The Decline Of Independent Bookstores

LISnews just noted the closing of the recently reopened Coliseum Books, in New York City, as part of this unfortunate trend and suggested that people support the independents. I agree. However, I must also note that not a few of the independent bookstores have radical leftist agendas, and a number of them refuse to carry literature that has a right-of-center or even a centrist point of view. Perhaps if they offered wider selections, as do the mega-bookstores, they would do betterl

Happy New Year!

Sadness In A Library

Last night, I was doing some research in the New York Public Library's Performing Arts Division, at Lincoln Center. Always placed on display in the Theater Collection, on the third floor, are framed photographs of entertainment luminaries who have recently passed away. That seems to me to be a most poignant and dignified way to honor them. I don't know if other libraries with collections that focus on film, theater, television, opera, and dance do the same thing, but I would recommend that they do so.

This time, amidst pictures of James Brown, Betty Comden, Claude Jane (a lovely French actress), Bettye Ackerman, and Peter Boyle, was one of a personal acquaintance of mine...character actor Jeremy Slate. It was a terrible shock to see Jeremy's photo there, as I hadn't known that he died. He was a great talent and very much a gentleman. Kind and good-humored, he was always a pleasure to talk with.

Gerald R. Ford

Gerald R. Ford will certainly not go down in history as either one of our stronger or more popular presidents. But compared to Jimmy Carter, the incompetent who succeeded him, Ford can be described as a Hercules. Certainly, his decision to pardon Nixon was a factor in his losing to Carter, but in retrospect, that decision spared the U.S.A. considerable trauma.

President Ford signed Public Law 93-568, authorizing the White House Conference on Library and Information Services. Here are his comments of July 19, 1976:

Statement Announcing Intention To Convene the White House Conference on Library and Information Services

"I am today announcing my intention to convene the White House Conference on Library and Information Services, provided for in Public Law 93-568. Realization of the full potential of this conference lies in the hands of dedicated professionals working day-to-day in this area. These individuals will make the White House Conference on Library and Information Services a successful and productive event.

The challenge confronting those who provide information services to the public is one of harnessing modern technology. Telecommunications, computers, and micrographics must be further employed to reduce the costs of making information more widely accessible and improving the speed and accuracy with which source materials can be supplied. The librarian of today's space age serves a profession and a public more demanding and exacting than ever before.

Within the next few months, I will request from the Congress the appropriations necessary to fund the conference and announce my appointments for the Advisory Committee to the White House Conference on Library and Information Services. It is my hope that the White House Conference on Library and Information Services will, through its State, territorial, and national assemblies, provide the impetus for advancing the quality of America's informational services."

Citation: John Woolley and Gerhard Peters,The American Presidency Project [online]. Santa Barbara, CA: University of California (hosted), Gerhard Peters (database). Available from World Wide Web: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=6219.

Uri Dan

On December 9th, I blogged about Uri Dan and his new book, Ariel Sharon: An Intimate Portrait. At the time, I hadn't known that Uri Dan was very ill. He died on Friday. Rest in peace, Uri Dan.

Bull From Bollinger

Yesterday, Columbia University's president, Lee Bollinger, announced the completion of the investigation of an October 4th incident in which Jim Gilchrist, founder of the anti-illegal immigration Minutemen Project, was attacked. During that assault, students bum-rushed the stage in Columbia's Roone Auditorium, overturned chairs and tables, and forced Gilchrist to flee, without giving his presentation. A New York Post editorial of today strongly suggested that Bollinger is sweeping the matter under the rug and that he is not punishing the radical-leftist thugs who committed the outrage.

Where is the ACLU? And since the American Library Association so often injects itself into freedom of expression issues, why too hasn't it condemned the fact that Jim Gilchrist, an invited speaker, was prevented from lecturing? Do the ACLU and ALA only defend those that are politicallly correct? Is radical leftist intolerance tolerated by the ACLU and ALA? Do they encourage it?

Terrorist Rocket Hits Israeli School

A "truce" deal agreed to on November 26th, had Israel stop anti-terror operations in the Gaza Strip, in return for a cessation of rocket attacks from Gaza into Israeli communities. The agreement is, of course, a sham. Israel has kept its part of the bargain, while the Palestinians have not.

