Think Tank: The Library Of Congress Has Too Many Librarians, So We Should Reject New Nominee To Run It
from the are-you-fucking-crazy? dept
We were both surprised and happy when President Obama nominated the obviously well qualified Carla Hayden to be the new Librarian of Congress to succeed James Billington, whose tenure was considered such a disaster that staffers literally celebrated when he left:The reaction inside the library was almost gleeful, as one employee joked that some workers were thinking of organizing a conga line down Pennsylvania Avenue. Another said it felt like someone opened a window.When you get quotes like that -- especially on the record -- for someone retiring from a longstanding job, you know things were bad. And Hayden appears by almost any measure to be perfect for the job. She's run large libraries, showing that she has the knowledge and administrative skills to run the Library of Congress. She's also got experience dealing with a variety of policy issues, including ones around surveillance and access to information. I've spoken to many people who either know or have worked with Hayden, and I can't recall ever hearing such levels of praise about anyone.
“There is a general sense of relief, hope and renewal, all rolled into one feeling,” said one staffer who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. “Like a great weight has been lifted from our shoulders.”
Maureen Moore, who retired in 2005 but volunteers at the library, said she and her friends were thrilled.
“It’s a great day for the library. The man has had 27 years to do good things, and he hasn’t,” she said.
But, of course, some are unhappy about this. But with such a supremely qualified nominee, the attacks have been weird and getting weirder. We recently wrote about a laughable complaint that Hayden was "pro-obscenity" because she fought against mandatory porn filters on all computers in libraries. And now someone has pointed out a complaint from Hans von Spakovsky from the Heritage Foundation, claiming that Hayden is unqualified for the position... because she's a librarian. Really.
But the library’s enormous staff (3,244) already numbers countless credentialed librarians -- the institution is hardly in need of another. That’s why the post of librarian of Congress has long been filled not by librarians, but by first-rank scholars and historians of national reputation. The librarian of Congress is in effect the nation’s “scholar-in-chief.”First of all, for someone advocating for a "scholar in chief" -- it seems rather ironic that they insist the number of librarians in the Library of Congress is "countless" when he's already given us the upper bound of employees at the Library (3,244). Now I'm no math expert, but surely this means that the number of librarians must be somewhat less than 3,244? And, last I checked, a number less than 3,244 remains... well... countable.
But, more to the point: WTF? To argue that a librarian shouldn't lead the Library of Congress seems... ridiculous. And it's not as if Hayden is being shifted from the checkout desk of a small regional library to the Librarian of Congress position. She's been running the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore as its CEO and helped modernize and totally refresh that library. Meanwhile, von Spakovsky goes on to praise Billington as a scholar, despite the fact that basically everyone at the library despised him, and multiple reports had found that he basically ignored his job to focus on hobnobbing with the rich and famous. The Government Accountability Office put out a report noting that there was a massive leadership vacuum at the Library of Congress under Billington. And this is the guy that von Spakovsky praises as "a scholar"? If that's what a scholar does, give me the librarian with actual administrative experience any day.
Of course, the real whining from von Spakovsky is what's pretty blatantly stated in his post: he's upset that President Obama pointed out the fact that Hayden would be the first woman or first African American to hold the post of Librarian of Congress. From that, he twists that statement into pretending it means those details are a part of her qualifications, or perhaps, her only qualifications.
Yet according to the president, among the chief qualifications for the office of Librarian of Congress -- the chief administrator of the world’s largest library -- are color and gender.Except that's bullshit. Nowhere did the President suggest any such thing. This is blatant dog whistle politics where the Heritage Foundation wants to pretend that this nomination is somehow an act of "affirmative action," rather than an eminently qualified individual, who also happens to be female and black. The fact that the President pointed this out was not because it spoke to her qualifications, but because it's a fact that the Librarian has always been a white male. It's a noteworthy point, not a qualification.
Really, if these are the best "attacks" that anyone can come up with regarding Hayden, I'm fairly confident that she's clearly ready for the job. No one can find anything legitimate against her, so they go with this kind of crap.
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Filed Under: carla hayden, hans von spakovsky, james billington, librarian of congress, librarians, scholars
Companies: heritage foundation
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Ha! You took a rhetorical flourish and showed that it's not literally true. Epic tear down, Mike! You are so fucking awesome! And we all know that you never ever ever exaggerate anything. You are my hero!
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http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/people/hans-von-spakovsky
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Must be a slow news day.
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That's not really twisting anything
"he's upset that President Obama pointed out the fact that Hayden would be the first woman or first African American to hold the post of Librarian of Congress. From that, he twists that statement into pretending it means those details are a part of her qualifications, or perhaps, her only qualifications."
