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For what it's worth, I think anything that Mr Kent could interpret as censorship would only lend unwarranted credence to his lies; banning is generally counter-productive. For those of you who don't have time to read the whole thing, here are some salient points from Ann Sparenese's presentation to the ALA, where she holds the post of SRRT Action Councilor - ... "The "independent libraries" are private book collections in peoples' homes. Mr. Kent and the right-wing Cuban-American propaganda outlets, call them "independent libraries" and even "public libraries." ... "You will read on the pages of Cubanet [Kent's web site] about the individual "libraries" and their personnel. Not one of the people listed is actually a librarian. Not one has ever been a librarian. ... "By using the terms "beleaguered," "librarians" and the buzzwords "freedom of expression" and "colleagues" Mr. Kent hopes to get the a priori support of librarians who might not look beneath this veneer. ... "But I wonder if ALA is willing to establish the precedent that all politicians with private book collections who decide to call themselves "librarians," are therefore our "colleagues"? ... "Our real colleagues are beleaguered by shortages of things as simple as paper, professional literature, computers and printers - and much of this has to do with their inability, because of the US blockade, to purchase any items from US companies (or foreign companies doing business with the US). Computers cannot be brought to Cuba from the US legally, even as a donation by licensed travelers. True "friends of Cuban libraries" would be concerned about these matters." ... [And talking of freedom...!] "if any US citizen (any US librarian, for instance) wants to travel to Cuba, simply to see for her/himself what is going on there (not for any specifically academic or professional purpose), this is against US law and punishable by fines and/or imprisonment." Full text: http://libr.org/Juice/issues/vol4/LJ_4.9.sup.html Cuban Libraries Support Group: http://libr.org/CLSG/index.html Regards, Aran Lewis > -----Original Message----- > From: J.M. Linnell [SMTP:[log in to unmask]] > Sent: Monday, June 25, 2001 2:27 PM > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Re: More Books Confiscated > > > Free speech, folks. Simply do what I do and delete the mails, dangerous > > territory to enter to ban the mailings. > > > > Regards > > David > > Quite right, David, and Nick Luft too. I would hope that intelligent > responsible professionals like ourselves would be capable of exercising > our judgement about what to read and what not, and what to believe and > what > not. But, if not, let's at least preserve the right to be wrong - a > freedom not always available to the Cubans, I believe. > > The fate of fellow professionals in other countries, particularly more > repressive ones, is a legitimate cause for concern. If mischievous > elements seek to misrepresent the facts or in some other way mislead > opinion about such matters, it is scarcely surprising - but better that > than we should allow the view to prevail that these matters are no concern > of ours. > > -- > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Jim Linnell, Humanities and Education Link Librarian, Information > Services, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire, ST5 5BG, United Kingdom. > Tel.: (+44) 01782 584160 Fax: (+44) 01782 711553 e-mail: [log in to unmask] > > -----------------------------------------------------------------------