We had hoped it wasn’t going to be true, but of course it turned out to be just as our source claimed it would be. On Friday, as America stood still for a national day of mourning, and Chicagoans gathered by the thousands in Daley Plaza, CPL Commissioner Mrs. Philip Corboy and her staff were hard at work destroying more library books.
At precisely the same time that President George W. Bush and hundreds of other dignitaries were filing into the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, and Chicagoans were heading to Daley Plaza, Mrs. Corboy had her staff working feverishly pulling books out of the Sulzer Library.
A library source had told us the previous day that 80 to 90 more boxes of books were filled and ready to be discarded the following day, Friday. At 10:15 a.m. on Friday a truck pulled up and the crew went about the task of hauling away the boxes as three new security guards surveyed the situation. By 11:15 a.m. all of the books had been loaded onto the truck—at just about the same time that Rev. Billy Graham was giving the sermon before the assembled crowd in Washington, DC.
As America mourned the loss of life in Tuesday’s attack on America, the attack on the Sulzer Library moved full speed ahead. That’s anywhere from 1,600 to 2,700 books which were sentenced to death in one day by Mrs. Corboy on American’s Day of Remembrance, Friday, Sept. 14. And that is something library users, staff and supporters will certainly remember.
Harold Washington Library (HWL) staff are also not going to forget about Mrs. Corboy’s orders as she herself was fleeing her 10th floor office at 9:30 a.m., Tuesday, Sept. 11. As terror was raining down on New York City and Washington, DC, she insisted that all librarians stay at their posts even as she vacated her own.
“She now says she went to the 911 center... why did they need her there?” an HWL staffer asked Inside. “Why didn’t she stay to see that her libraries and staff were secure? What ever happened to the captain staying with the ship? Their only concern [according to a circulated office memo of which Inside has a copy] was that we all wear our ID badges and report any strangers lurking about.
“Every downtown office was closing, stores, government agencies... people were fleeing the Loop. But not here. The place was empty of library users. The only users who were still here were our regular perverts who come in daily to download pornography,” said our source, who asked for anonymity. “We were told that if we left early it would not be an excused absence and that we would be docked a day’s pay. Like most Americans, we just wanted to get home Tuesday and be with our families. We were all in a rage over it.”
Inside Publications e-mailed questions to a library spokesperson regarding the commissioner’s actions on that Tuesday, but as usual, got no response.
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