In the beginning of the class, we talked about the results of the
presidential election. As a result, I think this was the most boring class meet
for me. Actually, I think it was the first one; I didn’t have a lot to contribute
to discussion. Plus, I’m so sick and tired of politics. I was tired of politics
long before Trump and Clinton were nominated by their parties, and I thought
that once the election was over, the talk on politics would die down, and then
it didn’t. And then I come to class and we talk about it. Sigh. (Disclaimer:
I’m somewhat apathetic when it comes to politics. I actually wanted to be a
politician once to help people but I soon realized I would never be able to
become one and get elected and make improvements because I am not corrupt nor
dishonest).
BUT. The talk about the election was informational and enlightening. I
have never before ever thought about the affect presidential elections have on libraries.
But it makes total sense that they are worried because they get funding from
the government, just like schools do, and it’s very important to libraries and
their longevity.
We all had a jigsaw activity where 3 of us read an article, then we
joined others who read a different article, and we discussed all of them. Then
we got back together as a class to further the discussion. I was assigned “How
to weather the Trump administration: Head to the library.” The headline seemed
really interesting, but the article was boring, and didn’t seem like it had anything
to do with its headline. I don’t think that it was organized very well, and
pretty much what the author had to say was that Trump should be sworn into
office at the Library of Congress. Because it’s not like where they get sworn
in at is a tradition. I disagree with this. When mentioning this article in our
discussion, the professor mentioned how Laura Bush as first lady didn’t have
her husband get sworn in at the Library of Congress, and she was a librarian. I
didn’t know that she was a librarian. I don’t know how I didn’t know this.
The professor also mentioned how there is this test where they ask you
which leader you would elect based upon their faults and stuff, and Hitler is
usually the one that gets chosen. I know exactly what she was talking about. I
know that one of the other men is Winston Churchill, I don’t remember who else
there is. She likened this to Trump, and I thought that was funny, but it’s
true. I also know that part of the test asks if you would let this woman’s
child live or abort him before he’s born since he had a whole bunch wrong with
him; if you say yes to it, you just killed Beethoven.
We also talked about how libraries are political because they can control
the knowledge and information going to the community. They are also activists. The
professor mentioned that when the Patriot Act came out, libraries would post a
sign in the window saying that the FBI hadn’t been there but if the sign came
down, it means they had been there. That’s extremely funny. Librarians aren’t
just activists, they’re rebels LOL.
I can sympathize with feeling fatigued from the most recent election. I think my fatigue might be because of the opposite reason: being very invested. When I heard we were going to talk about the election, I'm not sure what I was expecting. In most classes, they asked us about how we "felt" about the election but this class encouraged us to really look at the facts and really examine our duties as librarians and take a logical emotion free approach. This for felt really important in understanding the results of the recent election and how to better serve the community. The fact that we dissected how the election affects the role of libraries really made this class interesting for me, the same reason you found the discussion enlightening.
ReplyDeleteI liked the mention of 'warrant canaries' in class, too. It is a really simple and elegant solution to the tricky legal problems of protecting user privacy, and has been used in contexts besides libraries (websites and web applications for example). The idea that in this context, the government cannot litigate over lapsed action or lack of action makes me wonder what other kinds of problems, informational or otherwise, might be addressed with something like this kind of approach.
ReplyDeleteI, too, had hoped that all of the political hoopla would end after election day. And I'm the type of person who is pretty involved and likes to talk about politics, but this whole election has been so exhausting. I'm glad you got something enlightening out of our discussion. It's interesting how libraries as a whole have to negotiate their foundational values in the context of state or federal funding. The FBI example was truly a noteworthy moment in the history of our profession, as librarians were actively rebelling against a policy that had all of the power of the federal government behind it. If you're interested in learning more about the whole FBI vs. Librarians ordeal, I'd recommend this article from Mother Jones a while back: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2008/09/americas-most-dangerous-librarians
ReplyDeleteThe political nature of libraries is rather interesting to me, perhaps because of my background in philosophy and political science. However, there is a difference between political and research in political science. I prefer political science by far. These are things like the the issue of collection consortia and community evolution. The politics side of things is far more fatiguing. It seems to be so focused on underhanded slimy things that I believe should be far away from a library. That being said, when politics does come up we should at least be conscious that it is being discussed and how it affects our library world. And most importantly, how it affects our community.
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