 Don spends most of his time online criticising and haranguing the Boston Public Library. Apparently, he feels that BPL restricts and censors information about itself, and that it's employees are selective in the performance of their duties. He often uses the more general term 'urban municipal libraries' and launches critiques against the institutional culture present within them. But don't take our words for it: we've gathered a number of Don's posts on the subject for you to peruse. The post itself is edited to show the relevant portions only, but we've included a link to the complete post, available on DejaNews, so that the entire post and thread can be seen in context, if desired. In this post, Don lays out his basic position.
Subject: Boston Public Library dept. of the city of Boston An important duty of the public library is to make available to the public information, whether in the form of books, pamphlets, tapes, material read most easily by screen and keyboard, and any number of other forms. In a republic such as ours it is a crucial part of this duty of the library to provide access to those books, pamphlets, tapes, material read most easily by screen and keyboard, and any number of other forms, which contain information about the government and its agencies, departments, institutions, offices, and so on. The public library is an important institution of our country. Thus laws have been passed which guarantee to the public the right of access to certain documents and reports of the public library itself. Read the whole post on DejaNews. One of Don's peculiarities is his penchant for posting unattributed quotes. In the following message, he might be quoting a BPL staffer (or he might not), but this seems to encapsulate his opinion of BPL's attitude.
Subject: public life at city of Boston Public Library department "We're exempt from freedom of information disclosure. We don't let people read public public library reports on our city's public library." Read the whole post on DejaNews. In the following post, Don Saklad responds to a missive by Sue Kamm on the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom List when she describes him as asking off-the-wall questions, says he had a restraining order placed against him by BPL, and suggests that everyone ignore him. He then reposted the entire message to alt.religion.kibology.
Evil incarnate on intellectual freedom forum ALAOIF http://www.ala.org/membership/lists.html If all of it were really the truth, would it make a difference in an argument regarding public records freedom of information intellectual freedom principles? It is a hostile institutional culture where gossip about library users/customers/consumers and library union collective bargaining labor relations advocates is spread as recrimination for unpopular ideas. Bernie Margolis aims to change the institutional culture of our urban municipal public library. Will Bernie succeed with gossiping types who attempt to spread malicious rumors? Please send your annual report or let people know when it it posted via one of your library's Web links. Read the entire post on DejaNews. This is a typical post by Don, where he apparently takes specific cases from his personal experience, and describes them in a general, almost abstract way.
Frequently asked about urban municipal public libraries -Case example: City of Boston Public Library departments Why do the most interested library users/customers/consumers, library personnel, library advocates and library labor relations union collective bargaining groups advocates not bring comment, concerns, suggestions and questions to city of Boston Public Library departments' officials or our city library department board directly? Routinely, our urban municipal public library departments' users/customers/consumers, library personnel, library advocates and library labor relations union collective bargaining groups' advocates with interest in BPL and participating in library long range planning are made to feel unwelcome with ridicule, derision or patronizing amusement. They are viewed as irritants who impede the "real" work of BPL like during our current sequence of urban public library anniversary celebratory programming ironically. Read the entire post on DejaNews. In this post, Don tries to enlist others on his personal quest. Again, he takes his specific experiences and ideas and applies them generally and abstractly.
case study critique of your library Don't be shy folks. Critique your library as a kind of case study for other library advocates, library users and library personnel to read. If necessary use an anonymous posting service to avoid supervisory reprisal. Have other frequent writers here received messages from library personnel who've observed validly problematical practices and policies at their libraries where no remedy was available readily? The arcane antiquated hierarchy of some urban public library organizations can squelch many creative and inspired types who can't afford to find other opportunities easily. Maybe Bernie Margolis, president of our Boston Public Library dept. of the city of Boston will innovate widely to allow a more open environment for exchange of ideas among personnel, library users and library advocates as he begins his new administration of a traditional institution bogged down with ensconced territorial types. How can a leader free him or herself from the demands of diplomatic relations among entrenched personnel to innovate more at an urban public library? Read the entire post on DejaNews. One of Don's more endearing traits is the way he posts the contents of web pages to newsgroups. Usually, there's no context or explanation for the stuff he dumps this way except for the subject of the post, and it usually isn't immediately clear what the content of the post has to do with its subject. Instead of reposting these here, we've provided titles and dates for a few examples, and provided links back to dejanews in each case. Feel free to figure them out for yourself. We'll conclude this section with Don's most articulate formulation of his quest. It's apparently a repost of a letter he (apparently) wrote to two administrators of the BPL. Note that the information attached at the end of his letter (which we did not repost here, but is available on the DejaNews link) was dumped directly from a web page, and it isn't immediately clear what relevance it has on his statements.
Subject: BPL and failure to respond to public requests for local documents
Berthe Gaines, city of Boston Public Library board examining committee Dear Gail Fithian, Please provide better information about our Boston Public Library's validly public public documents like library long range planning reports and departmental reports. Hopefully, some day many library personnel will see with more clarity the truth about intellectual freedom with respect providing validly public information about our city of Boston Public Library itself. Several of your colleagues do agree our library's information about itself should be collected as city documents. An important duty of our public library is to make available to the public information, whether in the form of books, pamphlets, tapes, material read most easily by screen and keyboard, and any number of other forms. In a republic such as ours it is a crucial part of this duty of our library to provide access to those books, pamphlets, tapes, material read most easily by screen and keyboard, and any number of other forms, which contain information about our government and its agencies, departments, institutions, offices, and so on. Our public library is an important institution of our country. Thus laws have been passed which guarantee to the public the right of access to certain documents and reports of our public library itself. Our Boston Public Library department of the City of Boston has failed to disclose or delayed validly public reports on our public library department itself. Library users, library personnel and library advocates should have better access to information about our public library long range planning activities. Our library should disclose better information such as validly public audits and develop more ways for library users and potential library users to be public library advocates involved with creating input for library long range planning activities. Attached here is information regarding our public library's failure to respond to public requests for local documents.
Sincerely, cc: Berthe Gaines View the entire post on DejaNews. Main Page | Next
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