Ex Libris--an E-Zine for Librarians and Information Junkies -- issue 77

http://marylaine.com/exlibris/xlib77.html

#77, November 3, 2000.

SHAKING THINGS UP: PROGRESSIVE AND RADICAL LIBRARIANS

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Guru Interviews

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November 3: classic ads, medieval art, Thanksgiving recipes, and more.

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resume.html Or why you might want to hire me for speaking engagements or workshops.

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exlibris/purpose.html
The purpose and intended scope of this e-zine -- always keeping in mind that in response to readers, I may add, subtract, and change features.

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Highlights from Previous Issues:

My Rules of Information

Reminder: I'll be in California next week, so the next issue will be November 17.

SHAKING THINGS UP: PROGRESSIVE AND RADICAL LIBRARIANS

Jessamyn West, , http://jessamyn.com/

I asked Jessamyn West, who calls herself an anarchist librarian, to explain for me and my readers the variety of views and organizations on the leftward fringes of our profession. Trust me, nobody who reads this will ever again think librarians are sweet little ladies in sensible shoes.

"Isn't an Anarchist Librarian an oxymoron?"
"You know how librarians say there's no such thing as a stupid question....?"

Just wanted to get it out in the open. The answer to the librarian question is No. And I've always said there's no such thing as a stupid question, just a stupid question-asker.

I became a librarian because I believed information should be free and I felt I was good at tracking it down. It was more of a calling than a choice. It wasn't until I took my first intellectual freedom class in library school [um, now the School of Information somethingorother] that I realized there was a place for me and my freaky politics within the profession, and not a small one either.

In many ways, you have to be some sort of a radical to be a librarian. Start out super-smart, get a lot of education, then devote yourself to a low- to middle-paying social service job where even your friends make jokes about your co-workers -- if not you directly -- and think you can be replaced by a computer. It's no wonder a lot of us have something to say on the matter.

"So what do you learn in library school, the Dewey Decimal System?"
"Enough to know that the Dewey number for cockrings is 391."

Since we're outspoken, and since we work with computers all day long, the radical librarian crew has a heavy web presence. The first thing you'll notice on a radical librarian tour is the preponderance and diversity of issues that populate the websites of people lobbying for change:

There are people who want to change the way the profession is perceived:

Lipstick Librarian (1) was one of the early ones. Static content, but what a guestbook!

The Modified Librarian (2), another old-school site where your favorite hottie librarians tell stories about their tattoos, piercings and desk jobs.

A recent librarian favorite is the Librarian Avengers (3) with their battle cry to "Thwart not the Librarian"

Chris Dodge, the Street Librarian (4) has an info-rich website about librarianship, social justice, mail art and diversity.

Need a litte more reading on the subject? Anthony Brewerton has written a whole article: "Wear lipstick, have a tattoo, belly-dance, then get naked: The making of a virtual librarian," (5)
There are people working to change the system from within and without:

Sandy Berman (6) is a hero to many of us (7). For years he has lobbied the Library of Congress to include more realistic and colloquial subject headings like Gay Poets and Lesbian Detectives.

Rory Litwin maintains the Libr.org web site (8) which includes his current awareness weekly mailing Library Juice as well as the homepage for the Progressive Librarian's Guild (9) and the journal Information for Social Change (10).

Chuck Munson -- who is now "out" as an anarchist librarian -- is the megabrain behind the Anarchist Librarians Web (11), which contains the Anarchist Librarian FAQ, links to radical bookfairs, anti-filtering info and the Site of the Week.

Um, and then I guess there's me. I maintain librarian.net (12), a daily-ish weblog of interesting librariana, and the Naked Librarian page (13), which has always spoken for itself.
There are organizations within the system working towards various kinds of change:

The Social Responsibilities Round Table (14), [aka the bastard stepchild of the American Library Association] hosts many disparate groups of library professionals who like to mix things up: the Feminist Task Force (15); the Hunger, Homelessness and Poverty Task Force (16); and Alternatives in Print (17). (They also hold some of the best parties at conferences.)

