[Libs-Or] FW: [Conntech] Enfield Library Director Gagged

Mon Jan 24 12:18:17 PST 2011

I thought this might be of interest.  The whole article is below but here is
the link:
http://www.journalinquirer.com/articles/2011/01/24/towns/enfield/doc4d3a4f7853de3834899664.txt.
However, you have to be a subsriber to read the whole article at the Journal
Inquirer site.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Hammond, Jaime <JHammond at nvcc.commnet.edu>
Date: Mon, Jan 24, 2011 at 7:25 AM
Subject: [srrt-accom] FW: [Conntech] Enfield Library Director Gagged
To: srrt-accom at ala.org

 The saga continues… we’re hoping to have other libraries screen the film in
a show of solidarity.

Jaime Hammond, Librarian
Naugatuck Valley Community College

*From:* conntech-bounces+jhammond=nvcc.commnet.edu at mylist.net [mailto:
conntech-bounces+jhammond <conntech-bounces%2Bjhammond>=nvcc.commnet.edu@
mylist.net] *On Behalf Of *Peter Chase
*Sent:* Monday, January 24, 2011 10:24 AM
*To:* ConnTech
*Subject:* [Conntech] Enfield Library Director Gagged

Enfield town manager postpones future screenings of non-fiction films at
library until balanced viewpoint ensured, orders library director not to
speak to the media
By Marcus Hatfield
Journal Inquirer
Published: Saturday, January 22, 2011 10:53 AM EST

ENFIELD — Future installments of the Enfield Public Library’s series of
non-fiction films about controversial issues are postponed until the library
director creates a plan to ensure that each screening offers multiple sides
of each issue, the town manager announced Friday.

Town Manager Matthew W. Coppler has also ordered Library Director Henry
Dutcher not to speak to the media.

The library on Wednesday canceled a Friday screening of filmmaker Michael
Moore’s controversial documentary “Sicko” under pressure from most Town
Council members and the mayor, who threatened to cut the library’s funding
if the film was shown.

Mayor Scott R. Kaupin asked Coppler to talk to Dutcher about canceling the
film after several residents complained at a council meeting Tuesday about
the scheduled screening

Coppler said the film series had been advertised as a “balanced approach to
hot topics,” and said that he and the library staff failed to do “everything
we could do to meet the expectations that council had of us, and we’re
correcting that.”

The film series would be postponed, Coppler said, until Dutcher could meet
those expectations.

Coppler said he told Dutcher that until a plan was in place “that lived up
to that,” the screenings would not go forward with the topics he selected,

“He’s working on that now,” Coppler added.

Also on hold are Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” and “Trouble the Waters,”
a documentary on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which were both to be
screened next month.

One screening of the PBS Frontline special “Sick Around the World” already
occurred on Jan. 7.

When asked Friday if Dutcher would have lost his job if he failed to cancel
the screening, Coppler said he never discussed that.

“It was never ever said, never ever indicated, never ever even
contemplated,” Coppler said. “Henry has been a very good employee for the
town of Enfield and the library does a tremendous job for this community.”

Coppler said he had directed Dutcher not to speak to the press, and Dutcher
did not return several calls for comment.

The cancellation of the film, which criticizes the shortcomings of the
American health care system, drew attention from civil liberties and library
groups as news of the controversy spread well beyond the town’s borders and
generated conversations about censorship and freedom of speech.

On Thursday night, Moore linked to the Journal Inquirer’s first story about
the cancellation on his Twitter feed. Moore, who is attending the Sundance
Film Festival in Park City, Utah, could not be reached for comment.

Will Wilkins, director of Real Art Ways in Hartford, said that he attended
an event Thursday at the Sundance Film Festival where Moore mentioned the
Enfield controversy in his speech.

Connecticut Library Association President Debbie Herman, whose organization
on Thursday called the cancellation “deplorable,” said she has received a
lot of feedback on the issue, which she said was “incredibly supportive.”

“Overall they’re very pro-library and anti-censorship,” she said.

Herman said the association is looking into hosting a screening of “Sicko”
at a library in a neighboring town and, while there has been interest, no
events have been confirmed.

Wilkins said that Real Art Ways might also work with the library association
to host a public event that could include a screening and discussion on
censorship.

He said the Enfield Town Council should stay out of the library’s business.

“If there’s some form of speech that the council disagrees with, the proper
response to that is more speech, more conversation, more dialogue,” Wilkins
said.

Library staff members working at the library Friday declined to speak to the
Journal Inquirer or to a television reporter from WFSB-TV3. The library’s
community room, where the 1 p.m. screening would have taken place, remained
dark as the scheduled start time came and went.

The library’s copy of “Sicko” wasn’t on the shelf — it had been checked out,
as had another Moore film, “Capitalism: A Love Story.”

But there was still one copy sitting on a library shelf of filmmaker Michael
Wilson’s “Michael Moore Hates America.”
-- 
Peter Chase, Library Director
Plainville Public Library
56 E. Main St.
Plainville, CT 06062
Phone: (860) 793-1446
Fax: (860) 793-2241

_______________________________________________
Conntech mailing list
Conntech at mylist.net
http://mylist.net/listinfo/conntech

-- 

*Diedre Conkling
Lincoln County Library District
P.O. Box 2027
Newport, OR  97365
Phone & Fax:  541-265-3066
**Work email:  **diedre at lincolncolibrarydist.org*<diedre at lincolncolibrarydist.org>
*  NEW**
Home email:  **diedre08 at gmail.com* <diedre08 at gmail.com>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://omls.oregon.gov/pipermail/libs-or/attachments/20110124/b7716018/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
_______________________________________________
Conntech mailing list
Conntech at mylist.net
http://mylist.net/listinfo/conntech