The Chronicle: 9/30/2005: The Loneliness of a Conservative Librarian

*link changed to non-reg req. :)
The Chronicle: 9/30/2005: The Loneliness of a Conservative Librarian:

This is an interesting read by a lonely conservative librarian. He has some valid points that all librarians should read. What do I think--well, I know many in the library profession on all sides of the political spectrum--several whom I disagree with politically but I adore and respect as individuals and professionals.

Excerpt

But in the wake of 9/11 and the war in Iraq, librarianship as a profession no longer simply leans to the left; it has become openly politicized. By 2004, to work in a major American public or academic library was to find yourself in a left-wing echo chamber.

One of the most disturbing aspects of the situation is the way in which the supposedly nonpolitical American Library Association has become a platform for left-wing partisanship. The ALA's Council, its elected governing body, is dominated by left-wing activists who recently passed a resolution calling for the United States to leave Iraq.

It is, of course, the right of the vast majority of my colleagues to hold positions I disagree with. But it's a very different matter when the major professional association in librarianship takes openly political stands on issues that have no direct bearing on the field.
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Librarians are supposed to stand for intellectual freedom, diversity of opinion, and providing access to materials that represent all points of view. How can we do that when many of us are intolerant of dissenting views? Allowing our profession to be a bastion of orthodoxy of any kind defeats our purpose.
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I do see one positive development: A growing number of librarians, not all of them conservative, are calling for our profession to leave politics alone and focus on librarianship. As Steven Bell recently suggested in Library Journal, the ALA should either invite speakers to its meetings from across the political spectrum, or not invite political speakers at all.

The solution is not to replace left-wing with right-wing politicization. Rather it is to leave politics to the individual. Just as we should collect and provide access to materials representing a broad range of beliefs, we should welcome diverse viewpoints within our profession.