(Sorry I can't sign in - not a member.)

Clever story, and I'd agree with the sentiments except for one thing: the attitude can be and has been taken far beyond reason. The following (true!) story may amuse you; it enraged me, and still would if I had the oomph.

I once needed to brush up on elementary math skills for an exam I needed to take for a prospective job. I got one of those practice books from the Bookmobile and did its math section. Several of the answers the book provided were wrong. (Yes, I checked and rechecked. And some years before I'd passed several upper division math courses with As, needing them to get an McL degree in physics.)

Note that this was ~not~ a matter of my objecting to PCBS propaganda; I hadn't looked at the English-comprehension section. The book contained ~wrong~answers~ to easy arithmetic and algebraic problems! (Still does AFAIK.)

I went to the clerk upon returning the book and recommended it be discarded as harmful: the people who usually use such books would go crazy trying to figure out what ~they~ had done wrong. Their learning would be sabotaged: they might not think that the book could be defective or wonder how many answers were correct.

Thinking back, I should have said to return the thing to the publisher for a corrected copy, but I didn't think of it then.

Well, she "swaylllllllled rat up ow'me" and announced, as to a cockroach, that The Library Would Never Doooo Such a Thing. I repeated my explanation two or three times with different wordings which emphasized that the book was functionally, objectively defective, ~not~ politically offensive. No joy. The robot just repeated its mantra.

There was no supervisor there. I gave up. Had no energy to drive to a distant main library to argue with automatons in the vain hope of finding someone with minimal numeracy or common sense.

I'd approached this creature in the spirit of offering valuable help to people who badly needed it, and she treated me like utter sht for it. So much for "random acts of kindness."

I wish that in promoting the anti-censorship policy, library schools and library bosses would teach the difference between political opinions and hard facts.

Love that BTVS poster by ALA! And the Head Librarian/Cat Herder introduction by Judy. Once again, Librarians Rule! I hadn’t heard the quote about the Library at Alexandria. I like it!

-Tresta

Love it! It fits with some library staff that I know. If you like library stuff, look up Unshelved It's a comic strip set in a library.

Love the last line!

I cheated and did a search for that quote, "Knowledge is the ultimate weapon." It comes from author Jim Butcher's book "White Night.' And it was also quoted in an episode of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

As for Judy's overkill security at Memory Alpha, I have another quote for you: Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it. Judy is learning from what happened to Mira Romaine and making sure something similar doesn't happen again.

Great story.
Cynthia

I'd love a t-shirt with that saying... and some of that weaponry for my library ;-)

Ciao!