ALA 2022: Final Thoughts

I wanted to summarize some of my thoughts from this week of recaps before moving on from ALA Annual.

First as I learned at the Heather Booth moderated panel on Sunday, we all need to be more precise with our language-- all of the time. So as I reported here are some things I learned from that panel and Monday's panel with Martin Garnar that I will add to my library's policies and to my training programs:

• Make all new Board members sign something as part of their induction that says that they will follow and adhere to our policies. 
• Remove all instances of the term "age-appropriate" from your collection policy and replace it with "developmentally appropriate." 
• Remove all instances of the word "balanced." Replace with the word "representative."
• Add a statement to your Collection Development policy that explicitly says that you will NOT add items that contain disinformation to your collections.

Second, I will be more direct with people as they try to say-- "but we need all sides." I like this language from Garnar: 

• I want everyone to come to the library and find what they want and be served. BUT if you do not think that everyone is a human and deserves to exists and deserves dignity, then I do not want you there. 
•  I will not be complicit in helping you to spread hate.

As Luvvie's conversation on Tuesday reminded me, I have the privilege and the platform to speak out. I work for myself and I can't get fired for being outspoken. Others have much more at stake. Yes, I know I speak out often and get push back for it already, but I am learning to be more precise with my language and more direct.

I had a chance to practice toward the end of the conference and I want to share it with you as a learning opportunity and an example. I was chatting with 2 Mississippi community college librarians who are trying to fight the good fight on EDI. I asked how they handle it when someone comes in the building with a confederate flag not their shirt. They said they do nothing, that it happens all the time. And I said, it is not okay especially as we were in the session and talking about "trauma informed response."

I said, "That shirt causes many in the room trauma."

They said, I didn't understand because it was cultural. One tried to explain that when they were kids they were taught that the Civil War had nothing to do with slavery. That it was about state's rights and just now are they trying to fix that in their education system to reeducate. We cannot stop it"

So I took what I had learned all week and said this back to her....

Well, I think the issue is bigger than that. I am Jewish and seeing Nazi propaganda is traumatizing. I know in Germany it is illegal to display Nazi symbols. It is considered treason because they were a government who was overturned. And when you think about it, the South lost the Civil War, and displaying that flag is the same as treason here."

It was a strong and precise statement, but I said it with kindness [not niceness, thanks Luvvie for the tip] and used facts to back it up. I also used myself as an example to counteract their "cultural" response.

I was inspired by Sunday's panel when I reported a panelist saying this:

McNerney: Being called a groomer and a pedophile is very scary. There is usually no support from the school or admin when a parent challenges a teen book with, for example, anal sex. First thing she says to do is admit you need help and are uncomfortable even with  how to defend titles. We live in a society that doesn't talk about sex at all, let alone gay sex. She reached out to a sex therapist and works with her regularly to help her articulate to those who want to ban books for being "sexually explicit." She can now  use research and science-- things that do make her comfortable to use as a librarian when making an argument-- to explain why this is not explicit but providing accurate portrayals of sex between two men. She is no longer afraid of being obscene because she has facts and research on her side. She thinks every library should have training from a sex therapist now.

Some discussions are uncomfortable but we must meet them head on and stop worrying about the other side. If we have facts and truth on our side, the hard things can be said authoritatively. 

Third, I want to make a general comments about Nancy Pearl defending Holocaust denier literature being added to a library. I was not there but I know she is a strong defender of the "both sides" argument. I hope that this kerfuffle make her see the error in those ways, but I will not hold my breath. She may fell bad about saying it now-- and she tried to apologize-- but I don't believe she sees the full couture of the error statement. It is not just about this one issue. The "both sides" expectation has to go. Again see Mondays report [scroll to the end] for more on why.

I hope she gets wind of the work Garnar's committee is trying to do, however. And most importantly, I hope that the ALA Board starts following his recommendations.

I am however very upset at everyone who pounced on Jason Reynolds. Seriously. The poor man had no idea what was going on, nor what he was "agreeing" to. Most normal people don't understand that there are librarians who actively defend Holocaust Deniers. Why would they? It is horrendous. I am sure he was utterly confused. If nothing else, his mangled response should make us see how dire it is for us to make a stand.

The real problem here is with those who plan the conference. They think the bigger the name the better it is. Nancy Pearl is NOT someone we should have speaking about IF. And Jason Reynolds shouldn't have to be in that convo either. He was not prepared, nor should be expected to be. That was unfair to him.

Take the Booth moderated program I have been mentioning. The names there were not to the "height" of Pearl and Reynolds but MANY people thought it was the best IF program at the conference. That was because the people on it do the work in the trenches. They are slightly famous, but more importantly, they were speaking truth [not platitudes].

I am sure more will sink in over the coming weeks, but these are my biggest takeaways and I don't want them lost in the larger posts.

Back to "normal" 7/5.