lia's blog

Metacomet Books, in collaboration with the Boston Radical Reference Collective and the Simmons Progressive Librarians Guild, has established a new, leaderless, collective library at the Occupy Boston

"Greetings from the librarians of #occupywallstreet!

We write today to invite you to help build the People’s Library. We are working together to build a library for both the people of the city and for those who have joined the occupation. We are a mixed bunch of librarians and library-loving individuals who strongly support the #occupy movement and who also know that information is liberation. We liberate through knowledge. If you want to know more about #occupywallstreet and the #occupy movement please read the Principles of Solidarity and read the blog.

Right now need many different kinds of donations. We need books of resistance and people’s history. We need economics and finance books. We need contemporary philosophy and ecology. We especially need non-English books and materials for low literacy readers.

Working title:
Information Literacy and Social Justice: Radical Professional Praxis (An Edited Collection)

Editors:
Shana Higgins and Lua Gregory are instruction and reference librarians at the University of Redlands.

Outline:
In her award winning essay “Information Literacy and Reflective Pedagogical Praxis,” Heidi L.M. Jacobs draws out the inherent democratizing and social justice elements of information literacy as defined in the “Alexandria Proclamation On Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning.” She suggests that because of these underlying social justice elements, information literacy “is not only educational but also inherently political, cultural, and social” (258). We propose to extend the discussion of information literacy and its social justice aspects that James Elmborg, Cushla Kapitzke, Maria T. Accardi, Emily Drabinski, and Alana Kumbier, and Maura Smale have begun.

James Jacobs over at Free Government Information just posted on this.
And this only-useful-if-you-live-in-New-York-City-map is pretty informative.
Also, this nice list of mobile apps and such-
And, listen to live online stream 24x7 from first responders + FEMA Daily Updates HERE

Our email lists have all migrated to a new server, and now will be hosted throught the radicalrefence.info domain. All subscribers to the various lists should now be subscribed to the new lists.

Reforma has put together a toolkit for librarians for responding to anti immigrant sentiments. Find it HERE.

Hi all,
I was recently contacted by someone at CLA who wants us to do something at their next conference. Is anyone interested in doing a panel with me? I'm willing to do the legwork (filling out the proposal etc), but think it would be WAY better with more than just me yammering away. You could tie this in with a nice SoCal vacation, come on, it'll be fun and panels are a great way to get your feet wet if you haven't presented much. Deadline is April 17th though, so get in touch if you are interested.
-Lia
Below find his letter:

Thursday, October 2nd 

7:30 - 9 pm: Panel discussion 

9 – 10:30 pm: Debate watching party

At the Brecht Forum 
451 West Street (West Side Highway / between Bank & Bethune Streets) 
Sliding scale: $6/$10/$15 • Free for Brecht Forum Subscribers

Join FAIR, the Manhattan Neighborhood Network and the Brecht Forum for a panel discussion, Q&A and debate-watching party on the night of the debate between vice presidential nominees Joe Biden and Sarah Palin.

The evening will kick off with a panel discussion on race, gender and the media in the 2008 election. In an election year that has seen the first black candidate nominated for president by a major party and the first Republican woman nominated for vice president--while two women of color have teamed up on the Green Party ticket--issues of race and gender have been at the forefront during this campaign season, not least in media coverage. But how well have the media served the public in this historic election? What issues are being ignored, even as the press heralds the race as evidence of shattered glass ceilings and the "end of black politics"? Journalists Laura Flanders, Glen Ford and Gary Younge take a closer look.

Then stick around with FAIR at the Brecht Forum to watch the vice presidential debate.

UPDATE: Here's the wiki with all the info! http://wiki.radicalreference.info/index.php/RNC2008

Members, potential members and allies of Radical Reference met in Philadelphia at the A Space, who graciously offered us accommodations for our meeting for a small donation. Thanks A space!