Since November 26th, more than 50 rockets, fired by Gaza-based Palestinian terrorists, have hit Israel. Yesterday, one of the six rockets that were fired into Israel hit a school (which also serves as a community center) in the city of Sderot. No Israelis were critically injured in the Thursday attacks, but several were hospitalized. I do not know if the library in the Sderot school was damaged, but several months ago, a qassem rocket (the type favored by Hamas terror-thugs) landed just a few steps from that city's main public library.

Time Website Lauds Ahmadinejad & Then Changes Its Mind

According to Little Green Footballs, Free Republic, and several other websites & blogs, the website of Time (aka the weekly fiction magazine) recently published a caption under a photo of the smirking monster, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which called him: "Champion of the dispossessed..." Someone who has better sense than the biased idiot who came up with that one, promptly changed the caption. That original caption is a metaphor for Time's anti-Israel, anti-American bias.

I almost always see Time prominently displayed in public libraries and rarely see either Commentary or the New Republic made so readily avaiable.

CAMERA Post's Commentaries On Carter's Israel-Bashing Book

CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America), the Boston-based media monitoring organization, posted A Roundup of Commentary on Jimmy Carter’s Book on December 6th. I think the comments are well-worth reading.

If you visit the CAMERA website (www.camera.org) , you will also probably find its Adopt A Library program interesting.

A Doctoral Thesis Of Hate

I'm reprinting David Bedein's article, which was posted on today's
Arutz 7 (Israel National News) website. I won't comment on it, other than to note that Bedein's excellent essay speaks for itself.

Politically Correct Holocaust Denial
by David Bedein Dec 19, '06 / 28 Kislev 5767

"This past week, the Israeli government issued vehement denunciations of the conference convened by the Iranian government in Tehran to promote the denial of the mass murder of the Jews in World War II, an act of Holocaust denial.

This reporter asked the spokespeople of the government of Israel if they would also denounce the leader of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas (also known as Abu Mazen) for the Holocaust denial that has been an integral part of his legacy. However, the government of Israel would issue no such denunciation.

Abbas wrote his doctorate in 1982 in Moscow, at the Institute for Oriental Studies. At the time, the institute was headed by Yevgeny Primakov, a Jew, an Arabist, an avowed friend of Saddam Hussein and other Arab rulers, and eventually, the prime minister of Russia. Of all these qualities, Abu Mazen has emphasized mainly Primakov's Jewish origins.

The heading of Abbas's doctoral thesis was: "Zionist Leadership and the Nazis." The introduction dealt with, among other topics, "the secret ties between the Nazis and the Zionist movement leadership." It further raised doubts that gas chambers were used to kill the Jews. He argued that the gas chambers were not used to kill people, but only to disinfect them and burn bodies to prevent disease.

Abbas's dissertation was adapted into a book and published in Jordan in 1984. It is currently in use in the Palestinian Authority education system, under the direct control of the PA president.

Abbas claimed in his work that the Zionist leadership was interested in convincing the world that a large number of Jews were killed during the war in order to "attain larger gains" after the war and to "divide the booty." His primary claim is that the Zionist movement and its various branches worked hand-in-hand with the Nazis against the Jewish people, collaborating with them for the Jews' destruction, because the Zionist leaders viewed "Palestine" as the only legitimate place for Jewish immigration. Despite professing such outrageous views, which he has never publicly retracted, Abu Mazen has nevertheless been hailed by the media and politicians alike.

On May 31st, 2003, two months after Abbas became the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, correspondents from the Israeli media confronted him with his thesis. This meeting came in the wake of the appeal of two organizations, the Zionist Organization of America and the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which pointed out the need for Abu Mazen to make amends for his remarks.

As Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Wiesenthal Center wrote in a May 29, 2003 press release, 'It is time for Prime Minister Abu Mazen to publicly denounce Holocaust Denial to his constituency and to install leaders in Media and Education Ministries who are prepared to teach Palestinian children the truth about their Jewish neighbors.'

Yet, in that May 31st, 2003 meeting with Israeli reporters, Abbas would not apologize for or retract any of the Holocaust denial thesis that he had written. Since that time, Abbas has consistently refused to distance himself from his Holocaust denial.

