Librarian in Black Blog – Sarah Houghton

Nat Hentoff refused to accept ALA’s Immroth Award (for Intellecual Freedom), based on the fact that ALA would not speak out on behalf of Cuban librarians jailed for making available to Cubans such subversive documents as the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and George Orwell’s 1984. Hentoff writes: “I now publicly renounce the Immroth Award and demand that the American Library Association remove me from the list of recipients of that honor. To me, it is no longer an honor.” First, shame on ALA for being so out of touch with what their membership wants. Second, shame on ALA for not speaking out to uphold the values of our profession ourside our national borders.