Library Journal
Author Codrescu, at President's Program, Slams ALA's Cuba Stance
At the American Library Association's (ALA) Midwinter Meeting in San Antonio, the ALA President's Program on January 22, featuring Romanian-born author Andrei Codrescu, was billed as "The Future of Our Profession: Educating Tomorrow's Librarians." While ALA President Michael Gorman did manage to float some provocative questions about that topic, the session was notable more for the contributions of two men from New Orleans. First, Bill Johnson, director of the decimated yet rebuilding New Orleans Public Library, thanked fellow librarians for their emotional and material support. He's asked a lot to encapsulate the impact of Hurricane Katrina: "You might say it was like having a massive heart attack and waking up and having to go back to work each day." But three library buildings are now open, with two more on the way. "The next step is to consolidate our gains, and for the city to do the same," Johnson said. He urged attendees to come to the ALA Annual Conference scheduled for June in New Orleans. NOPL staffers, including Johnson, wore Mardi Gras beads and hosted a well-trafficked booth, where they sold t-shirts to support the library's recovery. Then came Codrescu, who initially offered whimsical and encouraging words about the importance of librarians and libraries. "A machine doesn't waste time caring about the quality of the information," he said. More than simply holding books, libraries, he mused, serve as "cultural centers for people who do not surrender to TV or videogames." He took off fancifully: "The bookmobile should be expanded to accommodate crowds."
Then Condrescu addressed freedom of expression, citing his youth in Communist Romania, where "my good luck was to meet Dr. Martin, a retired professor, who had all the poets who were blacklisted." Because of ALA's record in opposing excesses in the USA PATRIOT ACT, Codrescu said he felt "great dismay" that the organization "has taken no action to condemn the imprisonment of librarians," the banning of books, and repression in Cuba. He mentioned that other international figures, including U.S. leftists like Noam Chomsky, have joined in such condemnation. "Cuba today is the Romania of my growing up," he said. Codrescu's speech earned strong, if not unanimous applause, which suggests that the audience, at least, may have a less measured approach toward the Cuba issue than the ALA Council. Gorman did not immediately respond, first offering his prepared remarks raising questions about the definition of the profession and how ALA might have a greater impact on LIS curricula. He said he thought that Cuba's policies "are reprehensible," but contrasted that posture with "getting involved in a political to-and-fro about the status of people who claim to be librarians... that grows up around the exile community, the Republican Party, Cuba, and the Cuban government." He added that the imprisoned Cubans "should never have been in prison." ("I was mugged," Gorman said afterward. "He did not deliver the speech he told us ten days earlier that he would deliver." ) Codresco said he didn't see why the Cubans should be termed "so-called librarians." Gorman said there was a dispute about whether the activity of lending books "is being a librarian" and that "there is some dispute about the funding of these people who claim to set up libraries." Gorman also added that ALA's Council had "condemned the imprisonment" of the Cubans [actually, the phrase was "deep concern"], and that the stance had been misrepresented by columnist Nat Hentoff and Robert Kent of Friends of Cuban Libraries. Codrescu intoned, "The man who lent us books was a librarian, and he was our librarian. I think ALA should make a stronger point in solidarity with these disseminators of books." Later, in the Q&A, Codrescu was asked if "people paid to overthow the Cuban government" deserve the support he professed. He didn't engage the question but said wryly, "I think people should overthrow all governments." Gorman, referencing the "Radical, Militant Librarian" FBI email that ALA has turned into a slogan, quipped that he could see the headline: "Anarchist Addresses Pinko Commie Librarians." Later, asked what books they were reading, Codrescu mentioned "all the novels" of a writer from the Arkansas Ozarks whom he identified as "Michael Harington;" he apparently meant Donald Harington. Gorman said he was reading Francis Wheen's "Idiot-Proof," which in the UK was titled "How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World." Wheen, Gorman noted, also wrote a biography of Karl Marx. He again quipped that he could see a headline: "Pinko Librarian Praises Commie Author."
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