Williesha Morris, Al.com; Librarian feels Alabamians ‘betrayed’ by recommendation to leave American Library Association
"Alabama Public Library Service (APLS) executive director Nancy Pack said in a memo they should “discontinue our institutional membership to the American Library Association (ALA).”...
Matthew Layne, president of the Alabama Library Association, an ALA chapter, said in an email that by disaffiliating from the ALA, the APLS “will lose access to a professional organization with over 50,000 members of professional librarians and library workers from around the world. They will lose access to workshops and training from brilliant librarian leaders, thinkers, and the important collegiality that one experiences in such organizations.”
Pack said in the memo “limiting a child’s access to potentially harmful content or relocating controversial reading materials should not be misconstrued as censorship in any form. APLS recommends that libraries exercise their best judgment when it comes to shelving sexually explicit or otherwise inappropriate materials, regardless of the intended age group, to support a parent’s right to protect their children.”...
In response to Pack’s recommendations, librarian Marylyn Eubank said in a letter sent to the Alabama Library Association, “it is hard to compose a professional response to fear-based, unfounded, reactionary actions. One shakes with anger and the righteous indignation born from years of professional study and development. But shaking with anger doesn’t make the situation better for the millions of Alabama residents (mostly children) who have been betrayed by the very professionals meant to protect their rights.
Eubank said “Alabama kept books used by her black residents separate from books used by white residents” until the 1960s, and today, “funding for libraries is being held hostage by the governor and the state legislature.”
“Pack is simply providing the state what it wants - censorship in exchange for funding,” Eubank said."
