“If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive.” --Audre Lorde
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“If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive.” --Audre Lorde
Before I get to tackling a summary of this weekend's HOPE conference, I wanted to plug another week of events coming up that many of my friends are working on: DebConf, a conference that circles Debian, a free operating system, and also an event/opportunity for free/libre/open source folks to collaborate and develop over the course of a week.
One part of DebConf is devoted as an introduction for non-techie folks: Debian Day. It's FREE--you just need to register (just send an email with intent to attend to: debianday@debconf.org). The schedule for Debian Day is up here. I'm lucky enough to be on the panel about "Pedagogical Freedom" on Sunday at 11:30am. Come out and find out more about the free software movement!
The presence of Grace Lee Boggs at the U.S. Social Forum this year--95 years into her life as an activist and free thinker--was one of the aspects of the Forum that touched everything else that I experienced in Detroit.
During one celebration of her 95th birthday at the Social Forum, I heard Grace talk about once living in an apartment that she could only access via an alleyway that was infested with rats. "And that was important," she said, "because it made me rat-conscious!" I am amazed by her resilience and her tremendous mind.
On Thursday, I had the opportunity to hear Grace Lee Boggs speak with Immanuel Wallerstein. Introduced as "avid seekers of new truth," they have known each other since the 60's and seemed delighted to share the stage. Here are a few notes I took as I listened.
I've been working on a few projects surrounding zine libraries and underground press collections. One thing I noticed (and posted to the Zine Librarians email list) is that there isn't a centralized repository of shared documentation for folks who are starting to start up their own collections (often people are happy to share the info, there just isn't a central location for it to live). While creating that repository is a larger project than I can handle at the moment, I did want to share my own work.
I'm posting the SLIS Library Workers Zine Collection Collection Policies and Guide here.
It was originally a booklet of information about the Library Workers Zine Collection that I started at the SLIS Laboratory Library in 2006. I've attached a copy of the document and pasted it here so that you can read most of the text on this site or download the PDF version with full cataloging information (!!!). Hope it is helpful!
I am back from Detroit but still processing all that I took part in at the U.S. Social Forum. The Forum was amazing and I was so happy to participate and to help it to happen. I feel blessed to have the opportunity to be a part of the smaller as well as the larger organizations that I worked within.
Detroit itself was a lesson. One that I am still thinking about. I think we all appreciated the wide, desolate roads for our bikes, but the ghosts of industry and capital seemed caught in much of the city. It was difficult to ride through, despite the bike-able streets. More thoughts and reports-back to come.
Sad things are happening to each of our borough's public libraries. Major staffing cuts, branches will soon close. There are a few campaigns to combat the cuts, and a 24 Hour Read-In today that will happen on the steps of the Grand Army Plaza Brooklyn Public Library. Daunting library times.
As I am doing a bit of schoolwork and other projects related to zines and print culture, I dug up an old piece that I had originally written for the Madison Zine Fest's website in 2005. I thought it might be useful to share here. Re-reading it again in combination with another survey of the literature has likewise inspired me to create more comprehensive list of definitions, so stay tuned for that.
(click through for)
Rhymes with Bean: A Do-It-Yourself Zine Definition
Writing after a thorough brain workout at the Critical Pedagogy and Library Instruction session held here at home base in the Brooklyn College Library yesterday.
Ira Shor, presenting the first portion of our event, was really enlivening. I appreciated how he infused discussions of class, social consciousness and context into all what he spoke about. A few notes that I jotted down from his talk follow below.
I just clicked over to the Utne Reader for this post: Rare Photo of Early 20th Century Bloggers
Today is our first talk about readers' rights and ebooks, at the LACUNY Emerging Technologies event at Baruch College. I thought folks might be interested in the website that Matt and I have created to store information about our talks (as well as the presentation slides): it's over at readersbillofrights.info
http://radicalreference.info/radicalarchivesredux
Radical Reference presents a second evening about how community history is documented and celebrated. Archivists and activists will present parts of their collections and discuss how their work keeps the struggle alive. (Details about our first "Documenting Struggle" can be found at http://radicalreference.info/radicalarchivesevent.)
Monday, April 26
7:30pm
Brecht Forum
451 West St (between Bank & Bethune Sts), NYC
$6/10/15 sliding scale (no one turned away)
Title: Electronic Books and Electronic Readers: Emerging Issues and Questions
Sponsor: The LACUNY Emerging Technologies Committee
Date: Friday, April 23rd
Time: 2:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Location: CHANGED ROOM! Baruch College Vertical Campus--room 11-150 on the 11th floor.
Speakers & Presentations
*******************
Alycia Sellie & Matthew Goins - Brooklyn College
"The Rights of Readers and the Threat of the Kindle"
This might be a *little* late, but Critical Library Instruction: Theories and Methods is out(!), and my copy is on the way(!), and you can get your own here(!).
This is definitely one of my most highly anticipated library texts to come out post MLS!
Lots of upcoming news and events for the Spring semester, most notably:
I'll be speaking with Matthew Goins at two upcoming events about eBooks and readers' rights:
I'll be participating in ACRL's Immersion Teacher Track program this Summer in Burlington, Vermont. I wrote in my application that I am
interested to examine how critical pedagogy fits into library instruction, so I am excited to see how this can be discussed within the larger frameworks of the program. I'm also excited to get the chance to focus on teaching for a bit and to share what I learn with my colleagues.
And finally, I am really excited to be a part of the upcoming Center for the History of Print Culture in Modern America's Library History Seminar XII: Libraries in the History of Print Culture. I can't wait to hear Janice Radway speak and to spend some time in Madison talking about print culture (whilst also enjoying some New Glarus!).
