Do read this essay by ALA President Michael Gorman, in which we learn that the library blogging community is uneducated, fanatical, and obtuse. “[The] Blog People (or their subclass who are interested in computers and the glorification of information) have a fanatical belief in the transforming power of digitization and a consequent horror of, and contempt for, heretics who do not share that belief. …”
“Given the quality of the writing in the blogs I have seen, I doubt that many of the Blog People are in the habit of sustained reading of complex texts. It is entirely possible that their intellectual needs are met by an accumulation of random facts and paragraphs. …”
Nice. Really nice. Good use of the ALA presidential bully pulpit: excoriating ad hominem attacks wrapped in academic overspeak. No citations, of course. (Who actually called him an idiot?)
(Thanks, Anna, for the heads-up. “Eclectic Librarian” also points out that discussion about Gorman’s Google Print editorial didn’t get as much press in the biblioblogosphere as Gorman suggests. He’s probably thinking about December’s Web4Lib traffic. I only wrote about Gorman’s editorial this past weekend; on December 15, btw, I reposted a thoughtful critique of Google Print by another ALA Councilor.)
Posted on this day, other years:
- Stiffed Again - 2008
- Comment Guidelines - 2004
- Jack Stephens Voted Off FRL Island - 2004
8 Comments
Completely agree with you. He is missing the “new wave” big time.
I thought his comment on ALACOUN that “if one wishes to air one’s views and be taken seriously, one should go through the publishing/editing process” was especially funny, in a sad and censorial sort of way. I have visions of zombie-like librarians walking around ALA meetings, forbidden to speak unless they and their ideas have undergone an ardous “publishing/editing process.”
It’s a shame that Mr. Gorman seems unaware that blogging has the potential for other uses as well, such as universities investigating blogging software as a tool for distance education classes or as we know a powerful marketing tool on association websites such as CLA (loved your piece and CALIX postings).
Check out “Michael Gorman vs Blogosphere”
http://www.ibiblio.org/griffey/wp/?p=488
and “what it means to dis blogging”
http://justinsomnia.org/2005/02/what-it-means-to-dis-blogging.html
What’s so outrageous about this is how Gorman’s essay reads if the word “blog” is replaced with “book”. What an attack on free speech!
Top 10 reasons NOT to have blogs:
10. #1 word of the year, my @ss!
9. Who needs blogs when there are listservs?
8. Blogs have such nice, direct links to their content. What would happen to our long url’ed friends like this? http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=News&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=75692
7. Surely, technological advancements and innovative ideas are covered in a timely manner in the library literature!
6. All internet thingies must suck as much as ALA’s website does.
5. Librarianship: Our salaries are too low; People stereotype us. What else is there to say?
4. We covered everything at Midwinter and Annual.
3. I like checking websites every day, just to see if something new is posted (Ahem, http://www.ala.org)
2. What could libraries ever possibly do with blogs?
1. LJ gives me a column where I can write about anything I want, (even wonderfully constructed sentences like this: “A blog is a species of interactive electronic diary by means of which the unpublishable, untrammeled by editors or the rules of grammar, can communicate their thoughts via the web.”).
*cheers in background*
Excellent rebuttal, Karen. Fight the good fight!
I wrote a response to Mr. Gorman’s articles – see http://luca9200.typepad.com/blog/2005/02/google_and_libr.html
I am glad to see so many librarians and others addressing Mr. Gorman’s comments. I wrote something about this in my blog, too. http://librarytavern.blogspot.com/2005/02/unpublishable-comments-about-libraries.html
6 Trackbacks/Pingbacks
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Gorman is engaged in the same fight that Jonathan Swift took on in his
Was that a conversation Mr. Gorman?
Because if that is what you wanted you could have gotten it off to a better start.
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