However, the Israeli government is not pushing him to do so. Neither is the American government. After all, there are political considerations. The Israeli and American governments are currently involved in negotiations with Abbas. In other words, to deny the Holocaust in Tehran is reprehensible; to do so in Ramallah is acceptable. You might call this the first case of 'politically correct' Holocaust denial. "

Fire Yuli Tamir & Get Rid Of The New Israeli Textbooks

It is not the first time that an SRRT-style radical leftist has managed to become the Israeli Minister of Education (others of that mould were Shulamit Aloni and Yossi Sarid), but the current one, Yuli Tamir, is especially toxic. She's changed the maps in new Israeli textbooks so that they show only the pre-1967 borders...the ones she foolishly wants Israel to revert to. Years after the Six Day War, the late Abba Eban, by no means a right-winger, correctly referred to them as "the Auschwitz borders." He knew that the pre-1967 lines made always-beleaguered Israel more vulnerable...that given military realities, they were impossible to defend. Israel needs to fire Yuli Tamir!

No Dozing In The White Plains Public Library

I sometimes think my appearance (that portrait above my profile is a good likeness) makes security guards nervous (please also read my posting of December 5th, Up Yours: Barnes and Noble on Court Street). That's too bad...I'm just doing my own thing. Wild hair and odd hats are a lot less permanent than piercings and tattoos. However, I do have to admit I've always liked Jessamyn West's Modified Librarian website, almost as much as I dislike her politics. But you're never going to find a photo of me there.

A couple of months back, I was settled into a chair and reading in an out of the way corner of the White Plains Public Library. I was tired that afternoon, so I looked around and figured it wouldn't bother anyone (I don't often snore) if I closed my eyes and took a little nap. Within a minute or two (I was still awake), I felt a couple of firm taps on my shoulder. It was a guard, who coldly informed me that sleeping in the White Plains Public Library was a no-no. I apologized and left the building for half an hour or so, in search of a place where I could have a cup of coffee.

It is entirely right, I think, that rules be enforced against library patrons who are sprawled out across desks and disturbing others. But shouldn't there be some leeway? They're PUBLIC libraries, paid for, to a large extent, by taxpayers. What harm could it possibly cause if a patron is permitted to unobtrusively sit in a chair and take a catnap?

Dehumanizing Public Libraries

Writer Miriam Karmel has composed a sad essay about public libraries, which was published in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune of December 11th. I first saw a mention of her article on the message board of the Conservative Librarians' Yahoo Group. I don't think the situation is as dire as she suggests, but I too have noticed that many public libraries have reduced the number of professionals they employee. That sorry trend has resulted in public libraries that are distinctly less user friendly. This is something the American Library Association should be doing more about.

I'm reprinting her remarks:

Libraries Have Lost More Than Funding
Once we had librarians who knew our names; now we have guards, who don't.
by Miriam Karmel

"When my children were young and we were all at loose ends, I'd bundle them up and off we'd go to the Walker Library. We knew the name of the children's librarian, and he knew ours. When we walked through the door, Tom would look up from his desk and wave, as if he'd been expecting us.

At the circulation desk, I talked with Shelly about the books I was checking out, or she'd recommend a particular favorite of hers. We exchanged pleasantries about the weather.
I checked out my own books the last time I went to the library -- the new downtown designer library with the cantilevered stairways, brushed-steel door handles, and the center atrium that, one reporter said, "forces you to look heavenward." In fact, my only human encounter was with a guard who stopped me as I entered the main floor circulation room. I had mistakenly tried entering through the exit.

After locating the correct entrance, I found my books, checked them out on a computer, then stood in line to wait my turn for the guard -- the one who had rebuffed my entry -- to check that I wasn't walking off with the goods. I don't know the guard's name, and he doesn't know mine, though I suppose he would have asked had I tried pilfering a book.

I would have gone to my branch library, but it was closed that day. The Walker is one of the lucky branches that haven't been scheduled for mothballing. It will remain open, though its hours have been cut back. So has its staff, which means I check out my own books now. Nobody knows my name.

When the cutbacks started a few years ago, library staff and patrons put together a cookbook to raise money to buy back laid-off staff. I bought a copy of "Food for Thought" from an off-duty librarian named Kate who had set up a table in a corner of the Walker. She reminded me of a PTA mom selling brownies to fund art classes and field trips. Kate sold five copies that afternoon, but was unperturbed. The cookbook, she said, was a way of raising awareness of the library's plight. Besides, she said, "It feels like we're doing something."

Something is supposed to be better than nothing, but it's going to take more than cookbooks to fix a system that swoons over brushed steel and cantilevers, and replaces librarians with guards."

Carter Turned Down Debate Over Book

Jimmy Carter has promptly turned down an invitation from Brandeis University to debate Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz. Professor Dershowitz, who spends a considerable amount of time in Israel and has authored, among his many books, The Case For Israel, has severely criticized Carter's new tome, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. Carter's refusal came in the in the form of a haughty comment: “I don’t want to have a conversation even indirectly with Dershowitz. There is no need for me to debate somebody who, in my opinion, knows nothing about the situation in Palestine." I think Carter fears the articulate and well-informed Professor Dershowitz would make mince meat out of him.

Carter, who has long displayed a deeply-felt antipathy to the Jewish state, is meeting with a growing amount of criticism from experts on the Arab-Israeli conflict. There have been charges that his bias and shoddy research has resulted in a work that contains numerous factual errors and outright canards. And Dennis Ross, the U.S. diplomat who did so much shuttle negotiating between Arab and Israeli leaders, has even accused the former president of plagiarizing maps. The maps are, by no means, the only parts of the book that Carter plagiarized, according to a number of Middle East scholars.

That Carter would deliberately choose such an inflammatory title for his volume is not at all surprising, but it is still deplorable. Israel is the one nation in the Middle East that does NOT practice gender, religious, or racial apartheid. An Arab sits on Israel's High Court. Arabs are members of Israel's legislative body...the knesset. There are also quite a a few Arabs who serve in the IDF... some of whom have achieved high rank. And Israeli institutions of higher education have affirmative action programs which give Arabs preference in admissions (an absurd policy). The same is true for Israeli judgeships (and that is also absurd).

The feminist psychologist and writer, Dr. Phyllis Chesler, who has been publicizing the very real apartheid which is practiced in the Arab League nations, was 100% on target when she recently referrred to the reality of the situation as: "ISRAEL'S NON-EXISTENT APARTHEID."

Academia's Bias Against Conservatives

I thoroughly agree with Stanley Kurtz, in yesterday's National Review online:

"Leftist professors sometimes justify their intellectual monopoly on our universities by claiming that, given conservative control of all three branches of government, the left deserves to hold the academy as its citadel. That was always a silly argument. In a nation divided by razor thin political margins, the academy is the only sector (well, movies too) where conservative voices are almost totally shut out. The academy is society's brain, so to speak. Our best minds ought to be exploring, debating, and discussing the issues that divide us at our colleges and universities. Anything less cheats our students of the opportunity to decide for themselves what they believe. It doesn't matter how good a discussion leader you are. If you're preventing your students from considering the finest representatives of conservative viewpoints, you are cheating them."

Rampant Censorship In The Islamic World

Today, both the Librarians for Fairness and MEMRI websites have reproduced (in a condensed version) an important report, written by Tunisian journalist Zyed Krichen. Entitled, "Ban...Ban," Krichen's overview sheds considerable light on the rampant censorship prevailing in the Islamic world. The Heretical Librarian blog also discusses the article.

The abuses Krichen has written about are ones that the American Library Association and IFLA (the International Federation of Library Associations) should be protesting against. But don't count on that. That wouldn't be politically correct. The chances of them taking action are zilch...zip...zero!!!

Please follow the links on my blog to Librarians for Fairness and the Heretical Librarian. And I urge you to regularly visit the always informative MEMRI website too!

Iran's Holocaust Denial Conference

"Former" Ku Kluxer David Duke is attending, as are David Irving (naturally), and a contingent from the self-hating, Israel-hating Neutri Karta sect. Iranian President Ahmadinejad, who denies the Holocaust even as he plots another one, assured attendees that: "Israel will soon disappear." Sickening!

I can not help but notice that those of the ultra-ultra Right (David Duke, Matt Hale, Taki, etc.), and those of the ultra-ultra Left (Alexander Cockburn, Noam Chomsky...Chomsky wrote the introduction for a Holocaust denying book, by they way, the ALA's SRRT, etc...of all the aforementioned Israel-bashers, only Duke attended the Iranian conclave. In fact, the last I heard of him, Hale was in jail..hey, that rhymes nicely) speak in identical language about Israel.

The Ginger Bread Man

I lost my mother shortly after my eighth birthday. It was a loss of such magnitude that I have never fully recovered from it, and not a day goes by without me thinking about her. I still miss my mother, and cherish the all-too-brief time we had together. Even at the age of eight I knew that nobody would ever again love me like that. Her passing ended my childhood.

