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From the President
Nicole Pagowsky
Welcome to Progressive Librarians Guild:UA Chapter’s rst newsletter. As the ounder andcurrent President, I thought I would give you somebackground on how we got started, what a progressivelibrarian is, and what we are looking to accomplish inthe near uture.Our chapter o PLG actually started out asa local collective o Radical Reerence, at the end o the Fall 2007 semester; although we do still want tohave ties with Radical Reerence, we thought it would be a bettermove to become an ocial chap-ter o PLG through SIRLS andthe UA or recognition and und-ing purposes. Tis change took place this semester (Spring 2008),and since February, we have beenPLG: UA.So, what is a progressivelibrarian? A progressive librarianis an inormation proessional who deends and extends theidea o libraries or the people, by using LIS education and commu-nity ties to champion change orall. As the PLG parent site states:“Members o PLG do not accept the sterile notion o the neutrality o librarianship, and we strongly opposethe commodication o inormation which turns the‘inormation commons’ into privatized, commercial-ized zones. We will help to dissect the implications o these powerul trends, and ght their anti-democratictendencies.”Progressive librarians are relevant because librarianshipis political or a number o reasons: as inormationproessionals, we can be gatekeepers or distributors o inormation, promoting or hindering equity o accessand open access, while ghting censorship; actionso collection development, preservation, weeding, andclassication all shape the collective memory, and thecollective memory is what can inuence our culture andour society; and providing materials to the public orsel-education can pave the road to a successul democ-racy, because a true, working democracy would be non-existent without an educated public.Specic examples o these ideas can be realizedthrough what we have accomplished this semester, and what we hope to do in the uture.Tis semester, we attended andbriey spoke at “O Friends and Whirlwinds: Inquiry, Move-ments and ‘Constituent Imagi-nation’: on research and radicalpolitics”, which was held at Dry River (p. 2). We also contrib-uted two Library o CongressSubject Heading suggestions orthe Radical Reerence LCSHBlogging Party (p. 7). And, ourrst undraiser was a yoga work-shop held at the main library,led by our Events and Fund-raising Coordinator, RebeccaBliquez, certied yoga instructor(p. 5).Next Fall semester, wehave a number o plans, including providing ree work-shops to the community; organizing events in town,such as panel discussions, a Zine Fest, bringing LostFilm Fest to ucson, and organizing a small, non-protlibrary. We also hope to have an ocial website up andrunning, aside rom our collaborative wiki. I any o thisinterests you, and you are a SIRLS student, alumni, orucson community library worker (at any level), we haveurther inormation on becoming a member and also amembership orm (p. 11).We are looking orward to our upcoming proj-ects and hope you will join us!
Progressive Librarians Guild:UA Chapter Newsletter
O Friends and Whirlwinds
Nicole Pagowsky
PLG: UA was contacted by eam Colors
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tospeak at O Friends & Whirlwinds, which they hadorganized at Dry River
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. Te ocus o this event was onthe impact o research on social change, with discus-sion o the schism in activism, pertaining to anti-intellectualism and bureaucratic boundaries. We wereasked to participate because inormation proessionalsacilitate research, and our group is specically inter-ested in activism, so it was a great match. As the eam Colors blog
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says about the event:“A series o talks on inquiry and movements rom theupcoming journal In the Middle o a Whirlwind: 2008Convention Protests, Movement and Movements andin celebration o the AK Press collection ConstituentImagination: Militant Investigations / Collective Teo-rization.”Jef Juris was the rst speaker, and he is an Assistant Proessor o Anthropology at ASU West,member o CAROB [Central Arizona Radicals Oppos-ing Borders] and the ASU West Border Justice Group.He spoke about ‘Militant Ethnography’, a phrase hecreated to describe “a politically engaged and collabora-tive orm o participant observation carried out rom within rather than outside o grassroots movements.raditional objectivist perspectives ail to grasp theconcrete logic o activist practice, leading to inadequateaccounts and theoretical models o little use to activiststhemselves.”
