(The following letter was written in response to the commentary of LJ Editor-in-Chief, John N. Berry III, "Can I Quote You on That?", published in the November 1, 2004 edition of Library Journal.)

Dear Mr. Berry,

Your judgment, "Anonymous writing is cowardly, irresponsible, and undermines your credibility", needs clarifying. At least for me.

Anonymous, so says Merriam-Webster, is writing of "unknown authorship or origin". Many folks, including myself, have chosen not to disclose our "real" names within library related blogs. I can't speak for my colleagues though I suspect some, myself included, aren't comfortable associating our real names with dissenting viewpoints clearly outside the Weltanschauung of ALA. It only took a few introductory postings at LISNews to realize the wisdom of using a pseudonym. (No knock to LISNews. It's a terrific site, representing genuine discourse for a profession in dire need of ideological diversity.)

Back to the definition. There is a difference between pseudonymity and anonymity. You may have considered this distinction before writing your piece. If so, there is no need to continue here. Thanks and apologies for taking your time.

However, if you consider these two terms as interchangeable then I strongly take issue. Just because my real name isn't tagged with posts, LISNews lurkers and posters would have little problem telling this LJ Editor-in-Chief where tomeboy may come down on issues such as filtering, censorship and the tack ALA has set for our profession. In other words, we all schlepp a blog reputation that precludes the concept of unknown authorship or origin.

The fact is in the blogosphere, or whatever they are calling these addictive forums, the inability to initiate "identity authenticity" essentially reduces all to pseudonymity status. At least until retina scans are required to set up an account.

Let's reserve judgment for the content of our posts, not the name, real or not, affixed.

And yes your father was correct. Feel free to share my thoughts if interested.

Regards

tomeboy