The daughter of a physician, who became a broken man because he couldn't save her (he tried, with all themedical skills that he had), my mother was a cultured lady, who sang opera, and wrote and sketched beautifully. She introduced me to the wonderful world of libraries and museums, both of which we visited very frequently. Early on, I was fortunate to have the most wonderful collection of books.

One of them was a childhood classic...The Gingerbread Man. I vividly remember studying its colorful pictures, as the most delicious of fragrances filled our kitchen. To celebrate her gift to me, my mother had baked ginger bread men cookies. I remain much fond of them, because of that cherished memory. With the holiday season now here, I had hoped that the nearest bakery would have some. But I was disappointed. I'll look around more. Ginger bread men cookies are such a comfort.

So here's to The Ginger Bread Man...a great little picture book. And here's to my mother, who, unlike the pernicious American Library Association of today, wisely knew that books for children should be age appropriate. Let kids be kids as long as long as they can. The joy and innocence of childhood goes by soon enough!

Mom, I love you!

Cuban Independent Libraries Movement, etc.

Hector Palacios, husband of Gisela Delgado, who leads the Cuban Independent Libraries Movement has been freed from prison (unfortunately, due to ill health). However, as Greg of SHUSH (The Notebook) points out today, Cuba still has: "...59 writers, journalists, and librarians sitting in prison (since 2003)." Please check out (I guess it's the librarian in me that caused me to use that term...the good news of Hector Palacios' release has just put me in touch with my sense of humor) both Greg's blog and Walter's FREADOM blog for more information on this story.

Gisela Delgado also heads the Ladies in White, which stages weekly protests in support of the arrested independent librarians and writers. I love the Ladies in White. I also love the Women in Green, an Israel-based organization headed by Ruth and Nadia Matar. To find out more about that organization, please visit its website: www.womeningreen.org

On My Must Read List

Israeli journalist (he reports for the Jerusalem Post, Maariv, and the New York Post), Uri Dan has written a biography of his close friend, entitled Ariel Sharon: An Intimate Portrait. Released in October of 2006, the 292 page volume may be better described as a series of vignettes. I am much disappointed in the person Sharon evolved into. One of his last decisions as prime minister was the ill-fated Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Rather than bringing about peace, the result has been thousands of terrorist rockets raining down on the Israeli communities of Sderot (at least one of them landed a few feet from the Sderot Public Library, resulting in the hospitalization of several Israelis), Ashkelon, Nahal Oz, and others. But Ariel Sharon still intrigues me..he is still somebody I admire, warts and all.

As for Uri Dan, he is a terrific writer, and despite the fact that he is an Israeli, he has always maintained a journalistic objectivity when reporting about events in the Middle East (compare that to the biased dispatches of the Gaza-based Palestinian stringer, Ibrahim Barzak). In fact, when reporting, Dan is a bit too objective for my taste. He's taken to sometimes calling Palestinian TERRORISTS...militants. I wish he'd stop doing that.

Book Returned Today

The overdue fee was four dollars! I hope public and academic libraries use most of the overdue penalties they collect to purchase more books, periodicals, and audiovisuals.

I Went To The Library

...and it was closed. It won't open until later in the day. I then hopped over to another branch. Ditto! It was closed too. If only there were still outdoor book-drop boxes...then I would have returned the tome and soon stopped off (admittedly, at my own convenience) to pay the late fee. I'll be on a tighter schedule this afternoon. I may have to try again tomorrow.

Sometimes I catastrophize things. I'm visualizing a newspaper headline that reads:
RETIRED LIBRARIAN BOOKED OVER BOOK!!!!

Libraries have largely eliminated outdoor book returns because of the fear that TERRORISTS will use them for bomb planting! These thugs are NOT militants, as the politically correct pundits have taken to calling them, and they especially do that when the TERRORISTS referred to, murder innocent Israeli men, women, and children.

Overdue

I just noticed that a book I borrowed from the local public library was due on November 22nd!!!! I finished the volume a few days after borrowing it on November 1st, and then forgot about it. I'll return the book tomorrow. The overdue penalty should cost me a good chunk of change. Right now I'm really glad that nobody there knows I had a long career as a librarian...well, at least I think nobody there knows.

