ALA's red headed stepchild once again

Open letter to Lenonard Kniffel, Editor of ALA's American Libraries (americanlibraries@ala.org):

Dear Mr. Kniffel:

 Once again ALA has demonstrated that school libraries are truly the red-headed stepchild of the library world.

I appreciate your re-working of American Libraries to acknowledge that there is actually a digital world where libraries play a part. Adding columns by a few librarians who are under 110 years old  is a good start. (Andrew Pace and Merideth Farkas are refreshing)

But it really grinds my gears reading an article like "Mattering the Blogosphere" without even the token school library blogger being mentioned. I can just hear Alice Yucht asking, "What are we, chopped liver?"

Let me list a few of the vibrant school library voices writing blogs:

• Alice Yucht: Alice in Infoland http://www.aliceinfo.org/blog/ 
• Rob Darrow: California Dreamin' http://robdarrow.wordpress.com/ 
• Diane Chen: Deep Thinking http://deepthinking.blogsome.com/ 
• Sara Kelly Johns (AASL president-elect) From the Inside Out http://fromtheinsideout.squarespace.com/blog/ 
• Frances Harris Gargoyles Loose in the Library http://www.uni.uiuc.edu/library/blog/index.html 
•  Chris Harris Infomancy http://schoolof.info/infomancy/
• Mary J Johnson The Primary Source Librarian http://maryjjohnson.com/primarysourcelibrarian/ 
• Joyce Valenza's TheNeverendingSearch  http://joycevalenza.edublogs.org/
• Jacquie Henry's Wanderings http://nlcommunities.com/communities/wanderings/default.aspx 

 I hope you print this in your Letters to the Editor section. But you know it doesn't really matter since it is also out in the school library blogosphere - which I would wager has more school librariansas  readers than does American Libraries.

For a more inclusive editorial policy,

Doug Johnson
The Blue Skunk Blog http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/

Comments

[Cathy Nelson]

Here! here!! You are so awesome and so correct. I thank you for your representation.

[Jacquie Henry]

Thanks Doug. I have ALWAYS wanted to be a red-head! It IS a shame that school library blogs are often overlooked. Thank you for standing up for all of us.

As you well know, in our business we can't sit back and wait for wisdom to be intoned from on-high (or from "American Libraries") before we act. The kids are racing off willy-nilly into a very different world. We need to help them be ready, be safe and be nobody's fools.

Recently, you talked about blogs being "junk food for the mind". Although I understand your point, I see blogging more as a way to tap into the collective mind and test-drive ideas before inflicting them on unsuspecting students and staff. New and adventurous ideas are crucial. Blogging and reading blogs helps us get our thoughts together "on the fly".

Anyway, as always, you are motivating me to get my act back together and work on a few of the posts that have died a-bornin' in my brain these past few weeks.

[VWB]

I always feel good when I have some portion of what you recommend in my sphere of influence! I will add the others as well. Thanks for sharing these.

[Frances Jacobson Harris]

And don't forget Doug Johnson's Blue Skunk Blog! I know, I know, you can't say it. But I can.