The Marxist librarian
I missed this story back when it first happened, in April of 2022. This explains what I’m referring to:
A large organization that drives the training of U.S. librarians and their use of public funds has chosen a self-described “Marxist lesbian” as its next president amid growing concern about libraries actively connecting children to sexually explicit activities and materials.
Her name is Emily Drabinski, and she won the election 5,410 votes to 4,622. I mention that because apparently the organization has 54,000 members, consisting of “librarians, libraries, library graduate schools, members of library boards and associations, and library students.” If in fact they all get to vote, most of them certainly did not, because the total participation was a little under 19%, and Drabinski’s share amounted to 10% of the total membership.
I couldn’t care less if Drabinski is a lesbian; I care that she’s a Marxist, and I care that she’s an activist who supports the following:
In a TV interview with a Boise station last week about her ALA election, Drabinski conveyed surprise at public concerns about libraries making pornographic materials available to children and buying them with taxpayer resources.
“It’s like concerted political efforts to sort of push this, sort of story about what libraries do which seems very, you know, it’s anathema to what libraries actually do, that we are, sort of pushing pornographic materials on our patrons and it’s really not what we do at all,” she claimed. “…There’s no big library agenda.”
Contrary to her claims in that interview, however, Drabinski’s other YouTube videos are replete with teaching other librarians how to “subvert” and inject hard-left politics and sexuality into their publicly funded work. For one example, consider one of many such lectures she gave to other librarians on July 6, 2021, titled “Teaching the Radical Catalog.”
In the lecture, Drabinski discussed her homosexual coming out experience and how saturating in a campus environment of proliferating sexual identities changed how she approaches being a librarian. At her first librarian job, “At Sarah Lawrence, absolutely everybody was queer. … There were so many ways to be gay. … And it was my job to teach those students how to find themselves in our library catalog,” she said. She described queering the library as “critical thinking” and “thinking critically about the catalog.”
Here’s a slide from that presentation showing the sexuality sections of the Library of Congress catalog. In it, you can see the Closed Captioning of what Drabinski is saying while showing the slide, which includes affirming the idea that “queerness includes the subversion of those kinds of normal family types.” She’s referring to the family types that naturally produce children — i.e. a married man and woman…
“We can equip our students with the capacity to wring what they need out of library structures, and wringing what you need out of systems that exclude you is a necessary life skill for survival and revolution,” she concluded in her talk. “And we can also help build a way of shaping students as agents of change both inside the library and out.”
Much much more at the link.
The reason Drabinski’s name has come up recently is that recently the Montana librarians have said “enough”:
The Montana State Library Commission voted Tuesday to withdraw from the American Library Association (ALA) because of its self-described “Marxist lesbian” president.
“Our oath of office and resulting duty to the Constitution forbids association with an organization led by a Marxist,” reads part of the letter the Montana commission voted to send to the ALA.
In a 5-1 vote, with one member abstaining, the commission voted to immediately separate from the national library group…
And Idaho may follow:
“Drabinski has said in interviews that librarians aren’t focused on assisting minors in accessing pornography, but her writings and public presentations reveal that she has dedicated her professional career to precisely that while using taxpayer resources,” they wrote. “Drabinski proposed using ‘queer theory’ to guide the way books are cataloged in libraries.”
Drabinski proposed doing so in a 2013 paper at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
Idaho lawmakers also complained “the ALA has provided LGBT resources and pressured libraries to include explicit materials on transgenderism and sexual deviance targeting young children.”
I live in Bozeman, Montana and submitted a comment to the library commission in advance of their vote. All such written comments are collected here: https://ftpaspen.msl.mt.gov/EventResources/20230710154132_24756.pdf
(There were, as well, public comments via Zoom during the meeting. I gather that Ms. Drabinski was online, viewing the proceedings, but she didn’t speak.)
Here’s what I sent to the state librarian Jennie Stapp:
Dear Ms. Stapp,
I think the Montana State Library Commission should end its affiliation with the American Library Association.
The $1,000/year expense isn’t the issue. And it’s plausible that ALA membership offers some technical expertise that’s of use to the Commission.
The problem, as I see it, is the ALA’s penchant for striking poses and taking positions on matters that have nothing to do with operating libraries. This becomes evident by exploring the ALA’s website.
For example, an ALA executive-board press release of March 11, 2021 contains this: “In the aftermath of the murders of eight people [in Atlanta], including six Asian women, we again amplify the words of our colleagues in the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association and join them in asking all ALA members to publicly condemn anti-AAPI racism through visible actions and join forces in battling discrimination, xenophobia, and white supremacy.”
Yes, it was a horrific event (though there was no evidence it had anything to do with discrimination, xenophobia, or “white supremacy”). But library associations—this includes the APALA—that feel the need to take such a position have lost focus. They’ve become political-advocacy organizations, engaging in posturing (as in this example) and encouraging claims of grievance. In a society that’s already as diverse as America’s, such divisive efforts are pernicious.
Montana doesn’t need today’s ALA.
