Hey, Edgewood - I'm really tickled that you posted that. I just got back from the American Library Association conference in San Antonio where those were distributed. No, I didn't pick one up, because I'm already known there as a radical librarian within the profession. In my community of progressive and radical librarians we found it funny that ALA made that button (and it's an official product of the American Library Association), since we've been such a pain in their ass for the last 30 years. The impetus for the button was a statement from the director of the FBI who was asking for greater leeway in surveillance activities. (He said that it's hard to do his job when radical militant librarians keep challenging them.) There are other signs though of a convergence, at the moment, between progressive and mainstram forces in librarianship - things like cooperation between some of our really radical individuals and the mainstream bigwigs in ALA on resolutions having to do with Academic Freedom, etcetera. I think the main reason for it that the actions of the Bush Administration have got everybody in librarianship on the same page for a change. Thanks for posting this.
Hi, Sara. It's a couple of things - activism within progressive library organizations and some independent publishing. I'm on the Coordinating Committee of the Progressive Librarians Guild and the Action Council of the Social Responsibilities Round Table, and was recently it's Coordinator for three years. These groups are sometimes radical and sometimes just liberal, but have served as a thorn in the side of mainstream librarianship for years. My publishing and writing are the other thing, mainly in my online zine Library Juice, which I stopped publishing last Fall, but will replace with a blog and some book publishing this year.
edgeways on January 25, 2006 03:28 PM | Permalink
Comments
Gnarly!
Posted by: Mary | January 26, 2006 01:52 AM
Hey, Edgewood - I'm really tickled that you posted that. I just got back from the American Library Association conference in San Antonio where those were distributed. No, I didn't pick one up, because I'm already known there as a radical librarian within the profession. In my community of progressive and radical librarians we found it funny that ALA made that button (and it's an official product of the American Library Association), since we've been such a pain in their ass for the last 30 years. The impetus for the button was a statement from the director of the FBI who was asking for greater leeway in surveillance activities. (He said that it's hard to do his job when radical militant librarians keep challenging them.) There are other signs though of a convergence, at the moment, between progressive and mainstram forces in librarianship - things like cooperation between some of our really radical individuals and the mainstream bigwigs in ALA on resolutions having to do with Academic Freedom, etcetera. I think the main reason for it that the actions of the Bush Administration have got everybody in librarianship on the same page for a change. Thanks for posting this.
Posted by: rory | January 26, 2006 07:05 AM
I wish the ALA would have gotten their act together sometime around, oh, 1993, and have helped to organize and catagorize this interweb thing.
Posted by: Adam | January 26, 2006 09:04 AM
Rory,
What do you do to consider yourself a radical librarian? How are you known as a radical librarian within your profession.
Thanks for the info.
Posted by: Sara | January 26, 2006 07:17 PM
Hi, Sara. It's a couple of things - activism within progressive library organizations and some independent publishing. I'm on the Coordinating Committee of the Progressive Librarians Guild and the Action Council of the Social Responsibilities Round Table, and was recently it's Coordinator for three years. These groups are sometimes radical and sometimes just liberal, but have served as a thorn in the side of mainstream librarianship for years. My publishing and writing are the other thing, mainly in my online zine Library Juice, which I stopped publishing last Fall, but will replace with a blog and some book publishing this year.
Posted by: Rory | January 27, 2006 10:40 AM