librarian hero, dissent & Michael Moore's new book

[Doug Millison]

"[...] But one person in the crowd refused to heed Moore's request. Ann
Sparanese, a librarian at Englewood Library in New Jersey and a board
member of the American Library Association (ALA), returned to work that
Monday and posted a message on several ALA listserves -- among them,
Library Juice -- detailing Moore's predicament. According to the ALA,
libraries represent big money to publishers, spending over $2 billion a
year for books and electronic information, and because of it, librarians
have publishers' ears.

"I thought these particular librarians would be especially concerned,"
explains Sparanese. "The ALA has this big conference coming up in
midwinter, and all of the publishers have booths there. At the very least,
I thought some of us would've gone over to the Harper booth and said, 'What
gives?'"


In her posting, Sparanese explained, "This is NOT a question of the CIA or
the government demanding that a publisher stop publication for national
security or some other well-known reason. The publisher just decided to
walk away from the money -- the book's ALREADY printed and sitting in a
warehouse -- because of the current war-inspired, anti-dissent atmosphere.
Even satire is biting the dust, by the publisher's own hand."

Publishing insiders caught wind of Sparanese's message when Pat Holt, a
former book review editor and critic for the San Francisco Chronicle,
included it in her twice-weekly publishing industry newsletter. Within days
of the posting, a HarperCollins editor told Moore that they were receiving
a lot of e-mail from angry librarians about "Stupid White Men." Moore
hadn't realized Sparanese had attended the Citizen's Action event (the two
never met), but he partly attributes the publisher's shift in stance to her
mobilization of other librarians. "Librarians see themselves as the
guardians of the First Amendment," says Moore. "You got a thousand Mother
Joneses at the barricades! I love the librarians, and I am grateful for
them!"  [...]"

http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2002/01/07/moore/index.html