Restructuring

C: I realized how old and cynical I am when we got to Shannon's beautiful open letter.

E: Being so alienated and disgusted by the Library Ruling Class, it's easy to get into real tight polarization. Refuse to move anywhere - or try to talk to the "enemy."

C: Which is pretty static - and boring.

E: Well, with paraprofessionals like Judy Hadley around, the "pros" will have to stay alive and alert. She even took on the union later, I guess.

C: Now there's a weird animal. Joan Dillon's mistrust of unions has a fine idealism. Guess many of us mistrust unions because of Big Labor or the way professionalism (not, incidentally, the monopoly of MLS holders) can be sold out so easily to power politics and side issues.

E: Unions are a necessary stop-gap until we erase disabling caste lines altogether. But union bosses have a real stake in maintaining status quo hierarchy.

C: Jim Holly's article moves into an organic solution to our organization troubles. It was one of the many library position papers done on the "new frontier" at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington.

E: Bureaucracy and autocracy are such a curse to creativity most of us never even dream of alternatives. Why not a library tribe or collective? Why are we so afraid of letting go and flowing?

C: We think something TERRIBLE will happen without the control of structured responses.

E: Ummm. Everything's actually out of "control" anyway. Oh, there are natural patterns and rhythms. Too bad the radical experiment Mary and Edith describe in "We Lost It at the Library" never got into them.

C: I'm sure the former director there was really well-meaning. Some collectives freely decide (?) to have one big chief. Course this is idyllic for the administrative type. He can have power and be loved at the same time.