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Yipping and Yawping to the End

The problem with Michael Gorman “leading” on the issue of library education–however important that topic is to our profession–is that you have to gnaw off a leg to follow him. Witness his column in the May issue of American Libraries:

“If you believe, as I do, that there is a crisis in library education that threatens the very existence of libraries and librarianship, you are likely to draw a negative reaction from a variety of people. First, there are the millenniarist librarians and pseudo-librarians who, intoxicated with self-indulgence and technology, will dismiss you as a ‘Luddite’ or worse. They and their yips and yawps can safely be left to their acronymic backwaters and the dubious delights of clicking and surfing. … ”

It’s like saying there’s patriotic Americans and then there’s them durn Democrats. You either believe in library education, or you are “intoxicated” with technology. I’m not entirely sure what he means by “intoxicated by self-indulgence,” unless he means that it takes enormous personal effort to ignore the impact of technology on library services.

Soon, deliciously soon Gorman will be an ALA past-president, and then the New York Times will call Leslie Burger when they want a sound-bite on the state of things informational. Oh tasty future!

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