Comments on: Books Sarah Palin Never Banned

By: JL

JL — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 02:12:00 +0000

I also am a librarian who supports Sarah Palin. This is probably all hyped up just because she as a mom did not want her 6 year old checking out Catcher in the Rye. It is understandable she was concerned. Even so there is no proof she ever banned any books.

By: David

David — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 02:42:50 +0000

This article in the Anchorage Daily tells the story much more fully than I can.
http://www.adn.com/sarah-palin/story/515512.html.
But Jenn Q. Public, you’re quite right. The Librarian in question did have the resources to defend herself. “Emmons had been city librarian for seven years and was well liked. After a wave of public support for her, Palin relented and let Emmons keep her job.” The smear appears quite true – to the point that the poor woman had to fight valiantly to keep her job.

By: Jenn Q. Public

Jenn Q. Public — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 02:07:06 +0000

The librarian who resigned was president of the Alaska Library Association when Palin was elected mayor. As a refugee from the library profession, it is inconceivable to me that the chief officer of a state library association would lack the resources and sense of professional responsibility to fight a book banning request. She would have been able to draw upon the financial and human resources of the Alaska Library Association, and probably the American Library Association as well.

But there’s no indication that this librarian rallied her colleagues to defend intellectual freedom in Wasilla. According to the Anchorage Daily News, the woman who has chaired the Alaska Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Committee since the 1980s doesn’t remember this ever being brought to her attention.

This smear is bunk, just like the rest of them, but that hasn’t stopped librarians from flooding my inbox with this nonsense. Seems like they could learn a thing or two about vetting from John McCain.