln Library about the same time I did to work at a university library in Illinois. Saw Nancy Huntley, current library director at Springfield, and the woman who hired me there. Saw the Waukegan Public Library crowd (Richard Lee and Heidi Smith). Later I'll see Fred Schlipf and others.

There are many wonderful colleagues here. Wish it wasn't so hot, though. Whew!

I gather that there are a lot of intellectual freedom issues here, too. I hope my own approach will be helpful to people: to turn away from the rigid and bureaucratic, and strive to create service that both staff and patron can be proud of.

Comments

Barbara Love said…
Hey Jamie: Preparing for my monthly library board meeting and about to tell the Board that your words are about the most important that I took away from ILA at Navy Pier this year. Thought I'd check you out and came across your blog. Yes, your reasoned approach and friends amongst friends attitude are most welcome. Actually in small town Mid America, it's vital to our success. Thanks for reminding us who we are and what we are about.

I also appreciated your words about Dr.Fred. He's currently working with us on a building program for a new library. He's a gem.
Jamie said…
Thanks for the kind words, Barbara. Fred continues to tell me things I need to know -- a good enough reason to trek back to my homeland.

I continue to believe that we have to find better ways to talk to each other in America. As my daughter once said to me (and I may have referenced elsewhere on this blog), "I -- and my generation -- are so tired of angry Baby Boomer partisanship." Me, too.

Popular posts from this blog

Uncle Bobby's Wedding

Recently, a library patron challenged (urged a reconsideration of the ownership or placement of) a book called "Uncle Bobby's Wedding." Honestly, I hadn't even heard of it until that complaint. But I did read the book, and responded to the patron, who challenged the item through email and requested that I respond online (not via snail-mail) about her concerns. I suspect the book will get a lot of challenges in 2008-2009. So I offer my response, purging the patron's name, for other librarians. Uncle Bobby's wedding June 27, 2008 Dear Ms. Patron: Thank you for working with my assistant to allow me to fit your concerns about “Uncle Bobby's Wedding,” by Sarah S. Brannen, into our “reconsideration” process. I have been assured that you have received and viewed our relevant policies: the Library Bill of Rights, the Freedom to Read, Free Access to Libraries for Minors, the Freedom to View, and our Reconsideration Policy. The intent of providing all tha

Installing Linux on a 2011 Macbook Pro

I had two MacBook Pros, both 13" models from late 2011. One had 4 gigs of RAM, and the other 8. Both of them were intolerably slow. In the first case, I wound up installing CleanMyMac , which did arcane things to various files, and put up alerts to warn me about disappearing memory. But it made the machine useable again, albeit not exactly speedy. I changed some habits: Safari as browser rather than Firefox or Chrome. I tried to keep tabs down to four or five. The second Mac had bigger problems. Its charger was shot, but even with that replaced, the battery tapped out at 75%. More importantly, the whole disk had been wiped, which meant that it wouldn't boot. Recently, I had downloaded a couple of Linux distributions ("distros") on USB drives. Elementary OS 5.1 (Hera) was reputed to be a lightweight, beautiful distro that shared some aesthetics with the Mac OS. So I thought I'd give it a try. Ahead of time, I tried to read up on how difficult it might be to

The enemies of literature

Every year, apologists for the restriction of reading stumble over themselves to "mock" Banned Books Week. Walther (Oct 1, 2023's " The Enemies of Literature ") upholds the grand tradition. Complaints about banning, the argument goes, are simply false. Walther writes, "In zero cases since the advent of Banned Books Week has a local or state ordinance been passed in this country that forbids the sale or general possession of any of the books in question." Yet Texas HB 900 was passed on June 13 of this year. It requires book vendors to assign ratings to books based only on the presence of depictions or references to sex. If a book is "sexually explicit" and has no direct connection to required curriculum, it must be pulled from the school. (One wonders what happens to the Bible, and its story of Lot's daughters, first offered by their father for gang rape, and whom he later sleeps with.) In Arkansas, legislation stated that school and pu