Paul Nachman
1611 W. Koch St.
Bozeman 59715
Reference: https://www.ala.org/news/press-releases/2021/03/ala-executive-board-supports-apala-recognizing-and-condemning-ongoing-anti
The ALA has been pushing left-wing causes for a long time. I hope more states disassociate.
Interesting that Drabinski focuses on “queering” libraries, when more and more librarians and patrons alike are concerned with basic safety inside libraries, as many have become de facto homeless shelters, places for druggies to shoot up, and happy hunting grounds for pervs.
In 2018, a report on the NBC Los Angeles station described “hundreds of disturbing incidents reported at Los Angeles city libraries, many that put the safety of employees and the public at risk. . . . Among the documents we obtained were a list of people banned from entering any LA City library for inappropriate or dangerous behaviors, including ‘hitting patrons with a metal pipe,’ ‘masturbating and spreading bodily fluids on several library computers,’ and ‘unwanted touching of a teenage female.’ The city has sent letters to 490 such people in the last three years, telling them their privilege to enter any library was ‘suspended.’ . . . Surveillance footage obtained by the I-Team shows a man entering the lobby of the Venice library branch on June 27, 2015, dropping his pants, and exposing his genitals to staff and visitors. The footage shows the man running around the room as children weep and cover their eyes. The staff chases him out and locks the front door, but the man refuses to leave, pressing his naked body against the glass door as library volunteers struggle to block the view from the people inside.”
Videos at the link: https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/streets-of-shame/dangers-at-the-public-library/29560/
Keep in mind that this report is already five years old about incidents that are now eight years in the past. It’s likely that things are even worse now.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch: the present ALA website has an entire page of “Resource Guides” regarding library safety and security: https://libguides.ala.org/safety-security
Back in the day, a library school student, who later got her doctorate in Library andInformation Science from the same school, was set to go with other library school students to a librarian conference in Cuba. The Cuban government did not grant her a visa, because some four decades previous, she and her parents fled the Castro paradise for the US. Talk about long memories. The library school meekly made no objection to the Cuban government about her exclusion. I doubt this info is online; I was a fellow library school student. (Granted, she was rather open about her politics, such as wearing a T-shirt that said, “Ukraine: The Party’s over.” Fleeing Castrogonia will do that to you. )
Some years later, the ALA similarly had no objection to the Cuban government’s jailing some librarians for trying to get more information to Cubans. The ALA’s position was that as those jailed Cuban librarians were not certified librarians, it didn’t matter what the Cuban government did to them.
So, I am disappointed but not surprised about who ended up as head of the ALA.
My mom was a librarian. She retired back in the nineties. She thought the ALA was a useless, leftist organization back then. She also thought that their primary raison d’etre was to keep their ranks as small as possible. (To get a job at most public libraries and many college and university libraries, you have to have a library science degree from an ALA accredited program. And there are fewer of them than there are vet schools. And there’s a criminal shortage of very schools.)
OH G*D I am so proud of my state’s librarians!
Here’s a little background that adds to the story:
The International Library Association every year chooses “the best new library (building)”.
Two years ago–a small newly built library building in Missoula Montana opened it’s doors. Of course, this library is in the small college town of the state’s liberal arts university, dedicate to DEI and LGBT.
The International Library Association rewarded this new library building
the “Best New Library” of the year. That is in the whole world this new little library building won the “The Best”. That would be an award that was presented over 240 entries from other buildings in the world! Do you think that this is because the new little library is built in a university community that as been a more deliberate “LGBT community
PA+Cat,
Yep, the main Tacoma public library became a de facto day shelter for the homeless like 5-6 years ago. It got so bad that the restrooms had permanent security outside them and only one person could enter at a time because of the drug use and other stuff going on in there.
Then you throw in the lockdowns which for the library lasted for over a year and it is pretty much a no go for any reputable person. And to top it all off the main library is right across the street from the City-County building where the courthouse and jail are and police are regularly there yet all this stuff is just allowed to continue.
Don’t know how the ‘queering’ of the library is going but I am sure it’s in full effect for the zoned out addicts and mentally ill to enjoy.
I think it’s common knowledge that, for many years, librarians have been mostly female, mostly lesbians, and mostly leftist. Conservatives often bemoan the Left’s Gramsci-inspired march through the institutions. In the case of libraries, there was no march. It was just a tiny, little baby-step that started in the 1960s.
In 2022, if more librarians had voted in the election for ALA President, then more would have voted for whatever Marxist lesbian would have been running. Drabinski is just the first to be so open about her ideological convictions. Unfortunately, that reflects the depths to which the country has fallen. Neither she nor her many supporters believe that there’s any significant opposition left. Montana counts for little.
In my opinion, libraries and schools of library and information science need to be at the top of conservatives’ list for defunding government organizations. As soon as possible, we should begin a program of organizational privatization and professional decertification.
When I first saw the title of this post, I misread it as “Marxist Libertarians.” But that obviously made no sense, so I read it again.
Re: The Marxist librarian
Reminds me of Claire Bloom in “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold” (1965). She was the only innocent in the film, though quite naive.
I don’t believe current librarians are so naive.
Anyway, brilliant film, always worth a look if one is inclined.
