More than 80 librarians, book reviewers, book distributors, library students, and other attendees signed up for future visits from a Pathfinder sales representative and to receive regular mailings from the publisher.

Among the hundreds who dropped by the Pathfinder table were convention participants from India, Canada, Albania, Trinidad and Tobago, Russia, Cameroon, Haiti, Brazil, Germany, China, New Zealand, Korea, and the United Kingdom.

Volunteers staffing the table found that the improved indexes, the expanded photo spreads, the extensive glossaries, and the improved type and other new features of Pathfinder books made them especially attractive for libraries. Many who stopped at the table noted that Pathfinder was a source of books on the Cuban, Russian, and Nicaraguan revolutions and by authors like Leon Trotsky, Malcolm X, Che Guevara, and Thomas Sankara that are not available from other publishers.

Librarians and booksellers alike were interested in the expanding number of books Pathfinder offers in French, Spanish, and other languages. Some spoke of recent visits by Pathfinder sales representatives. Others, particularly from Florida, helped arrange sales visits with the volunteers staffing the Pathfinder table who came from Miami, Tampa, Daytona Beach, and Gainesville, Florida.

The ALA met in a climate of continued cutbacks on public funds for libraries, which is part of the attacks on the social wage of working people. The ALA reported that 41 states have cut library budgets, some as much as 50 percent. Among the more than 1,600 exhibitors at the conference were a variety of library fulfillment houses, electronic book vendors, library automation companies, and others seeking to offer libraries solutions to decreased funds and reduced staffs.

The ALA press release issued at the close of the conference was entitled Opposition to Iraq War Pervades ALA in Orlando.” Most of the official program, however, emphasized pro-Democratic Party opposition to the Bush administration. The convention’s keynote speaker was Richard A. Clarke, “counter terrorism czar” under both the Bush and Clinton administrations.

A special showing of Michael Moore’s anti-Bush film Fahrenheit 9/11 took place for all conference participants.

A resolution calling for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq was defeated by a vote of 39 to 55 in the ALA’s governing council “at the urging of councilors who said the war was not a library issue,” according to the ALA release.

At a number of workshops, librarians called for repeal of Section 215 of the Patriot Act that allows the government to obtain records of what books library patrons take out and what web sites they visit, but forbids librarians from telling anyone when this happens. At the convention, the ALA announced it will launch a study they hope will persuade Congress not to reauthorize Section 215 when it comes up for renewal at the end of 2005.

A workshop took place June 27 sponsored by the ALA’s university subdivision, the Association of College and Research Libraries. Deborah Caldwell-Stone, deputy director of the ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom, told librarians at that meeting, “You are a librarian, not a police officer or FBI agent.”

Eugene Wiemers, associate vice president for academic affairs and librarian of Bates College, called the Patriot Act “an assault on civil liberties.” He continued, “We have an obligation to protect the right to read and think and speak.”

James Neal, vice president for information services and university librarian at Columbia University, told the workshop that Columbia library employees are instructed not to disclose information to the FBI or other government officials, but to refer them to the university’s legal department.  
 
 
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