I don't think that's twisting it. The quote from Obama is:
"If confirmed, Dr. Hayden would be the first woman and the first African American to hold the position -- both of which are long overdue."
By saying it's overdue, he's implying that it IS important to somehow get a woman and/or African American into the position, just for the sake of doing that.
And the very first comment on the TechDirt article announcing her nomination said "And YES it's about damn time that someone other than a white middle-aged male ran the LoC." Clearly, some people do think this is important.
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Re: That's not really twisting anything
A summary look at the history of the position shows that the white male requirement does not seem to be a critical qualification that guarantees a successful tenure in the role. That is unless the role is to schmooze and party with wealthy white guys, but other then the potential for (personal) money making I don't see how focusing on social events helps you run a education and research support institute that has lagged greatly in the new age of the internet.
Personally I don't care that nominee is of any specific color or gender, race or religion... but I DO care and am excited to see that a well qualified person is not being EXCLUDED just because of those things.
Sadly some people still want gender and color to matter in such things.
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Re: That's not really twisting anything
That was my comment, IIRC.
And I'm a white middle-aged male.
And yes, I think it's important BUT I also think it's important that Carla Hayden is insanely qualified for this position. So not only would this replace the incumbent -- who's been essentially worthless for a quarter century -- with someone who has an excellent track record, it'd also help bring just a little bit more diversity to the upper levels of government...which are, despite the best efforts of a lot of people, still overwhelming dominated by middle-aged white men.
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(source for numbers: http://www.ala.org/tools/libfactsheets/alalibraryfactsheet01)
What is an "excellent track record"? I am not doubting that she has one. I am not arguing that Billington did what he needed to do. But what is the goal of crowning this particular nominee with such adulatory praise, when there are probably another 9,000+ equally worthy candidates -- if heading a public library system is a factor in choosing the Librarian of Congress?
She stood up to Ashcroft. What president of ALA would not have done so?
If she becomes the Librarian of Congress, I wish her well in the post; but I am still not getting why she, in particular, is "insanely qualified."
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Re: That's not really twisting anything
No, he's not. He's simply saying that it's long overdue that gender and race are no longer considered to be qualifications as important as they used to be.
Which is a good thing.
I take his implication as the opposite of your interpretation.
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Pretty obvious
Perhaps they should rename it the White Heritage Foundation.
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"Think tank"
They think that the term "think tank" may lead naive people into thinking that they are in some way neutral, and perhaps some people are conned by this. Anyone who reads news with a critical mindset will recognize that this is an organization that is devoted to and promotes a far-right viewpoint.
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Re: "Think tank"
So, everything you said is true, but spun for critical thinkers, who are in the minority.
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Re: "Think tank"
They actually do produce interesting work occasionally. This comment is not among them.
/librarian, who thought Billington was a borderline imbecile
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Congress#Digital_Millennium_Copyright_Act
Would you like your crow battered & deep fried or in a pie?
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Re: AC whining.
He was an abysmal failure. A qualified person for the job is a welcome change.
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Wait, what? A "partisan Democrat site" that regularly trashes Democrats?
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160628/17275434854/hillary-clintons-intellectual-prope rty-platform-too-vague-confusing.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160612/08304734689/hillary -clintons-paperback-memoir-deletes-inconvenient-support-tpp-that-was-hard-cover-version.shtml
https:/ /www.techdirt.com/articles/20160624/07033134809/tying-rights-to-useless-terrorist-watchlists-is-terr ible-idea.shtml
And those are from the past few weeks off the top of my head. Anyone who thinks I'm partisan for one side or another is clueless.
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Mike, I understand that someone has to point out how venal and weak these people's arguments are. And you make it look easy. But in this case, I think it really WAS easy.
Still, it has to be done!
Critique that spam!
And you make it so funny. 3244 employees, including countless librarians...!
By the way, just for the record: you're not going to find a scholar who's going to object to a librarian running a library.
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Librarian of Congress
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Generally right, but...
This criticism has nothing to do with the point von Spakovsky's made. He's talking about Billington's credentials, his track record; yes, he did scholarly work before taking the post, Hayden not so much - that's the point. Masnick gets carried away.
Yes, the argument is bogus, but not because he had a low reputation. It's a lane argument because the qualifications for Librarian of Congress probably don't necessitate scholarship. I say "probably" because I haven't read the job description. Billington wasn't despised for not doing scholarly work, it was because he didn't do his job at all. But that's beside the point.
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