ALA Executive Director Speaks at Oklahoma Library Association Conference

Librarians are fighters, state conference speaker says. (Tulsa World, 4/1/2011)

Excerpt: The executive director of the American Library Association said the myth of librarians as timid, "quiet folk" is changing as they rise up against legislation that hurts public, school and academic libraries.

Librarians fight censorship and restrictive measures in copyright laws, as well as limited access to taxpayer funded research and cuts to education and library funding, Keith Michael Fiels said Thursday at the Oklahoma Library Association conference in Tulsa.

"We are not victims," Fiels said. "We are the good guys, and we are creating libraries of the future. ... We struggle with our image. But librarians have a growing reputation as valiant individuals."