NYC Local Collective Meeting Notes, April 2010

Met at ABC No Rio

Melissa, John, and Natalie were present.

Discussed concerns about keeping RadRef up and running. It’s a good brand (people think its really cool when they hear about it). But yet questions aren’t getting answered as fast as would be preferred and maybe people aren’t feeling that motivated.
Many members do things professionally that go under the umbrella of Radical Reference…but it’s still vague what exactly we are…

Natalie suggested that perhaps some kind of timed alert could let members know when a question has been sitting unanswered for a certain amount of time…so John doesn’t have to keep sending out reminders. Perhaps folks just assume things are getting answered and don’t think to just check the site. Not sure if this is possible to put into Drupal or whatever.

Natalie reported on SLA@Pratt Skillshare

People signed up for appointments to talk to me. Many had no idea what Radical Reference was or what we do…some asked if we were hiring. Hahahaha.
I basically answered a lot of questions and everyone said they would consider participating. We will see. I also pushed the upcoming Brecht events. It was fun overall.

Melissa mentioned Social Forum, she and Jenna will be helping at the Peoples Media Center…

John reported on Anarchist Book Fair

John and Kate did a panel/workshop on how to use public library resources. A good turn out, about 15 people. Melissa wished the workshop would have discussed information literacy a bit more, and taught how to use the tools instead of just pointing out the resources. Angie was at the workshop as well.
Made $19 at the Book Fair.

Then Winston came! He said Jenna was his mentor and he heard about RadRef through her. We were basically done meeting, but we answered his questions and gave him lots of info left over from the skillshare.