Librarians at the Gates

The Nation

Joseph Huff-Hannon

Courage, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. And in an era of increasing controls on the gathering and dissemination of information, many Americans are unaware of the courageous stands librarians take every day.

The day-to-day challenges librarians face are inherent in the job description: defending access to controversial or banned books, staving off budget cuts, and creating and expanding programs to draw more citizens into one of the few remaining genuinely public commons in American life. While the ethic of secrecy often prevails in . . .


"So far we have not allowed our good name as the largest library association in the world to be used as an instrument of US foreign policy toward Cuba," states Mark Rosenzweig, an ALA councilor-at-large. Rosenzweig alleges that the Friends organization has strong intelligence connections, and that many if not all of the independent libraries and librarians in Cuba are funded by USAID. "The project is part of the Bush 'transition for Cuba' plan, a front for the stated US policy to destabilize Cuba. These people are neither 'independent' nor 'librarians.'"

THE REST OF THE STORY:
LookSmart's FindArticles - American library group is crazy for Castro

Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Jun 24, 2003, by Georgie Anne Geyer Universal Press Syndicate

One of the ALA board members is Mark Rosenzweig, chief librarian of the Reference Center for Marxist Studies, the archive of the Communist Party USA (which, yes, still exists). He and others of his belief system point out that the United States is trying to take over Cuba with a "puppet government," which of course excuses anything the Castroites might do. "Professionals," indeed! Professional ideologues!