American Library Association 2008 Mid-Winter Meeting

What would our world be without libraries? Think about it for a moment. In the not-so-good olden days, the barbarians always attacked and burned the libraries, and killed every "learned" person they could get their hands on. Wipe out knowledge, wipe out history. Re-write everything according to your own credo. It happened again and again and again. In more recent times, many cultures have been guilty of committing this most horrid of sins; think about "Fahreinheit 451." In this day of the internet and practically instantaneous communication, think about the proverbial "Chinese Wall" that many countries put up around their internet access. To me. it's the equivalent of the multiple burnings of the library at Alexandria. Libraries are under attack in the United States. Oh, they may not be facing fire-bomb throwing hordes of barbarians, but the chilling effect on freedom of speech and ease of accessibility is the equivalent. Most libraries are funded by public taxes. Cut-backs in funding have become the norm. Decreased staffing of trained librarians; decreased funds to purchase new books; decreased hours of accessibility. Library branches closed permanently, with remaining libraries too far away to reach readily by public transportation, cutting off access to those of us who don't have cars. For those libraries that remain open, there are incessant attacks from various groups objecting to this book or that book, or objecting to free computer access that is offered at some libraries. You can read about these in the newspapers all the time. Against this background, the American Library Association has announced its 2008 Mid-Winter Meeting, to be held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (USA) January 11-16, 2008. The key-note speaker is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Cool!