Thursday, March 26, 2015

TeamHarpy Faked Sexual Harassment, Hurting True Efforts to Stop It

Three librarians worked together to lead an effort to smear another with false claims of sexual harassment.  Faking sexual harassment claims harms efforts to oppose true sexual harassment as much as faking censorship claims harms efforts to oppose true censorship. These three librarians are known as Team Harpy, and they have hurt opposition to sexual harassment.

Team Harpy comprises Lisa Rabey (@ByShieldMaiden), Nina de Jesus (@satifice), and, later, Sarah Houghton (The Librarian In Black, @TheLiB) pictured top right.  Ms. Houghton became the team treasurer of online collections.  "Sarah Houghton is running the legal defense fund for the sake of transparency and openness. (link)"  I believe she traveled to Canada to speak against Joe Murphy (@LibraryFuture), the victim of the fake, phoney, and fraudulent Team Harpy.

This kind of fakery harms true efforts to stop sexual harassment.  And I'm not the only one saying so:
I would also strongly advise against using this episode to proclaim that sexual harassment is not an issue within ALA.  Hopefully we as an organization can constructively address this issue though [sic] better documentation and dialog. - Daniel Cornwall, Alaska Chapter ALA Councilor
Correct, Mr. Cornwall, and that's why I started Librarians.cc and Library Journal has written about it (link).  I'm trying to build a repository of information.

Just look how bad this #TeamHarpy debacle is:
I made false and damaging comments about librarian Joe Murphy for which I would like to apologize. .... 
... I posted tweets that referenced librarian Joe Murphy implying without a basis in fact that he was a sexual predator.  These unsubstantiated statements gained wide attention and caused Mr. Murphy significant damage. 
My intention in posting these tweets was to draw attention to the issue of sexual harassment of female librarians in the profession.  My statements were made carelessly, and were not based on facts.  I have never observed Mr. Murphy sexually harass or exhibit sexually predatory behavior. .... 
I was ill prepared for the damaging impact that these unfair statements would have.  I wholly retract my statements and unreservedly apologize to Mr. Murphy for the significant damage I have caused to his personal and professional reputation. 
I strongly encourage those who aligned with #teamharpy and decided to attack Mr. Murphy to cease to continue to defame or disparage him. ....
That is by Lisa Rabey of Team Harpy.  I have to use ellipses since Ms. Rabey successfully forced me to censor out information on sexual harassment here.  Team Harpy apparently was always interested in themselves, not in stopping the sexual harassment of librarians.

What a disgrace.

Where does Joe Murphy go to get his reputation back (link)?

Even I became a target of Team Harpy's spin machine, e.g.:

Then both Joe Murphy and I got a threat:


Then the free speech librarians like Ingrid Henny Abrams (@MagpieLibrarian) sent out the message to #TeamHarpy to block me, complete with false claims of homophobia, and almost 100 have, all because I drew parallels to my being sued for defamation for exposing Gay Hate @ Your Library (link):


And Team Harpy member Sarah Houghton?  She is ALA's top Internet filtering expert.  She says Internet filters do not work even though everyone knows they work really well now (link).  ALA just published a heavily-promoted report on ten years since CIPA called, "Fencing Out Knowledge: Impacts of CIPA 10 Years Later (link)," and how filters do not work, all based on Team Harpy member Sarah Houghton's research, if you look in the footnotes.  And now Sarah Houghton is a proven faker.  I've always said that report was false as it was based on Sarah Houghton's outdated findings.  I could never have imagined the extent of the fakery.  And yes, Team Harpy's Sarah Houghton is also helping to fund the defamation suit against me.  So while complaining about a supposed SLAPP suit against her Team Harpy members, Sarah Houghton's funding a SLAPP suit against me (link).

Anyway, I am trying to help sexually harassed librarians and I am asking people not to be discouraged by Team Harpy's fakery.  Please contact me if you need help or if you want to write anonymously here at Librarians.cc.

And I see readers of #GamerGate are interested in what I'm writing.  Welcome.

NOTE ADDED 28 MARCH 2015:

This story has gone international.  See:
I commented there as follows:
Missing from this story is the third member of TeamHarpy, Sarah Houghton, calling herself the "Librarian in Black." Interestingly, the Librarian in Black got involved in this matter to the point of essentially becoming part of TeamHarpy. And we know what happened to TeamHarpy.  And the Librarian in Black is the American Library Association’s [ALA] leading expert on library filtering software and she says filters don't work and should not be used.  And your local library might not use filters as a direct result of this proven liar's false claims.  
This intentional destruction of a man's career over false allegations for a year is in part the Librarian in Black's doing. It was all false. That has got to be very bad for Librarian in Black's credibility. And she's ALA's leading expert saying library filters do not work. That has got to be very bad for ALA's credibility.  
They can spin it all they want but if this were a court of law opposing counsel would tear her to pieces. I know, I've investigated experts myself and they lost all credibility as a result of what I uncovered.  
Of course library media will do all they can to ignore how ALA's filtering expert has completely destroyed her credibility. I mean this is a national story now, this TeamHarpy debacle.  
What a complete debacle.  
When ALA is on your local library, in its anything-goes policy based on ALA's “Library Bill of Rights,” now you know ALA’s top expert supporting the claim that library filters do no work is one of the TeamHarpy liars who destroyed a man’s career. They lied there and they are lying about filters not working when everyone now knows they work well. See “FCC: Filters Work, Communities Should Decide, Libraries Should Revisit CIPA” http://safelibraries.blogspot.com/2014/08/visser.html  
Don’t let a TeamHarpy liar influence your public library’s following the law by filtering out p0rn, since libraries are for the use and benefit of the community by law, and that precludes p0rn, no matter what ALA and its TeamHarpy liar-expert says.  
My opinion, of course.  I have to say that so I don't get sued by the self-arrogated free speech police, again.  Contact me for help cleaning out the p0rn from your local library.


URL of this opinion:

Monday, March 23, 2015

Librarians Discuss Sexual Harassment on Reddit

Librarians are discussing sexual harassment of librarians on Reddit:


I am a public librarian and I strictly enforce a no porn policy. My reasoning is that whatever freedom of information rights you have viewing pornography on library computers impacts the other users and staff and creates a hostile space for them. That is why I enforce the no porn rule, for the larger community. 
Why did ALA say otherwise and what is the reasoning for this? 
As for liability, I have been throwing out pervs for years, never had a problem with it.
At this point there are almost 200 comments.  Join in!

Here's my comment:
Two main things going on regarding porn in public libraries. One is state law and the second if the US Supreme Court case of United States v. American Library Association. 
Regarding state law, say, Illinois, Illinois state library law requires that Illinois libraries be for the use and benefit of the public. Porn is neither for the use nor benefit of the public. Actually, porn is for misuse and the harm of the public and those sexually trafficked victims depicted therein. Illinois law, therefore, precludes porn from all libraries across Illinois. That libraries like the Chicago Public Library allow unlimited porn, that is a testament to the American Library Association's effectiveness in misleading people into not following or not even being aware of Illinois library law. My saying that is partly why ALA is involved in a SLAPP suit to silence me from saying just that. 
Then comes US v. ALA. This 2003 US Supreme Court case ruled that even though porn may be "constitutionally protected material" outside the library, inside the library it is traditionally blocked and may continue to be blocked using Internet filters. It is true that ALA teaches librarians and library trustees that there is a First Amendment right to porn in libraries. That doesn't make it true. There is no such right. It's the exact opposite. 
So you are right on for strictly enforcing a no porn policy. Porn has nothing to do with the "freedom of information."  
Further, you are absolutely correct that it creates a hostile workspace for librarians. ALA specifically denies that. Naturally, its ALA policy applied locally that promotes the porn that causes the sexual harassment. I'm trying to help sexually harassed librarians with Librarians.cc
Now you asked, "Why did ALA say otherwise and what is the reasoning for this?" See "Porn Facilitation in Public Libraries: ALA Guides Librarians to Defy SCOTUS" and "Sexual Harassment of Librarians Never Happens; Child Pornography is Intellectual Freedom." 
If you or any other librarian wish a place to speak publicly and anonymously so you don't get fired, please consider contacting me at SafeLibraries.
Here's the response of samurailibrarian:
Seriously Dan, I know who you are and I could not possibly hate you anymore than I already do.   
Go fuck yourself. You have no IDEA how much I fucking hate you and your little asshole group. Seriously go fuck yourself in every way imaginable you lying sack of shit.
Sounds like "samurai librarian" is cutting off his nose to spite his face?  He/she made comments I couldn't agree with more.  But can you imagine a librarian trying to help sexually harassed librarians being able to maintain a job given such statements?  This is an example of why sexually harassed librarians fear speaking out.  There's no free speech in librarianship.

Here are other concerns raised on that Reddit page:



URL of this page:

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Sexual Harassment In a Nutshell

A library director summarized her training on sexual harassment for other librarians to see.  It's really succinct, sort of like sexual harassment training in a nutshell.

Click through to see what was reported and to see a link to the presumed actual training!


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Sunday, March 1, 2015

Male Librarians Are Harassed Too

Male librarians are sexually harassed too:


Of course, sometimes librarians (a library public relations employee and a library board trustee in this case) sexually harass male patrons (in this case one of the authors of this "Sexual Harassment of Librarians" publication):


Know any more good articles to post or better URLs not behind a pay wall?  Please contact us and we'll add to the list.


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