Today I read a journal article from Libri, a journal which has been around since 1950. In Portrait in Paradox: Commitment and Ambivalence in American Librarianship, 1876-1976, Michael H. Harris casts a critical eye on how the government has pressured libraries in a series of moral panics and how librarians have reacted. His goal is to counter the often rosy picture that people have when thinking of libraries in the past. My main takeaway from reading this was that his comments still apply today, as does his rallying cry for librarians. History repeats itself and the way that librarians react to government intervention has alternated between playing it safe and standing their ground. Their ethics and choices have been criticised and held against them, and at times it’s been impossible to win, but the author calls for librarians to stand firm. While the article is about America specifically, other countries can surely relate.
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