Radical Reference Meeting Notes
ALA Midwinter, January 2006
San Antonio, TX

Attendance: James, Jenna, Julie C., Jonathan H., Lia (facilitator), Melissa J., Radym, Shinjoung, Ted

1. I.New Orleans
   
   1. A.Hurricane Katrina recovery help?
      
      1. i.Contact local groups (learned at NCOR that the local Critical Resistance chapter is a good place to start)
         
      2. ii.This should be needs driven
         
      3. iii.see if SRRT and/or PLG want to work with us
         
      4. iv.the NYC collective will see if it can get medic training before going down
         
      5. v.Radym will look into alternatives to ALA hotels
         
      6. vi.Can people go down for more than just an extra day?
         
      7. x.lending library bus/structure that Julie knows about
      
      
   2. B.Skill shares
      
      1. i.Counterpoise won't have a booth this year, so we'll need a place to do them (learned that SRRT will allow us to use their booth in exchange for us helping to staff it)
         
      2. ii.Possible skills to share
         
         1. 1.coding (e.g. php)
            
         2. 2.using a wiki
            
         3. 3.FOIA, FOIL
            
         4. 4.eating right/scamming food at conference
      
      
   3. C.Madeleine Albright
      
      1. i.Kevin is working on an info sheet to hand out that will indicate why Albright is protestable
         
      2. ii.We can have truth squad type questions on the back of the flyer in case there's a Q&A at the session. Lia will help with that.
   
   
2. II.Library Education Forum
   
   1. A.It will be on Saturday, March 11 in NYC. If you can get here, we'll try to find housing for you.
      
   2. B.We plugged it at Michael Gorman's Forum on Education for Librarianship
      
   3. C.We'll need a registration form on the site and some way people can indicate the issues that are important to them
      
   4. D.We want to get a published paper out of this
      
   5. E.And a bibliography—maybe that can go on the site ahead of time
      
   6. F.Figure out a way for people to participate remotely.
   
   
3. III.Rad Ref business
   
   1. A.Discussion lists
      
      1. i.We want to kill the RRdiscuss list and use the main list for everything. People who don't want to deal with the traffic can switch to digest or unsubscribe.
         
      2. ii.Although they weren't always, the lists should be self-administrable now.
      
      
   2. B.Administration of list, site, lightningbug, etc.
      
      1. i.Do people feel like James, Jenna, and Shinjoung do too much, have too much control?
         
         1. 1.Attendees indicated that they preferred keeping certain tasks to a small trusted group.
            
         2. 2.Indicated that others should be tapped to help, when needed.
         
         
      2. ii.Need to add FAQs to site
         
      3. iii.Need to send bimonthly instructions/guidelines to the list
   
   
4. IV.Radical Reference Organizer
   The general idea here is to create a weekly organizer similar to Slingshot, but more functional.
   
   1. A.Possible elements to include
      
      1. i.Foreign language curse of the day
         
      2. ii.RR questions and link to the site
         
      3. iii.Library blogs list
         
      4. iv.Conference list (as in zine fests, NCOR, Allied Media, anarchist book fairs)
         
      5. v.Pocket
         
      6. vi.Colophon
      
      
   2. B.A potential partner in this is Autonomedia, who makes an excellent wall calendar.
      
   3. C.Lia and Radym can help coordinate.
      
   4. D.We should set up a discussion list for volunteers
      
   5. E.We'll see if Clamor and/or Microcosm would be interested in distributing it.
   
   
5. V.Local collectives
   
   1. A.Local members should meet, even if just to socialize, build a community
      
   2. B.There is interest in info on the site on how to mobilize new groups.
      
   3. C.We need to use the local collectives to get the word out—generate more questions submitted to the site. Please—distribute the flyer at local bookstores, union halls, and other radical spaces. http://radicalreference.info/flyer/espanol http://radicalreference.info/flyer/english
   
   
6. VI.Counterpoise is an alternative materials library review journal, and James, Jenna, and Shinjoung are on its advisory board.
   
   1. A.The journal is looking for reviewers. Are you interested? (Jonathan, Jonny, and Lia indicated that they are, but this is an ongoing offer. Let us know if you want to help.)
      
   2. B.They also need subscribers. Try to get your library to subscribe!

submitted by Jenna, 2/13/2006