The only thing that should anger librarians is returning your books late. But for a few days this week, one of Mayor Cherelle Parker’s policies had librarians up in arms.
As a journalist, I talk to people in a variety of fields.
Obviously, I interview a lot of politicians. Based on what we do here at Hall Monitor, interviewing lawmakers is the bulk of my job.
I also interview a lot of businesspeople. For example, I interviewed the late Charisse McGill, founder of LokalArtisan Foods, about her many accomplishments throughout the time she was with us. I always enjoyed it. I don’t say this about a lot of the people I interview, but I’ll miss her.
I’ve even interviewed historical figures. One of the best interviews I did during the 2016 Presidential campaign was an interview with the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis. Lewis was the youngest person to speak at the 1963 March on Washington and, as president of the Student Non-Violent Coalition (SNCC), walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama for voting rights with the Rev.Dr. Martin Luther King. The photo taken of me speaking with him at the Capital Grille on Broad Street is one of the few I post on social media. It’s a highlight for me.
But probably the nicest people I interview are librarians. While they’re stereotyped in the media as spinsters with reading glasses and far too many cats waiting for them at home, librarians are smart, helpful, and use their extensive educational backgrounds to make sure that everyone from kids to grownups get what they need. They’re pretty laid back folks.
So, when you see an angry librarian, chances are that it’s because someone didn’t turn a book in on time or a study group has gotten a little too loud.
But lately, legislators have been giving librarians other reasons to get mad. Shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Congress passed the USA PATRIOT Act. As part of that act, librarians and bookstores were required to tell law enforcement what books people were borrowing or buying.
And then, there was the policy that came out of Mayor Cherelle Parker’s office earlier this week. Under this policy, everything that any city agency wanted to put out on social media or in a flyer to send to the public had to go through the Mayor’s office.
On the one hand, I can see that. You want to make sure that the message your departments send out is a unified one. There’s no harm in that.
But on the other hand, the librarians at the Free Library of Philadelphia thought it went a bit too far. Most of the social media posts put out by the Free Library are for things like story time, appearances by authors promoting books, and computer services for people who may not have access any other way.
The swift and sure backlash made the administration reverse its position, at least for the Free Library.
However, we here at Hall Monitor could have told you that this administration was going to exercise the kind of message control that leads to stuff like this.
When you put out an edict that says that no one can speak unless it goes through your office, those of us who do my job start to ask the one question that no politician wants folks who do my job to ask.
That question: What are you hiding?
Now, the Parker administration probably isn’t hiding anything. They haven’t been in office long enough to hide anything, if we’re honest with ourselves. But Budget Time is coming and folks are going to have questions of the many departments in the administration that are going to come asking for money.
You might want to take the cuffs off.
Or at the very least, give Director of Communications Joe Grace a really nice vacation afterward. He’s going to be busy.
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