Re: 3M Salute to Schools, in partnership with AASL

[Jeff Kirkpatrick <jeffkirk@CONCENTRIC.NET>]

>The following was released by 3M in partnership with AASL.
...

>"3M is ecstatic about being able to bring more 3M Detection Systems into =
>school library media centers.  Without a security system, libraries lose =
>hundreds of books and other educational resources every year," says Don =
>Leslie, 3M Library Systems.  "A security system is crucial to protecting =
>the resources that enhance education and help create a stimulating =
>learning environment for students." =20
>
>The program is being sponsored by 3M, in partnership with the American =
>Association of School Librarians (AASL), a division of the American =
>Library Association... .

Friends,
        Wow.
        I am not here to apologize for having a differing perspective.
        I am here to ask just how well thought out this partnership is, in
light of the basic, essential purpose and mission of libraries.
        "A security system is crucial to protecting the resources that
enhance education and help create a stimulating learning environment for
students," (said the fox, smiling as he "guarded" the henhouse).
        Methinks we need a healthy batch of Stone Soup, here, friends.
        Now, let's see (and please do correct me if I am wrong, here), the
ideal library is a community center; a place of invitation and welcome,
where we all eagerly come to share our wisely understood to be limited
resources, in necessary and healthful, appropriate trust.
        That is, immediately after we clear 3M's and ALA's security devices... .
        Of COURSE we have an obligation to encourage the secure retention
of our shared resources.  But we fail from the start when we announce in
neon that we are not secure enough in what a true library of
community-minded people is--and in faith can be--to give it any chance to
stand on its own merits.
        Falling for the company shill's paranoid-by-design line in acting
as if security systems are essential, and as if not one nor all of us might
prove ourselves trustworthy to and for our very own library missions,
first, and their collections, second; to and for our very own dynamic
communities; metaphorically to and for our very own water supplies; is
succumbing to the every man/woman for themself, covetous panic which ushers
in the destruction and the denial of healthy society and of healthy respect
for ourselves.
        (That's all.)
        Please.  How may we ever learn to walk on our own, while such
artificial crutches as insecurity systems are hawked by the very ones who
ought to know better?
        "We are three hungry soldiers in a strange land.  We have asked you
for food, and you have no food.  Well, then, we'll have to make stone
soup."
        Please.
        But all right.  If my refusing to take up arms against my fellows
makes me a target, so be it.  For my part, I shall continue to model what
quiet Reason shows I simply must, my friends, and take my lumps where I
may.  Drawing a line in the shifting sands, I say:
        Welcome to your library.  You are invited to share.
        Take care.

JEK

        "We shall never go hungry, now that we know how to make soup from
stones."

*****
        Welcome to our library--the library of our making.  Here, we invite
and are invited, in mutual trust and respect, to share--thoughts, hopes,
dreams; all the world, in fact, and more... because it is our choice, if
not our need.

Jeffrey E. Kirkpatrick
Advocate for libraries and education reform, in Aurora, CO
e-mail address: jeffkirk@concentric.net
(previously jeffkirk@sni.net --through 5/22/99)

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