I watched an interview with the author of a new Tucker Carlson bio.
The interview is here at the bottom of this post.
The author is gay and postulated that the reason why all the pressure for Transgender rights has appeared is that donors and groups pushing gay rights ran out of things to do. They needed a new cause, sort of like the “March of Dimes” after polio was ended.
The interview is great and I learned quite a bit about Tucker.
The author is gay and postulated that the reason why all the pressure for Transgender rights has appeared is that donors and groups pushing gay rights ran out of things to do.
Mike K:
I read that too. It’s not a bad theory.
As a leftist I recall watching a documentary in the 90s about the 60s left and wondering what remained for the left to do.
Well, sure, eradicate poverty and bring the poor into the middle class.
Except that’s actually kind of hard to do. Not like issuing the “Emancipation Proclamation” or ruling “Brown v. Board of Education” or showing up at Selma or even listening to “Peter, Paul & Mary,” then calling it a day.
neo points to Kundera’s “circle dancing” frequently, but I’m not sure conservatives get how intoxicating it is to be on the latest side of the right side of history.
It’s a drug experience. And from that the money flows.
“affirming the idea that “queerness includes the subversion of those kinds of normal family types.” She’s referring to the family types that naturally produce children — i.e. a married man and woman…”
“Destroy the family, you destroy the country. Vladimir Lenin
Mike K and Huxley,
On the needing a new cause theory, agreed.*
A few years ago there was an article by a woman giving reasons why she was no longer a liberal. High up on the list was this; ‘I realized I no longer had to save the world, someone already had.’ Pretty liberating, that. If only more people would stop thinking they had to save the world and start focusing on ‘motes and beams’…
* Or in Huxley’s case, D’ accord. I just had some French guests in my Air BnB – did I get that right? Love, love, love the sound of that!
Generally, young children do not go to libraries. They are taken there by their parents. Book choice is up to the parents.
There are Round Tables within the American Library Association which are manned by serious people, e.g. the Government Documents Round Table. The organization as a whole is flagrantly silly and has been for decades. While this is a function of the occupational culture in general, I think if you unpacked it you’d discover most librarians appear at ALA events to look for work and meet potential employers down the road. They used to read the organizational magazine for the job ads, but that’s the technology of a generation back.
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I think it is so that the organizations for employees of special libraries – e.g. the American Association of Law Libraries – are like some of the Round Tables and avoid the clown car element of the American Library Association. Some of the Round Tables are part of the clown car, of course. The Social Responsibilities Round Table was an in house lobby for red haze drivel and sexual deviance.
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I have a hypothesis about why the ALA is like this.
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I don’t believe current librarians are so naive.
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They are, in ways we can discuss. That’s not their most salient feature, though.
I think it’s common knowledge that, for many years, librarians have been mostly female, mostly lesbians, and mostly leftist. Conservatives often bemoan the Left’s Gramsci-inspired march through the institutions. In the case of libraries, there was no march. It was just a tiny, little baby-step that started in the 1960s.
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Ca. 1995, about 85% of all librarians were female; it may be higher today. Men tended to agglutinate in particular subsets of the trade. School librarians and public branch librarians tend to be almost exclusively female. Academic libraries, central public libraries, state libraries, and federal libraries tend to employ a fair number of men. Certain specialties employ men in large numbers, like law libraries and archives.
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Lesbians are not particularly common among librarians. A disproportionate number are male homosexuals, but the odds-ratio is not that high. A disproportionate number are also Irish bachelors, and the odds-ratio there is higher. Women in library administration tend to be fairly mainstream in their domestic situations, with a mild bias toward low fertility.
Richard Aubrey on July 20, 2023 at 6:27 am said:
Generally, young children do not go to libraries. They are taken there by their parents. Book choice is up to the parents.
When I was 10 years old (1948) I asked the local librarian to check out the book “The Foxes of Harrow,” a novel about the pre- Civil War South. It was fairly racy for the time and the librarian called my mother to ask if she was willing to let me read it. Incidentally, the author was Frank Yerby, a black writer. I had no idea of his background. I was just a voracious reader at that age.
Mike K.
Be reassuring if we could count on librarians to to that today.
Years ago, I remember being informed by the local librarian that my then 13-year old daughter had some overdue books. But she would NOT tell me what they were. It was an invasion of her privacy and I had no right to know what they were…even though I would have been financially responsible if the materials were lost. Man, I was SO angry! I had no right to know what my under-age daughter was reading?! Crazy….
Years ago, I remember being informed by the local librarian that my then 13-year old daughter had some overdue books. But she would NOT tell me what they were. It was an invasion of her privacy and I had no right to know what they were…even though I would have been financially responsible if the materials were lost. Man, I was SO angry! I had no right to know what my under-age daughter was reading?! Crazy….
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Of course that’s silly, but it’s part of the occupational self-gaslighting.
Not surprising in the least.
Just this spring the Colorado Education Association–the largest teachers union in Colorado–voted to “reject capitalism” for a variety of half-baked SJW/BLM reasons.
Can’t make this up & I dare you to try.