i saw this on p. 38 of the may 2009 issue of american libraries in an article called "how the world sees us" (us meaning librarians) and loved it! it was originally posted on punditkitchen.com.
i read 2 very different things this morning...
the first thing i read was total tear-jerker! it was the editorial in the january/february 2009 issue of american libraries called dear president obama. it made me not mind having to work on another holiday weekend to get ready for another busy week of supporting my school's awesome students and their talented teachers. it made me not care that i had to share a banana with my husband at breakfast this morning because we had to dip into our meager monthly food bugdet to buy extra supplies for the library. it made me proud to be a librarian. and it made me proud to be an american.
the second thing i read was downright distrubing and thoroughly disenheartening. it was a racist remark presumably posted by a casa student as a comment on this blog. this comment made me feel sad and mad and everything in between. racism is wrong. and it will not be allowed on my watch. while i encourage you to participate on this website, i will not tolerate hate. i have since deleted the profanity, but be aware that i will be investigating the matter fully, and i will get to the bottom of it. you know who you are, you know what you said, and you need to know that it is not okay.
anyway, i don't want to dwell on the negative. so, i'm going to include the american libraries letter and end this on an up-beat. here's what it said:
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Dear President Obama,
As you become the 44th president of the United States of America, probably the last thing you need is more people telling you what they want you to do for them. From the Headquarters of the American Library Association in Chicago, it looks to me as if everybody is asking you for something, and librarians, of course, don’t want to miss the boat. But before we get in line with our demands, let me offer one modest suggestion for how to deal with this profession: Let us show you what we can do for you.
In 2005, before you keynoted the American Library Association’s Annual Conference here in Chicago, I sidled up to you in the green room with a tape recorder and asked you to talk about libraries. You focused thoughtfully on my questions, one of which was, “Can you tell us more about the effect libraries have had on you?” You answered that although people tend to think of libraries in terms of just being sources for reading material or research, it was a librarian at the New York Public Library in Manhattan who helped you find the community organizing job you were looking for. “I probably would not be in Chicago were it not for the Manhattan public library,” you said, adding that the librarian had identified lists of potential employers and, “I wrote to every organization; one of them wound up being an organization in Chicago that I got a job with.”
People all over the country are using libraries in larger numbers than ever before, partly for reading and research as they always have but also because libraries have become community solution centers where people are learning new skills, meeting their neighbors, and getting practical help with some of life’s essentials, such as managing their dwindling finances or, like you, finding a job.
Following our brief interview, you went on to deliver a keynote speech so clearly tailored to librarians that we immediately asked your staff for permission to adapt it as a cover story in the August 2005 issue of American Libraries. In it you said, “More than a building that houses books and data, the library represents a window to a larger world, the place where we’ve always come to discover big ideas and profound concepts that help move the American story forward….” Many of us walked away from that speech already saying, “Yes we can.”
We can continue to be the “sanctuaries of learning” that you remember. We can foster literacy, what you called “the most basic currency of the knowledge economy.” We can produce the highest achieving students when they attend schools with good library media centers. We can help parents prepare children for the workforce and for a lifetime of reading and learning. Libraries are central to community development, civic engagement, and scholarly excellence. Therefore, the librarians of this nation ask not what you can do for libraries but what libraries can do to help you solve the daunting problems we all face. We’re at your service.
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