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2006Push My Button
1 Comment | Posted by Dave in Conferences, Culture, Marketing/Outreach, News, People
ALA announced yesterday that librarians attending the upcoming Midwinter conference will have the “opportunity to proudly proclaim their ‘radical’ and ‘militant’ support for intellectual freedom, privacy, and civil liberties” by purchasing a red, white, and blue button that reads:
“Radical Militant Librarian – Defending Access, Defending Privacy, Defending Freedom.â€
The buttons will cost $2.00, unless bought in bulk (at which time the cost goes down). What a radical bargain! And in the colors of France!
ALA claims that the slogan on the button is a response to FBI complaints about politically “radical, militant librarians†who raised their voices over the PATRIOT Act.
My anticipation is that many of our least radical, and certainly least militant librarians will happily, jauntily purchase a button and sport it at work the following week. The kitsch value of this button is irresistible (“Must… buy… buttoon… must… have one for my blazer.”) I also anticipate that many of our most militant library spokespeople will not be wearing this button at ALA this summer.
From the OED:
Militant: 3. a. Combative; aggressively persistent; strongly espousing a cause; entrenched, adamant.
Radical: 3. e. Characterized by independence of, or departure from, what is usual or traditional; progressive, unorthodox, or revolutionary (in outlook, conception, design, etc.).
That this button is a fundraiser is a granted point. But the slogan strikes me as blind, purchasable flagwaving that can (and will) be worn by librarians who will hardly deserve the label. “Revolutionary”? “Aggressively persistent”? How many of us can claim such a thing? The trumpet is hardly loud enough to be heard over the wall, much less bring it down.
Maybe this button should be given by ALA to the deserving few.
My own button would realistically read: “Clean, Showered Librarian: Defending Thai Food, Defending Lost, Defending Wisconsin Cheese.”
1 Comment for Push My Button
Author comment by Barry | January 19, 2006 at 12:07 pm
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Dave-
Where to begin? Without the benefit of the spectacular button announcement I found myself discussing similar territory at work the other day. I’ve always loved libraries and (figuratively) librarians for their subtle, subversive natures, their quiet dedication to lost causes, and their devotion to preserving the artifacts of history. Should, one day, some powerful Humpty Dumpty need to hang himself with his own words I can count on a librarian to provide the transcript.
That said is it wise for librarians to out themselves with these outlandish buttons in the same way exiled Bolsheviks did by wearing their berets in the coffee shops of Europe prior to 1917?
But why even try to claim the revolutionary mantle? Revolutions, I think, are probably bad for libraries, at best an annoyance.
Besides, haven’t we already outed ourselves? We’re middle class, generally well-intentioned, and we like to read – even the most revolutionary of us.
Rather than rally the masses I’d rather serve them, and just like my cardigans, thick black frames and non-stylin’ orthopedic shoes, I also like the passive-aggressive role librarians play when confronting bullies. To that end, I probably won’t purchase a button; but should one fall into my lap I might save it for posterity.