Date: Sat, 11 Nov 1995 06:15:59 -0800 From: jessea@uclink2.berkeley.edu (Jessea NR Greenman) Subject: FYI: right wing plan to infiltrate libraries [reposted with Steve Cisler's permission] Please send questions and comments to: Karen Jo Gounaud 703-440-9419 Fax: same, but call first. If no answer, Fax to 703-425-0205 Forwarded Message Follows ------------------------- Date sent: Mon, 16 Oct 1995 09:20:37 -0700 Send reply to: ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom , Steve Cisler From: Steve Cisler Subject: Re: Anti-ALA Vision Statement for 10/21/95 Conference (fwd) To: Multiple recipients of list ALAOIF I decided to talk to the person who is responsible for the content of this posting before I responded online. It's easy to imagine many people reacting to the conference announcement, but I thought a little more background might be appropriate if it to be discussed. This is pretty much a straight report, a summary of what she told me in an hour-long phone call on Oct 16. Karen Jo Gounaud is a mom; her kids are 23 (Coast Guard Officer) and 25 (Masters in TESL); her husband is retired military, and they have taken in foster children who were abused, unwed mothers, and foreign exchange students. She likes to practice what she preaches. She has a degree in education from the Univ. of Nebraska. She was very active in the Fairfax County (VA) controversy around access to different materials in the library. She is intimately familiar with library regulations in her area, and wants to be an information purveyor for other communities and not spearhead some large nationwide organization. The conference she and her co-organizer, the head of Citizens for Community Values, are planning in Ohio will be attended by Library Journal and a mix of non-librarians and librarians who are not happy with the way ALA (and OIF) have stood on various issues. I asked her what she hoped to achieve with the conference. She replied that they would see what sort of support these individuals would need; it will probably be a newsletter. For the librarians they will discuss whether to work from within to change ALA or to form another organization. She mentioned the Fellowship of Christian Librarians as one group that had already been formed. How tied to Christianity is this conference? She said that they are trying to keep support independent of any religion but she said that many followers read "Citizen," which I guess is a conservative Christian mag. She also mentioned Dr. Dobson's Family Research Council and how influential it is. She went into a long explanation of the arguments with Fairfax Co. Library over a variety of issues: placement of a gay newspaper, The Washington Blade (for which she has written a column!); access to MTV on the 20 plus televisions in the library. This led to one of her main points: that librarians don't want to work with the community; they want to push their own agenda which is reflected in the books purchased and other materials acquired. The fact that kids have access to all of this material is another objection: that librarians don't think kids' minds are any different from adult minds (and therefore don't place any restrictions on what the kids can check out or view). Her main concern is with sexual material and where it is placed, not whether it is acquired. She says she is not for censorship or book banning or burning ("We are not kooks"); it is far too dangerous. What she wonders is why some information is available through tax-supported institutions when there are other public routes for accessing the same material. We talked briefly about the Internet (she only uses phone and fax and the U.S. Mail). I explained that there is a lot of interest in making the rather chaotic files more accessible through indexing and through what I call point-of-view filters. She is aware that there are a number of tools for people to use to do this, but she is upset with the library community because they want to put the onus of control over the child on the parents and yet take away control though various means such as denying access to the child's circ. records on the grounds of privacy. "They really want to have it both ways," she concluded. This woman has a strong message, and she delivers it without any rancor or disdain. I think she will be a formidable debater because of that. Since she is working at the grass roots, she will have a crediblity (at least in public gatherings) that a policy person or administrator will have a harder time conveying. I'll be most interested in the way LJ covers this conference. Steve Cisler Apple Computer, Inc. sac@apple.com ----------------------------------------------------- Vision Statement: A Vision for "Family Friendly" Libraries --Founder, Karen Jo Gounaud (703) 440-9419 Introduction The purpose of this document is to help citizens who are experiencing difficulties with public library systems tightly controlled by the American Library Association and its policies hostile to traditional family values. Though the ALA is currently a politically powerful national organization, it is still only a PRIVATE organization whose policies, including the infamous "Library Bill of Rights" and other related documents, have no basis in law. We want to enable you through knowledge and reasoned planning to help your library system transition into new policies that are more sensitive to local control and traditional family values, as public, tax-funded libraries were originally intended to be. We begin with a realistic vision of what the currently unfriendly systems can become. Libraries are for everyone. But not everything in a