Dear Internet,
Apparently this was the wrong time to take a break from social media as it is currently all enflamed about ALA’s Code of Conduct — yes, this again. It will always be “this again” because as long as I have a vagina, someone, somewhere out there will be in disagreement of what I can and cannot do.
Below are as many of the articles I could find that have been published in the last week, which I’m going to put in chronological order. But to set the mood, I’m kicking things off with a piece by Sarah Houghton from 2011 about her experiences with professional sexual harassment, and adding in my own piece when I got harassed in 2013, and a piece from Dorothea Salo written 2007 about a woman being harassed at a DSpace conference. It’s stories like ours that explain the background reasoning as to why CoC’s need to exist. As Salo succinctly puts it in her blog,
No woman should have to “escape” people in a professional setting. EVER.
You’d think this would be enough, but obviously it isn’t or else we wouldn’t continue on having these “conversations.”
I’m also including a link to the working document to the CoC so that you can see how the process started and formed and a link to the finalized piece that is now on ALA’s website. I’m also including the Storify that ALA is tracking of all the commentary, which will be ongoing. Additionally, I’m adding in Will Manley’s piece, which was dismantled from his site several days later and lost through Googlecache, that I was able to capture via Pocket and made viewable to the world via Evernote and well, what started the whole pitchforking in the first place.
- Even Here Dorothea Salo, 23 January 2007
- The Creepy Librarian Stalker Hypothesis Sarah Houghton, 31 October 2011
- An Open Letter to Male Librarians Jacob Berg, 28 February 2013
- Live Sexual Harassment Lisa Rabey, 30 October 2013
- Working document on creating ALA’s Code of Conduct
- ALA’s Statement of Appropriate Conduct
- Storify: Discussions about the ALA Statement of Appropriate Conduct ALA, November 2013 –
- Will Unwound #872: If You Attend A.L.A. Midwinter…Beware…Big Brother will be watching you Will Manley, 27 December 2013
- Thoughts on bullying… Andrew Shuping, 30 December 2013
- Codes of Conduct, Freedom of Speech, and Male Privilege: Writing the kind of blog post I hate writing Miss Ingrid, 30 December 2013
- So Vague nina de jesus, 30 December 2013
- ALA’s Code of Conduct, the Supreme Court, and those Guys from Duck Dynasty Kate Kosturski, 30 December 2013
- “Of what had I ever been afraid?” Cecily Walker, 30 December 2013
- Conduct Unbecoming Matthew Ciszek, 30 December 2013
- Christie talks about Statement of Appropriate Conduct Christie Ross Gibrich, 30 December 2013
- My Two Cents on ALA’s Code of Conduct Lauren Bradley, 30 December 2013
- Libertarianism, dignity, and the ALA Code of ConferenceConduct Lane Wilkinson, 31 December 2013
- Civil Discourse And Respectability Politics nina de jesus, 31 December 2013
- Accentuate the Positive Julie Jurgens, 1 January 2014
- In which the Loon endorses anti-harassment codes of conduct Gavia Libraria, 1 January 2014
- I endorse the ALA Conference Code of Conduct Daniel Cornwall, 1 January 2014
- Why ALA Needs a Code of Conduct Andromeda Yelton, 2 January 2014
- The ALA Statement of Appropriate Conduct: a FAQ Andromeda Yelton, 2 January 2014
- George Carlin, MLIS Julie Jurgens, 2 January 2014
- That ALA Code of Conduct Andy Woodworth, 2 January 2014
- Creating safe spaces vs. freedom of expression by Meredith Farkas, 2 January 2014
- American Library Association prohibits harassment Cynthia Parkhill, 3 January 2014
- #libtechgender: conference codes of conduct as seen from your world and mine Andromeda Yelton, 3 January 2014
- What I Saw, What I Heard, What I Read: On Codes of Conduct Jacob Berg, 3 January 2014
- ALA Code of Conduct suggestion: open it up Jason Griffey, 3 January 2014
- Making Space for the Silenced Barbara Fister, 9 January 2014
- Check it Out with Michael Kelley: ALA’s Code of Conduct Michael Kelley, 10 January 2014
- Conduct Unbecoming (a Library Conference) K.G. Schneider, 18 January 2014
This entire list will be ported over to the LibTechGender project. Make sure to bookmark that page.
Lastly, as to be expected, there is trolling on some of the pieces and social media has been in a tizzy about calling those people out in public spaces for being effs. It is one thing to have a discourse with someone on a particular topic, even if you violently disagree, but it’s a whole ‘nother space to start pitchforking for blood and harassment — that’s bullying. Don’t be an asshole to assholes.
Edit: 1/18/14 to add new posts.
Edit: 1/27/14 to add new posts.