IFLA has a Social Responsibilities Discussion Group (18) that's interested in rural libraries, the digital divide and fees for library services.

Raimund Dehmlow maintains the Progressive Librarians Around the World website (19) to help radical librarians in far off places find eachother.

Heck, even Yahoo even has a Librarians: Activism category (20) category. Do you see that for nurses or postal workers? No, you don't.
"Do you have classes on holding your finger up and saying Shush?"
"No, but I'm pretty good with this finger already..."

The radical librarians are a distributed network. We work all over the place, in every kind of librarian and semi-librarian job. We convene on listservs , at conferences (21), at demonstrations (22) and, of course in libraries. While we don't hold of all of our beliefs in common, we are often sex-positive (23), anti-filtering (24), able to laugh at ourselves (25) and smart as all get out. Where geography would have previously kept us distant, the Internet, book rate at the post office, and zines (26), have kept us in communication.

I say "we" a lot here, but really there's no librarian "in crowd." Remember, as punk rock (27) as some of us may be, we're still weirdos (28) and nerds (29) at heart, which means there's always room for one more freak (30). And now, you know where to find us.

Links

http://www.teleport.com/~petlin/liplib/

http://www.bmeworld.com/gailcat/

http://www.librarianavengers.com/

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/7423/

http://www.careerdevelopmentgroup.org.uk/impact/
archives/abrewerton.ht m

http://citypages.com/databank/20/971/article7781.asp

http://www.freespeech.org/katia/sandy/

http://libr.org/

http://libr.org/PLG

http://libr.org/ISC

http://www.infoshop.org/librarians.html

http://www.librarian.net/

http://www.jessamyn.com/naked.html)

http://libr.org/SRRT

http://www.lib.wayne.edu/ftf/

http://libr.org/HHP/

http://www.libr.org/AIP/

http://www.ifla.org/VII/dg/srdg/index.htm

http://home.germany.net/100-115158/adresse.htm

http://dir.yahoo.com/Reference/Libraries/
Librarians/Activism/

http://www.infoshop.org/ala/index.html

http://www.infoshop.org/library/ala_powell.html

http://www.webpak.net/~dan/libraryporn/index.htm

http://dfn.org/Alerts/contest.htm

http://internettrash.com/users/lafnlibn/, and http://www.virtue.nu/intlibrarian/

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/7423/zines.html

http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/
Village/3497/ska.html

http://www.thevalkyrie.com/stories/
femgrowth/librarian.txt

http://www.memes.com/~tlweiner/reflib.htm

http://www.thesaurus.com/roget/I/83.html

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COOL QUOTE

The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave.

Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Richard Rush, October 20, 1820.

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You are welcome to copy and distribute or e-mail any of my own articles for noncommercial purposes (but not those by my guest writers) as long as you retain this copyright statement:

Ex Libris: an E-Zine for Librarians and Other Information Junkies.
http://marylaine.com/exlibris/
Copyright, Marylaine Block, 2000.

#77, November 3, 2000.

SHAKING THINGS UP: PROGRESSIVE AND RADICAL LIBRARIANS

Guru Interviews

Wanna See Your Name in Lights?

E-Mail Subscription?

Drop me a Line

Talk Back

Visit My Other Sites

BookBytes

Best Information on the Net

My Word's Worth

My personal page

SUBJECT INDEX to Past Issues

My resume

What IS Ex Libris?

Highlights from Previous Issues:

My Rules of Information

SHAKING THINGS UP: PROGRESSIVE AND RADICAL LIBRARIANS

Jessamyn West, , http://jessamyn.com/

COOL QUOTE

You are welcome to copy and distribute or e-mail any of my own articles for noncommercial purposes (but not those by my guest writers) as long as you retain this copyright statement: