Librarians speak up

Scott McLemee has some great news and gives a bit of background on the behind-the-scenes drama:

The Association of College and Research Libraries — which has 12,000 members working in the various sectors of secondary education — has now launched a group site called ACRLog. Actually it has been running since mid-September, but only in warm-up mode. Its existence was officially announced yesterday [...]

The anger touched off by “Silence in the Stacks” in June was actually a continuation of the furor over a notorious (well, in some circles, anyway) statement by Michael Gordon, the president of the American Library Association, earlier this year. In the pages of Library Journal, he lashed out at “the Blog People” in his own profession — attributing to them sundry lapses of taste, judgment, and intelligence.

It was as if he were conducting an experiment to see if they could carry a grudge. Guess what? They can.

It would be good to think that the new group blog started by the Association of College and Research Libraries will rise above the old hostilities. So far, four academic librarians are involved in running it.

It will be interesting to follow their progress. Best wishes to this timely new endeavor!