Who We Are (and When/Where We Meet)
The New York City Radical Reference Collective is an assortment of librarians and library school students in the New York City area. We have done street reference during the 2004 Republican National Convention and other demonstrations, and we offer free workshops on topics like fact-checking and online research. Subscribe to our announcements list to be kept up-to-date on our activities.
Get in touch if you'd like to invite us to do a workshop for your community group or have other questions. And library workers and students are always welcome to show up at one of our monthly meetings -- bring your ideas and energy and join in! We meet monthly on (usually) the third Friday night or Sunday evening of the month. The location is often determined in the days before the meeting (but is usually ABC No Rio on the Lower East Side of Manhattan).
Members of the NYC collective have presented workshops and trainings at the following venues, among others:
- Allied Media Conference and the Symposium on Media Literacy in Eduation in Bowling Green, Ohio (2004, 2005)
- Grassroots Media Conference here in NYC (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008)
- National Conference on Organized Resistance in Washington, DC (2006, 2007)
- the NYC Independent Media Center
- United States Social Forum (2007)
- Women, Action & Media Conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts (2008)
Search the site by keyword for specifics on individual workshops. NYC Rad Reffers also assisted with the NYC Anarchist Book Fair (2007, 2008, 2009). We have been a partner organization with the NYC Grassroots Media Coalition since 2008.
2009
No June meeting, but the next time NYC Rad Ref will meet is Monday, July 6th at 7pm at Natalie's apartment. Email us for the address.
Our May meeting was really just a meal out with Jerome C. of the future "BRANCH" community library project. He gave some updates about their progress.
Our April meeting was at ABC No Rio. Notes.
Our March meeting was at ABC No Rio. Notes.
Our February meeting was at the NYC AIDS Housing Network in Brooklyn. Notes.
Our January meeting included a salon to discuss the new OCLC policy. Notes.
2008
In December we didn't meet to plan and talk, just to drink beer, with our friends at InterActivist
Our November meeting was at ABC No Rio. Notes.
Our October meeting was at ABC No Rio. Notes.
Our September meeting was at ABC No Rio. Notes.
Our August meeting was at the NYC AIDS Housing Network in Brooklyn. Meeting notes here.
Our July meeting was at the NYC AIDS Housing Network. Meeting notes here.
Our June meeting was at ABC No Rio. Meeting notes here.
We didn't have a meeting in May.
Our April meeting was at ABC No Rio. Meeting notes coming soon!
Our March meeting was an open meeting/salon at the NYC AIDS Housing Network in Brooklyn. The topic was book/library access to people in prison. Representatives from Books Through Bars-NYC, the Prisoners' Reading Encouragement Project (PREP), and Literacy for Incarcerated Teens were present (full announcement here). Meeting Notes.
Our February meeting was at Alycia's place in Brooklyn. Meeting Notes.
Our January meeting was at ABC No Rio. Meeting notes.
2007
No meeting took place in December 2007.
In November we met at Julie's house in Jersey City. Meeting notes.
The October meeting was at 8pm on Friday, October 12, at ABC No Rio.
The September meeting was at ABC No Rio. Meeting notes.
The August meeting was in the lovely community garden in Hell's Kitchen, on W. 48th St between 9th and 10th Aves, on the south side of the street. Minutes forthcoming.
Our July meeting was at the New York City AIDS Housing Network office in Brooklyn. Meeting notes.
We held a joint May/June meeting on June 1 at ABC No Rio.
The April meeting was held at the New York City AIDS Housing Network office in Brooklyn. Minutes. The discussion topic was copyright. Notes from the salon.
The March meeting was up in the print shop of ABC No Rio. Minutes.
The February meeting was at ABC No Rio. After the "business" meeting, we discussed the upcoming U.S. Social Forum. These are the notes from that discussion. These are the notes from the main meeting.
The January meeting was very petite (John, Julie, and Melissa) because people were away (at ALA Midwinter and elsewhere). So no notes, no nothing.
2006
The December 2006 meeting was on the second floor of ABC No Rio. Minutes.
The November meeting was also on on the second floor of ABC No Rio. We had a salon on the topic of race and privilege, and our responsibilities (both as activists and as library workers) to anti-racist work.
This was the agenda going in:
- NCOR
- Park Slope Food Co-op Workshop
- NYC Anarchist Book Fair
- AskMetaFilter model of reference
- US Social Forum
- ALA Midwinter
Read the minutes.
Our October meeting didn't really happen, due to widespread illness.
In September we held an open meeting and salon on the topic of library activism, on and off the job, at ABC No Rio. Minutes.
Our August meeting was in Tompkins Square Park. Minutes.
Our July meeting was at Alt.Coffee on Avenue A (8th and 9th). Minutes.
Notes from the June 16, 2006 meeting coming soon. (Well, probably not, since it's 2009 now...)
Several people involved in Radical Reference organized a forum this year in New York about the state of library education. The idea was that students and recent graduates should have a space in which they may speak freely about their experiences as students and recent graduates of Library and Information Science programs. The forum was held at the Community Church on March 11th, 2006. All conference materials, including report backs, are on the Library Education Forum website.
A few people met informally on Friday, May 19, at 6:30pm at the Union St Tea Lounge in Brooklyn, after a brief hiatus. There are no notes from that rendezvous.
Notes from our meeting from Friday, January 13, at 8pm at ABC No Rio.
2005
Our November meeting was actually in December, specifically on Friday, December 9, at 8pm in the gallery at ABC No Rio.
Our October meeting was Friday the 21st at 8pm on the 4th floor (Computer Center) of ABC No Rio.
Our September meeting was on Friday the 9th at 8pm in the Gallery space of ABC No Rio. (We skipped August because lots of people were away and more importantly, no one organized it.)
The July meeting was on Friday the 8th at 8pm at ABC No Rio.
We didn't meet in June because a lot of us were at ALA.
The May meeting was on Friday, the 20th at 7:30pm at the Holiday Cocktail Lounge, 75 St. Mark's Place between 1st & 2nd Avenues. (212) 777-9637. Friends of Rad Ref (e.g. NYC IMC, Interactivist, Paper Tiger) were invited to join us at 9.
Local Online Resources
By the way there's lots of GREAT FREE STUFF at your local public library.
- Brooklyn Public Library and their electronic resources.
- New York Public Library including databases available from home with your library card.
- Queens Public Library, which also provides free access to expensive subscription databases.
