Dear Council colleagues,
I have been asked to forward a statement signed by ten ALA past-presidents about the recently revised ALA Core Values. Please see attached and pasted in below.
I look forward to seeing many of you in San Diego for my last set of Council meetings after a 13 year run! – Mike and guide Teddy
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To the ALA Council and Executive Board,
We, ALA Past-Presidents, want to voice our strong concern about the recent passage of a new much-abbreviated version of our core professional values. One of our number, Michael Gorman, wrote the classic book on core values, published by ALA Editions in 2000. In his 2015 revised edition titled Our Enduring Values Revisited: Librarianship in an Ever-Changing World (ALA 2015), he defined values as "...beliefs and ideals that are major, significant, lasting, and shared by members of a group." As opposed to the current version of ALA core values, which are touted as "aspirational" and as a "supplement" to other ALA documents, the agreed values are the bedrock of our profession, and are readable and comprehensive. At a time when we are experiencing the worst right-wing attack on our core values since the McCarthy era, we advise that we take a step back, and re-evaluate the recent replacement of "our enduring values."
Sincerely,
Richard Dougherty, 1990-1991
Patricia Glass Schuman, 1991-1992
Betty J. Turock, 1995-1996
Mary Somerville, 1996-1997
Barbara Ford, 1997-1998
Nancy Kranich, 2000-2001
John W. Berry, 2001-2002
Mitch Freedman, 2002-2003
Michael Gorman, 2005-2006
Barbara Stripling, 2013-2014
Mike L. Marlin
Director, California Braille and Talking Book Library
Sacramento, CA
ALA Councilor at Large
Work Email: mike.marlin@library.ca.gov
Tel:(916) 603-7209
Personal Email: mmarlin33.3@gmail.com
Mobile: (916) 243-9778