I had long heard of the indefatigable Sandy Berman when I was a MLS student at Columbia University back in the mid-eighties. Cataloging professors there spoke of Berman in tones of rankled exasperation, which bordered on petulant hostility. That this lone gadfly of accessible subject headings was able single-handed to promote a relentless social perspective upon the entrenched, thoroughly Euro-centric, male dominant and quasi-racist LC classification system seemed to perturb the cosseted world of their tidy intellectual privilege. To listen to them, was to believe that one uppity barbarian out in the hinterland of Minnesota might single-handedly crash the gates of Caucasoid superiority enshrined so rightly, as they fervently believed, in the cannons of 19th century library-speak.It wasn't until my colleague and friend at NYPL, Wendy Thomas, current chair of SRRT, invited me to attend a meeting of progressive librarians, which ultimately formed the organization PLG, at the Empire State College School of Labor Relations on 42nd St. in the fall of 1989, that I finally got to meet the fabled barbarian of Minnesota. Well, Sandy had the bulk and beard of a barbarian, but from the moment we shook hands, I knew I was in the presence of an old socialist soul with an impish twinkle to his eye, coupled with a fine sense of humor and a warm personality that was utterly disarming.
Two years later, in 1991 while attending a conference in Minneapolis, I had the privilege to meet Sandy again trough my friend Chris Dodge. Chris and his wife Jan DeSirey, Sandy and his delightful wife Lorraine, and I met for supper in a ribs dive somewhere out in a rough and tumble neighborhood of the hood and it was from that enjoyable evening that my ten-year friendship with Sandy began over chitlins and cheap beer.
We have been comrades in arms ever since. Sandy's undying support of the work Chris Dodge and I did around the Columbus Quincentennial back in 1991-1992 proved invaluable. Almost weekly Sandy's famous packages would arrive in my mailbox, the trademark recycled envelopes crammed with god-knows-what-all, pamphlets, radical broadsides, newspaper clippings, even the stub of a electric utility bill once, and the inevitable words of encouragement. (I believe to this day, that this is how Sandy cleared the junk off his desk, by mailing it to all his pals around the globe in those tatty envelopes armored with tape and staples. Whatta guy!) In all the years since, I have never known Sandy to be anything less than a champion of the underdog. Only his bout with heart trouble some years back, about the time of his wife's death, slowed this fierce bear of principle and decency down.
But now of course, just when he deserved a rousing entry into retirement as a Sequoia amid the drab shrubbery of our profession, that, furthermore, such a stalwart should be shamed and humiliated by the pinhead management of the Hennepin County Library this past spring, a spineless cabal as we now plainly see who "promoted" Sandy into the dustbin of professional obscurity, is utterly unconscionable. Shame on the pooh-bahs at HCL!
In summation, I can only say as one lone voice in library-land that Sandy Berman has been for me from my first days as a library student, a beacon of decency, common sense, socialist ideals and deep humanity. I am honored to call him my friend and feel that even if HCL is too hidebound to honor its best and brightest, then we, meaning SRRT, PLG and other concerned library workers, would do well to honor Sandy in some meaningful fashion at Mid-winter in San Antonio, perhaps at PLG's 10 year anniversary. You're a better man than I, Sandy Berman. Thanks for being there for the rest of us.
- Peter McDonald