The obligatory election post
1) Go vote. If you requested an absentee ballot, put it in the mail already. If it's not in the mail by early Monday morning, drop it off at your polling place, if your state election laws allow.
2) If your precinct is using electronic voting machines, verify your choices before you submit. Be sure to read the instructions before you even start. If you live in a county where the machines have been decertified and you don't trust the technology, ask upfront (or demand if you know) to use a paper ballot.
3) Michael McGroty has very statistically insignificant poll results. But par the course, he writes beautifully and forcefully.
4) If you're working the ref desk/research line between now and Jan. 20 ... I feel for you. Be prepared.
5) Ahem.
6) Oooh, look, a Sunshine Amendment on the CA ballot ... wonder how the staff at the California State Library feel about it?
7) During the debates, I had a whimsical, downright silly fantasy: wouldn't it be great if either of the major presidential candidates pandered to the library community? What if major operatives of the campaigns (or even the candidates themselves *gasp*) had made a stop at Annual to court the library supporters vote? Or how about if there was a shout-out (or 3) to library workers and their issues (e-rate, CIPA, LSTA, etc.)? What if either campaign had sent an extra-special, authentically signed, printed-on-embossed-letterhead missive to Carla Hayden or Carol Brey-Casiano? Wouldn't you fall over and just about die if either candidate mentioned the upcoming closure of the LIS program at Clark Atlanta University during one of their education stump speeches?
This is, of course, silly. Thus, I put away such childish thoughts. But then I heard about the Buffalo/Erie County library funding problems ... and I remember the wave of budget and service cuts that affected libraries acrossed the country and how a lot of people are either still holding their breaths or just starting to exhale. Even though the recession is over, the Campaign to Save America's Libraries isn't.
Obviously, presidents don't have much say over libraries (not even LoC, which is part of a separate branch of government). And this isn't to say that libraries should be the nation's highest priority. But libraries are key community institutions and educational components. Community and education should be priorities, right? So, not to take away from first responders and teachers and hunters and deaf Americans and soccer enthusiasts and military reservists ... but where's our props? Would it kill either of them to actually visit a library? Maybe conduct a BI session on how to navigate FirstGov or check in a Gov Doc (maybe a stack of Public Laws)?
Well, at least ALA has put together a survey of "2004 Presidential Election Candidates' Positions on Libraries". Yay, ALA.