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RE: Professional Responsibility
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From: Giffard, Sue <SGiffard_at_ecfs.org>
Date: Sat, 25 Sep 2010 14:07:15 -0400
In the instance Debbie and Sue are certain that several recent and/or pop ular/familiar books are so clearly inaccurate/harmful/stereotypical that it out or not re place them. Others may not agree.
Eeek! I wasn't saying anything about weeding and replacing books, merely re sponding to Norma Jean's statement that no books in the last few decades po rtrayed Native Americans in particular ways. To be honest, I came into this discussion with Debbie's post, and wasn't even aware that it was about wee ding and replacing books. Sue
Sue Giffard Ethical Culture School New York, NY 10023 sgiffard_at_ecfs.org (212)712-6292
"Perhaps the only victory available
the victory of the heart over its own inclinations for despair, revenge and hatred." (Leonard Cohen, Septembe r 24, 2009)
________________________________________
From: bookmarch_at_aol.com
Sent: Saturday, September 25, 2010 11:11 AM To: Giffard, Sue; nsawicki_at_nyc.rr.com; CCBC-NET@ccbc.education.wisc.edu Subject: Re:
Professional Responsibility
We are, I believe, getting confused between instances and principles. In th e instance Debbie and Sue are certain that several recent and/or popular/fa miliar books are so clearly inaccurate/harmful/stereotypical that it is a l ibrarian's "professional responsibility" to weed them out or not replace th em. Others may not agree. That is a specific example of the more general is sue that is our topic -- the fact that a librarian's judgment is always the intersection of several strands; her training, her background, her profess ional experience, her sense of her community, her taste -- as well, of cour se, as the outside reading she has done in journals, reviews, scholarship, blogs, listservs, etc. As I recently told my Masters students at Rutgers -- there is no single right answer about which books belong in a collection. Rather we are training them to refine the basis of their judgment. But in t he end the conclusion one of them reaches may be totally at odds with the c onclusion I reach. There is no exact sc ience to book selection or collectio n building -- but there a difference between uninformed subjectivity and tr ained analysis. That is the difference we can all agree is the foundation o f librarianship as a profession. After that we can have it, debating the va lue of individual books.
Marc Aronson
Received on Sat 25 Sep 2010 02:07:15 PM CDT
Date: Sat, 25 Sep 2010 14:07:15 -0400
In the instance Debbie and Sue are certain that several recent and/or pop ular/familiar books are so clearly inaccurate/harmful/stereotypical that it out or not re place them. Others may not agree.
Eeek! I wasn't saying anything about weeding and replacing books, merely re sponding to Norma Jean's statement that no books in the last few decades po rtrayed Native Americans in particular ways. To be honest, I came into this discussion with Debbie's post, and wasn't even aware that it was about wee ding and replacing books. Sue
Sue Giffard Ethical Culture School New York, NY 10023 sgiffard_at_ecfs.org (212)712-6292
"Perhaps the only victory available
the victory of the heart over its own inclinations for despair, revenge and hatred." (Leonard Cohen, Septembe r 24, 2009)
________________________________________
From: bookmarch_at_aol.com
Sent: Saturday, September 25, 2010 11:11 AM To: Giffard, Sue; nsawicki_at_nyc.rr.com; CCBC-NET@ccbc.education.wisc.edu Subject: Re:
Professional Responsibility
We are, I believe, getting confused between instances and principles. In th e instance Debbie and Sue are certain that several recent and/or popular/fa miliar books are so clearly inaccurate/harmful/stereotypical that it is a l ibrarian's "professional responsibility" to weed them out or not replace th em. Others may not agree. That is a specific example of the more general is sue that is our topic -- the fact that a librarian's judgment is always the intersection of several strands; her training, her background, her profess ional experience, her sense of her community, her taste -- as well, of cour se, as the outside reading she has done in journals, reviews, scholarship, blogs, listservs, etc. As I recently told my Masters students at Rutgers -- there is no single right answer about which books belong in a collection. Rather we are training them to refine the basis of their judgment. But in t he end the conclusion one of them reaches may be totally at odds with the c onclusion I reach. There is no exact sc ience to book selection or collectio n building -- but there a difference between uninformed subjectivity and tr ained analysis. That is the difference we can all agree is the foundation o f librarianship as a profession. After that we can have it, debating the va lue of individual books.
Marc Aronson
Received on Sat 25 Sep 2010 02:07:15 PM CDT