library is for everyone. Even in a "Family Friendly" library, not everything can be "Family Friendly." Furthermore, different libraries have different purposes and responsibilities. A university library, for example, will have adult student and instructor patrons with needs and expectations unlike those of a community library system heavily used by families with children of all ages. To effectively serve all the adult citizens who look to their local libraries for information and recreational reading, it's not possible or appropriate for everything on the shelves to be as clean or child-oriented as a G-rated film. There are historic tomes like Mein Kampf that could hardly be called "family friendly" but are a necessity for archives attempting responsible preservation of influential writings from the past. Some fine literary works and award winning novels have language and themes unsuitable for kids, but they've nevertheless earned a respectable position on community library shelves. In particular, recognized humanities staples such as those in the "Great Books" and "Harvard Classics" collections should be included, regardless of their position on traditional family values. Even when dealing with modern hot button topics like abortion, euthanasia and homosexuality, a practical and useful library must offer its citizenry adequate opportunity to keep informed about diverse viewpoints from reasoned but opposing voices. Charles Donovan, Senior Policy Advisor from the Family Research Council, maintains that libraries should generally "seek scholarly balance on controversial topics." But he also cautions that "some things are so destructive to bonds of cohesion in a community or to its standards and laws that their rights to balance don't apply." For examples he cites "books on bomb-building, hate tracts from the KKK, and pornography." Since libraries do not have unlimited funds and space, the question of what to carry and not carry is one, not of censorship, but of sponsorship. Books on bombmaking and illicit sex (such as pedophilia publications) go to the bottom of the shopping list or not at all. Best selling society-building publications like Bill Bennett's Book of Virtues justifiably go at or near the top. Anything the library does not purchase can still be obtained commercially by any disappointed citizen. Regardless of the adult percentage among routine public library users, libraries who serve children have special child protection responsibilities that may require some adult wants and needs to take a lower priority. They may have to find their favorite new sex manual, for example, on a high shelf in the midst of other similar books in a special area away from the kids rather than displayed openly within easy reach as he enters the library. We must insist that those responsible for the collection development, display and distribution policies in family-populated localities should actively help their communities: 1) guard the sensibilities and vulnerabilities of the young, and 2) aid in the preservation of the traditional family. While parents must still be responsible for the primary monitoring of their children's reading adventures, their neighborhood libraries, in partnership with parents, should still make a reasonable effort to maintain a safe browsing environment for unaccompanied youth. The current ALA policies are in opposition to that and other related goals in support of traditional family, the proven best environment for nurturing children and helping them grow into tomorrow's good citizens and leaders. That is why we need a new set of guidelines for encouraging renewed "Family Friendly" characteristics in the nation's libraries. Since each community is unique and not all state laws are the same, the guidelines suggested below may require some adjustment, expansion, or some other adaptation to your particular situation. We ask only two things: 1) that the definition of "traditional family" be preserved; and 2) that you furnish us with a copy of your final document. In the meantime we'd be happy to discuss with you directly any changes you want to make. Your suggestions are welcome. CHARTER FOR A "FAMILY FRIENDLY" LIBRARY SYSTEM Article One: Traditional Family Emphasis The library system clearly acknowledges the importance and superiority of the traditional family -- mother and father married to each other, committed to a lifetime monogamous relationship and to caring responsibly together for their children. Policy translation: As a branch of the government charged with protecting and preserving our society, the policies of the library system will not be neutral on the subject of traditional family and family values. They will be supportive. a. The libraries will actively seek out books and other relevant materials that help our citizens understand the importance of traditional family and aid in its preservation. b. The libraries will actively seek out books and other relevant materials that help our citizens understand the importance of traditional family values (lawful and moral behavior helpful to preserving the traditional family) and aid in their preservation. c. While providing helpful resources to non-traditional families (such as single parent households, families "blended" after divorce or death, etc.), the standard of emphasizing traditional family and relevant values will not be forgotten in what is purchased, displayed, and celebrated. d. Where American Library Association standards fail to uphold the traditional family and relevant supportive values, those standards will be discarded and standards upholding traditional family values