Up Yours: Barnes and Noble on Court Street

I know it seems odd that a librarian would hate a bookstore, but that's exactly how I feel about this one. About two years ago, I found myself in Brooklyn (a beautiful NYC borough), and stopped off in the Barnes and Noble on Court Street, a few blocks north of Atlantic Avenue. That particular B & N branch isn't up to par with any of the many others I have visited, and I didn't purchase anything. As I left and approached an outer door, a miserable-looking creep suddenly lurched at me and said: "Excuse me, can I (the correct grammar is, of course, may I) talk to you for a minute?" Thinking this jerk was someone looking for for a handout, I replied: "I'm sorry, but I don't have time right now." The moron then hurled himself in my path and shouted: "Well, I want to talk to you!" At that point, I had to decide whether or not to punch the bastard in the mouth. I'm sure I would have decked him, but I opted to restrain myself.

It turned out that he was an undercover security guard, although he never showed me any badge or identification. In addition to illegally detaining me, he performed an illegal search of my backpack. Needless to say, this piece of garbage found no contraband. I buy and read books. Sometimes I give them away as gifts. I don't steal them.

I need to add that the store had (and undoubtedly, still has) an automated alarm system keyed to the bar codes of its books. Anyone leaving the store with a stolen book would set off a loud beeping sound. Today's libraries often have similar security devices. As I exited, I passed through it and no alarm went off. That should have have sufficed for the idiotic guard.

Several people observed me being illegally searched by him, which added to my humiliation. A man passed by, with his little girl in tow...a sweet-faced child of about nine or ten. For a few seconds, her eyes met mine, and I knew she thought I was a crook. The whole incident was a vividly horrible experience...one that I all-too-often still ruminate about.

Naturally, after that moron found nothing, I went back inside and complained to the manager. With a stone-faced, rather condescending manner, she declared "You are absolutely right." But I knew the manager, who never did look directly at me, wasn't going to fire the no good bum, as I had demanded. In retrospect, I should have sent a registered protest letter to the B & N home office. A lawsuit against the store and a police complaint against that imbecilic security guard are also actions I wish I had promptly taken. It's too late now.

But it's not too late to warn everyone who reads this to stay the hell away from the that freakin' bookstore! And it's not too late to heartily say: Up Yours: Barnes and Noble on Court Street!

There Are Some Great Pizzerias In The Bronx

Actually, I don't get to the good old Bronx (Yankee Stadium, H. W. Wilson Co., the Grand Concourse, the refurbished Bronx Zoo...which gives its inhabitants plenty of natural space to roam, Fordham Road, the Mott Haven art scene and its wonderful, new Cultural Trolley,
and beautiful City Island, etc.) very often these days.

Well, I decided I'd give blogging a try. One motivating factor has been the recent rash of Israel-bashing, and outright anti-Semitic bigotry on LISnews. I guess I'm extra sensitive about that. I'm a Sephardic Jew. It is about time that there was some justice for the one million Jews who were either expelled or forced to flee horrendous persecutions in the Arab League nations they were born in, and I'm not even including in that count the descendents of those Sephardic-Jewish refugees. But as this is just the beginning of BBL, maybe I should not digress until I have more experience in blogging, so let me get back to what took place on LISnews.

The Heretical Librarian quite correctly called it A CANARD, and the target of that falsehood was a reputable, tax-exempt organization: Librarians for Fairness. LfF is a group that is pro-Israeli and also supports the independent Cuban librarians who have been arrested by the secret police of Castro's Communist dictatorship. Daniel, the LISnews poster who foolishly accused Librarians for Fairness of being a front group for an advertising agency (he based that charge only on his probing into the origin of its website, and failed to comprehend that the site's registrant was the graphic arts firm commissioned to design and set it up), has now withdrawn his absurd allegation and apologized to LISnews readers. More appropriately, he should have apologized to us members of Librarians for Fairness. Yes, I'm an LfF member...I joined over a year ago.

There is a pressing need for diversity in the profession and LfF and the anti-Castro group, Friends of Cuban Libraries, are filling that need. Surely, there must be some alternatives to the self-righteous, far-leftist, usually blockheaded agenda of the ALA's SRRT. The American Library Association is fond of pronouncing that it "speaks with one voice." It should rather be speaking with and promoting many different voices, instead of group think! Diversity of opinion is very much a plus. And that is especially so in librarianship!

I hope to sound off about a lot of things, but I intend to write much about the world of libraries.

It is a fascinating world!