Just opening the floor for discussion

[quidditchgrrl]

Who's the mofo here? The plaintiff, the library/director, or the ACLU?

Evil Harry Potter Smites God-Fearing Librarian

It is, of course, a lot more complicated than it appears at first glance (not that TMZ is known for its Mensa-level readership).



Reading through the documents, it seems that this associate (as far as I can tell, she is not a "professional" librarian, holding a ML(I)S) did not have a problem working with the HP books - she would check them out, find them for those who asked, etc.

The problem came when she was asked to participate in a HP-themed event, one for which participation appears to have been voluntary (we had one of these for the Book 7 release, and working the HP "areas" was on a volunteer basis).

Problem the second - SHE brought religion into the conversation.  Rather than simply opting out of the festivities, she chose to make it (now literally) a federal case.  I can cite from our ethics code that all duties have to be performed regardless of personal bias, belief or prejudice.  It's like the pharmacists who refuse to dispense certain drugs - follow the law or GTFO.

Libraries are arguably the least tolerant of intolerance in the performance of job duties.  (Hm.  That make sense?)

HOWEVER, why the Director thought it would be a great idea to force this employee to participate or be suspended - yeah, wow.  Talk about your HUGE RED FLAGS whipping in your face!  If there were any other employees who did not participate for whatever (unstated) reason - this organization is in big, big trouble.  IMHO.

I'm calling bullshit on the reduced duties/forced demotion/strenuous work issue, though.  She'd better have documentation of that, and witnesses to back her up that no one else was subjected to those duties at her level.  Most of the time, the term public service does include things like schlepping books - it falls into the other duties as assigned category - and especially during the busy summer months.

I'd love to go into how pissed off I get with the entitlement crowd in my profession, but some of you all are librarians.  ;-)



The resolution in this case will be very interesting to see.  I really can see both sides of the issue here, and I'm glad the ACLU took the case.

What do you think?