Second plenary: Michael Gorman on changing times, enduring values

And so to Michael Gorman's address to the plenary: he said nothing about blogs, so I did not have to leap from my seat or demonstrate my ability to engage with complex texts.
He was witty and forthright, and took us through the values of the profession, as he expounded them in his book Our Enduring Values available, he reminded us more than once, from all good bookshops.
The values are:
1. Stewardship
2. Service
3. Intellectual freedom
4. Equity of access
5. Privacy
6. Literacy and learning
7. Rationalism
8. Democracy
And he added a ninth, the public good.
His remarks on intellectual freedom apparently upset some of the fundies present at Umbrella (a fine US coinage, short for fundamentalist). He referred to a crisis of confidence in the profession, both in the US and here, and to the US Patriot Act. It's impossible to give the flavour of his presentation here, but the applause came long and loud, and indeed frequently as he was presented with a honorary FCLIP at the end.