will take precedence. e. While works discrediting and devaluing traditional family and traditional family values will not be automatically excluded from the collection of a "Family-Friendly" library, there will be no mandate to give this proven destructive point of view "equal time", space and emphasis for the sake of "intellectual freedom" or perceived "political correctness." The point will be not to disallow opposing points of view from the public library system but to give more emphasis, time, space and tax-money toward sponsorship of those materials which contribute toward the building rather than the destruction of society. Books which are not bought with tax money for free borrowing are still freely published and available for purchase by any citizen from book retail dealers. This is not a call for censorship, but for responsible sponsorship. Article Two: Parental Library Rights The library system clearly acknowledges parents as having primary authority over the lives and activities, including reading activities, of their minor children. Policy translation: a. Minor children must have the signed permission of a parent or legal guardian in order to obtain a card for library borrowing privileges. b. Parents, with proper identification that they are the parents, will have full access to their minor children's reading records, such as the list of items checked out on their cards, part (if such records exist) and present. c. Minors will not have access to explicitly adult materials without a parent's or guardian's permission. d. Libraries will also offer parents other options for limiting what their minor children check out when parents or guardians are not present. e. Library administrators will actively seek out parental opinion for guidelines in handling other materials that may need to be in a general "parental guidance only" category. These other topics may vary from community to community, but they will all have one thing in common: parents in the community have input into the ideas for these guidelines, and their input is given fair and respectful consideration by the library governing body. Article Three: Respect for Standards and Laws The library system clearly acknowledges "Community Standards" and statutory law, both local and state, as being relevant to the selection, display, and access policies concerning materials for the public library system. Policy translation: a. American Library Association guidelines may be adopted but are not required. b. Where American Library Association guidelines and local "community standards" are in opposition, community standards will take precedence. c. The governing body of the library system will consider the lawabiding taxpayers of the community the ultimate source of their authority, not the ALA. d. Library administrators should periodically provide feedback and encouragement to the ALA on helpful changes the ALA needs to make in their policies in order to become more "Family-Friendly" as they once were earlier in their history. Article Four: Respect for Minors The library system clearly acknowledges that minor patrons have sensibilities and vulnerabilities different from that of adults and deserving of protection. Policy Translation: a. Displays 1. Policies affecting open displays of new books, seasonal celebrations, special reading themes, and other library materials will consider the sensibilities of the libraries' youngest patrons. 2. No open displays will include materials of any explicit adult sexual nature. 3. No open displays will include any other materials which community standards would consider inappropriate or potentially harmful to minors. b. Shelving 1. Books and materials which community standards would consider potentially harmful to minors will be considered for a "parental guidance" section accessible only to adults and minors accompanied by adults, preferably parents or guardians. 2. All other regular library materials will be separated into age-appropriate sections. 3. Free handouts of an adult sexual nature or with advertisements for adult sexual partners or activities will be made inaccessible to unaccompanied minors. Article Five: Parent and Citizen Participation The library system clearly acknowledges that regular communication with parents and other concerned citizens is a necessary and important part of maintaining a library that successfully serves the needs of families, and does not undermine their strength. Policy translation: a. The library administration and other personnel will treat citizen parental input with respect and appreciation both in public and behind the scenes when conducting library business. b. The library administration and personnel will provide regular encouragement and opportunity for citizen/parental input for suggestions, criticisms, and comments both positive and negative, regarding library purchases, policies, people and programs. "America Needs Family Friendly Libraries" Please send questions and comments to: Karen Jo Gounaud 703-440-9419 Fax: same, but call first. If no answer, Fax to 703-425-0205 *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+ YOU MAY RE-POST. Jessea Greenman The P.E.R.S.O.N. Project*; ph/fax: 510-601-8883, 586 62nd St. Oakland, CA 94609-1245 Gopher to "gopher.outright.com" Web sites: http://www.youth.org/loco/PERSONProject/ http://www1.usa1.com/~furball/glb/person.html/ http://www.pride.net/pridenet/person The P.E.R.S.O.N. Project is *always* looking for volunteer organizers. Please cc us (for our files) on correspondence you send or receive re our action alerts. *Public Education Regarding Sexual Orientation Nationally.