It’s too late for the book, I’m afraid.

Irrespective of the blog owner’s point of view, the fair thing would be to publish the comments of Berman in the same blog space–libraryjuicepress.com/blog–in which comments regarding the original interview appeared. Fyi, Berman’s view is that Tillett’s remarks mischaracterized his “reform” efforts and “sugar-coated” LC’s practices.

For the purpose of full disclosure, I have been Berman’s personal friend for close to 35 years; I am the person who hired and worked with him at Hennepin County Library (1972-1974); and I am the publisher of the U*N*A*B*A*S*H*E*Dtm Librarian, for which Berman is a contributing editor and columnist.

I would add that I have not published as voluminously on this topic as Berman, a look at my personal website, http://www.mjfreedman.org, will show that I have written much on the subject from my own perspective and agree with the substance of Berman’s efforts for reform.

On an historical note, Edward Blume was the only LC cataloging official (a former head of the subject cataloging division) since I left LC’s employ in 1968 who–in my view and experience–had an open mind about LC’s cataloging practices and treated Berman’s suggestions and critiques with the respect they well-merited. I cannot say the same thing about the others responsible for LC’s cataloging policies and practices who, after 1968, preceded and succeeded Blume, and most especially Ms. Tillett.

/s/ mitch
Maurice J. Freedman, MLS, PhD
Past President, American Library Association
Library Consultant
Publisher, the U*N*A*B*A*S*H*E*Dtm Librarian, the ‘how I run my library good’sm letter,
http://www.unabashedlibrarian.com
http://www.mjfreedman.org
mitchjf@gmail.com

I am also reminded, as a public servant, of the many times one loud complainer catches a headline and that the library spends untold man hours to respond to one person’s agenda. Those who throw fits know exactly how and why it works. Seeking to punish LC in the eyes of government, colleagues and the public is a form of verbal abuse. VA has been proven to be at least as harmful as physical to the subjects who experience it.

Sanford Berman knows how to use the channels that would result in the changes he seeks. I wonder why he perfers to use and abuse LC????? May Barbara continue to be a force that cannot be overcome by these tactics.

In your imagination. The population of the United States now exceeds 300,000,000. About half the population are not religiously observant, but identify themselves as adherents of one or another Christian illumination; observant Christians number about a third of the population; the consistently secular are about one in seven; practicing Jews number fewer than two million; the number of practicing Muslims is disputed but two million may be the most substantiated number; adherents to Unitarianism and Ethical Culture number fewer that 200,000. The religious idiom in this country is Christian for all but a small minority.

One cannot help but note that conceptions of ‘fairness’ bruited about herein (originating variously from the interviewer, the lady from the Library of Congress, and Mr. Berman) work to confound the public by substituting for common terms more cumbersome, contrived or esoteric ones (’romanies’, ‘aboriginal australians’, ‘people with disabilities’), and that the list of groups whose sensibilities are considered to deserve special attention seems irritatingly predictable.