SRRT (Social Responsibilities Round Table)

Ten past-presidents of ALA have sent a message asking for a re-evaluation of the recent diminishment of the ALA core values. I hope that SRRT members will weigh in. I am particularly concerned with the deletion of democracy and social responsibility as core values. I am pasting the past-president's message below.

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

I think when ten past presidents of ALA "advise that we take a step back, and re-evaluate the recent replacement of 'our enduring values'", we should take that advice seriously and not thoughtlessly dismiss it as some people are doing.

The pre-2024 core values (see attached) could certainly be updated and improved upon, but that is not what was done. Instead they were liquidated and replaced with something else entirely. If there were calls for input during the process, those calls were very muted, and most ALA members did not know about the revision until they were presented with it as a fait accompli.

Ten past-presidents of ALA have sent a message asking for a re-evaluation of the recent diminishment of the ALA core values. I hope that SRRT members will weigh in. I am particularly concerned with the deletion of democracy and social responsibility as core values. I am pasting the past-president's message below.

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

I think when ten past presidents of ALA "advise that we take a step back, and re-evaluate the recent replacement of 'our enduring values'", we should take that advice seriously and not thoughtlessly dismiss it as some people are doing.

The pre-2024 core values (see attached) could certainly be updated and improved upon, but that is not what was done. Instead they were liquidated and replaced with something else entirely. If there were calls for input during the process, those calls were very muted, and most ALA members did not know about the revision until they were presented with it as a fait accompli.

Ten past-presidents of ALA have sent a message asking for a re-evaluation of the recent diminishment of the ALA core values. I hope that SRRT members will weigh in. I am particularly concerned with the deletion of democracy and social responsibility as core values. I am pasting the past-president's message below.

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

Ten past-presidents of ALA have sent a message asking for a re-evaluation of the recent diminishment of the ALA core values. I hope that SRRT members will weigh in. I am particularly concerned with the deletion of democracy and social responsibility as core values. I am pasting the past-president's message below.

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