Michael Gorman on Blogs

Michael Gorman, president of ALA, does not think much of bloggers. In a Library Journal article entitled "Revenge of the Blog People," he implies that bloggers are of inferior intellect. As a librarian and a blogger, I knew this was begging for comment when I first read it; however, I didn't want my response to be reactionary so I decided to reflect on the article for a time. My impressions have not changed. Gorman "doesn't get blogging." I don't want to reiterate things other bloggers have said about Gorman's post. There's a good roundup at Instapundit. I heard Gorman speak at a conference a few years ago. He was one of two keynote speakers. Gorman tends to be one of those persons who tries to impress people by his command of the vocabulary of the English language. Persons who try to show off their vocabulary have never impressed me. I've always been more impressed by those who could have used those very large vocabularies, but chose instead, to use the simple words and sentences to relate their ideas. I honestly cannot give very many of the details of Gorman's speech at the conference (although I have notes in my office); however, I can tell you that I remember much of what the other speaker at the conference related to us. The one thing I do remember is that Gorman was so controversial in his comments at that time that some of those in attendance met over meals to discuss what was wrong with Gorman's talk. It makes me wonder if he enjoys stirring controversy. Like some of the other librarians linked at Instapundit, I have not joined ALA. I simply cannot support an organization which lobbies for causes with which I strongly disagree. I am a conservative and a Christian, and ALA is anything but those. I am a member of the Association of Christian Librarians, a group primarily composed of college and university librarians.