Free Range Librarian

I may not be a fan of Mel Gibson’s politics, but trying to get his READ poster removed from the ALA Store just seems silly to me. There are plenty of folks whose faces adorn READ posters who have been involved in some very unsavory things. How did we weather the whole firestorm about Microsoft’s flip-flop on HB 1515 without a call to take down the Bill Gates poster? Sean Connery has certainly been involved in some incidents that don’t reflect very healthy attitudes toward women; Colin Farrell‘s un-role-model-like activities are on every file-sharing network for your downloading pleasure.

Ice Cube‘s contributions to contemporary literature include “Black Korea” from Death Certificate (1991): “Everytime I wanna go get a fuckin brew / I gotta go down to the store with the two / oriental one-penny countin motherfuckers … So don’t follow me, up and down your market / Or your little chop suey ass’ll be a target / of the nationwide boycott / Juice with the people, that’s what the boy got / So pay respect to the black fist / or we’ll burn your store, right down to a crisp / And then we’ll see ya!” [hope that doesn’t get my comment deep-sixed — please edit if you see fit, Karen]

And of course, don’t forget Britney Spears‘ wonderful demonstration of political involvement: “Honestly, I think we should just trust our president in every decision that he makes and we should just support that, you know, and be faithful in what happens.”

Now, is ALA somehow condoning or demonstrating complicity in these people’s ideas or statements by featuring them on a READ poster? I don’t buy it.

Even if Luke’s “I may not agree with his politics” statement may have been a bit flippant, I’m not sure that his criticism is wrong. Is ALA explicitly endorsing the politics of each and every model it hires for its READ posters?

Hm. Did I come across as “writing off” Ice Cube’s bigotry because it’s legitimate artistic expression, too?

Guess I didn’t express myself very well, then. Let’s clear that up: bigotry is inexcusable. Full stop.

Karen (sardonically, I assume) suggests that the alternative to removing this poster from ALA Graphics’ inventory would be to “even up the representation and add a series of posters featuring famous bigots from all walks of life.” What I’m suggesting is that perhaps ALA Graphics is already way ahead of her on that, accompanying their various and sundry bigots with megalomaniacs, abusers, idiots and others whose examples probably “don’t belong on the walls of libraries.” Shelves of libraries, perhaps, but not the walls.

I think a better idea would be to even up the representation by adding more public figures whose examples are actually worth emulating. I’d make some suggestions, but I’m having a hard time thinking of any that aren’t, er, equally problematic. Perhaps it’s time to turn a corner and start considering fictional characters for READ posters. Much less messy than dealing with these damn stupid human beings. I’ll start the nominations with Hello Kitty.

Sure, I cringe when I see some of the people on these posters, but the idea is that they are endorsing us, not the other way around.

The idea of an outreach program is to “reach out” to where someone is and bring them closer. The people on the READ posters may not be role models, but they are all (at least supposed to be) “celebrities” in our society. These posters try to make use of the celebrity cult to persuade people (especially young people) to read something, anything, and just maybe try the library.

Picking fictional characters or morally good, though non-famous real people would be another campaign altogether, and probably wouldn’t be as effective with the intended market.

I think is is applying flawed logic to say that libraries should keep Mel’s poster because libraries collections have lots of odious things.

I feel there is a big difference between materials a library keeps in its collection and materials that libraries use to promote themselves. The READ posters are PR. It is worth considering what a library (or the ALA) is saying about itself by not removing Mel posters.

I’ve always thought those celebrity posters were a ridiculous idea to begin with. No one associates movie and music stars with public libraries. Britney Spears reached the top by shaking her silicone in front of millions of fans–not by whatever prop of a book she’s clutching in her poster.