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Te point o this orm o research is tomake ndings more relevant to subsequent action orthe groups the inormation pertains to, and also to dis-tinguish the diference between a ‘capital A Activst’ andan ‘activist’; the ormer more prone to sel-righteous-ness, and not being as truly immersed in the relevantcommunities. He also delineated publishing or theuniversity bureaucracy in contrast to publishing reely in regards to ‘copylet’
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, with implications and possiblecognitive dissonance engaged rom the ormer. A greatdiscussion evolved rom his talk, including some par-ticipants sharing how they elt internal conict aboutthe potentiality o returning to the university. (As theeam Colors Blog states, Jef Juris’ talk was “an expan-sion o his article in Constituent Imagination: ‘Bridg-ing the divide between activism and research: MilitantEthnography as a tool or social transormation’”.)Craig Hughes was the next speaker: a collec-tive member o eam Colors (Craig Hughes, ConorCash, & Kevin Van Meter). Teir main page explainsthe purpose o the collective as, “to explore questionso everyday resistance, mutual aid, the imposition o work, social reproduction, class composition, commu-nity participation and the commons – by creating en-gaging workshops and producing provocative writtendocuments and articles.” Craig spoke about “‘DIY andthe movement beyond capitalism in the United States’(An expansion on his essay in Constituent Imagi-nation)”. It was interesting to hear efectiveness o diferent kinds o activism, such as the punk and DIY movement not posing an actual threat to corporationsor oppressive government entities. How to potentially remedy this was interwoven with Jef’s discussion o “Activist” and “activist”: how oten in counterculturemovements in the United States, there can be misan-thropic tendencies – getting rustrated and ed up withthe people activists are trying to help is not going tohelp solve the problem. Understanding why peopleare diferent and how they make their decisions canpromote a more holistic plan or working together; i aperson’s basic needs are not being met, they won’t haveas much interest in issues on a larger scale. A discus-sion then ormed about what issues within activismare elt to be most important, as well as what connota-tions the term “revolution” has or people, as it is otenpresent in punk and DIY-movement rhetoric. Many participants said the word conjured negative images,such as desolation or apocalypse. A lot o interestingpoints were brought up.Progressive Librarians Guild spoke last, withmysel (Nicole Pagowsky) representing our group.I explained what PLG is and how activism can be alarge part o librarianship, as well as our present anduture goals. I also explained our roots, which are inPLG (parent organization) and Radical Reerence
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.Te PLG parent organization was started in 1990 by inormation proessionals tired o ‘business as usual’, where no one was taking a strong stand on issues. PLG was hoping to ignite progressive change in librariesand dissuade librarians rom taking too neutral o a stance. Since its ormation, PLG has participatedin activist events, such as taking action or standingin solidarity with other groups, and publishes theProgressive Librarian periodical, as well as books,collectively, or by individual members. Radical Reer-ence was ormed in 2004 in NYC, in response to theRepublican National Convention. Librarian volunteersprovided ‘street reerence’ to activists, which consisted
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o actually getting out into the streets and answeringquestions and providing inormation.
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Radical Reerencealso supplied ‘ready reerence kits’, which included city acts on transportation, emergency phone numbers, andother essential inormation. Radical Reerence has now expanded to include local collectives all over the country,as well as some international groups. Services includecommunity outreach and taking action on local issues.Tey are probably most well-known, however, or pro-viding virtual reerence services to activists and indepen-dent journalists through the Radical Reerence website.Individuals can ask questions, (mostly) anonymously,o specic concern to topics pertaining or tangentialto activism. See the website or examples o questionsasked. A ew o us rom PLG also volunteer with RadicalReerence.We were happy to be included in this engagingand inormative event, and i these topics are o inter-est to the reader, the ollowing resources provide urtherdiscussion:Shukaitis, S., Graeber, D., & Biddle, E. (Eds). (2007).Constituent imagination: Militant investigations//collec-tive theorization. Oakland, CA: AK Press.Cash, C., Hughes, C., & Van Meter, K. (Eds). (2008).In the middle o a whirlwind: 2008 convention protests,movement and movements. (Available later this year).
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http://www.warmachines.ino
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http://www.dryriver.org ; also, see pgs. 3 & 5 or acommunity group eature on Dry River
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http://teamcolors.blogspot.com/2008/04/will-you- join-us-in-middle-o-whirlwind.html
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Juris, J. (n.d.). Practicing militant ethnography withinmovements against corporate globalization. RetrievedMay 5, 2008, rom http://www.euromovements.ino/html/jef-juris.htm
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See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copylet or deni-tion
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http://www.radicalreerence.ino
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Yeo, S., Rane, J., Jacobs, J., Friedman, L., & Freedman, J. (2005). Radical Reerence: aking inormation to thestreet. Inormation Outlook.Te Dry River Collectiveis a radical community groupin ucson which describes itsel in its mission statement as “anautonomous group o individu-als working to create a com-munity based on sustainability,cooperation, and sel-suciency.[Tey] promote education anddirect action to resist all orms o oppression and hierarchy.” Dry River, ounded in 2003, initially got its start as a space as an ino-shop with zines in a small cornero the all ages venue, Scrappy’s.In 2006, the Collective oundits own space to rent on MainStreet at University Boulevard,and that is where the Dry RiverRadical Resource Center hasbeen located ever since, a place itsmembers describes as “a community arts center or therest o us.” Carrie Mott, Collective member, explainsDry River’s objective, “What Dry River is trying to
Featured Community Group: Dry River Collective
Jacy Bell
do is ofer an alternative to people and provide a space where diferent kinds o events can happen that are gen-erated rom the community…We just want there to bea place or people to create and do something diferent,
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Continued on page 5
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