Activism | Advocacy | Librarians
An unshushable social movement is afoot.by Natalie Zarrelli | October 03, 2017
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| An adaptation of Banksy’s “Flower Bomber,” this depicts a librarian in protest, throwing Margaret Atwood’s A Handmaid’s Tale. Hafuboti/ CC BY-SA 4.0 |
From August 29 through September 2,
2004, a series of protests erupted in New York in response to the 2004
Republican National Convention and the nomination of George W. Bush for
the impending election. Nearly 1,800 protesters were arrested during the
convention, and later filed a civil rights suit, citing violation of their constitutional rights.
During the protests, a steady team
provided support to anyone who needed information amid the confusion: a
modest group of socially conscious librarians from around the United States, armed with folders of facts ranging from legal rights in dealing with police to the locations of open bathrooms.
“We wanted to operate as if we were
bringing a reference desk to the streets,” explains Lia Friedman,
Director of Learning Services at University of California San Diego, who
was at one of the protest marches in 2004. At the time, fewer people
had smartphones, making this service both new and important. When
someone asked a question that wasn’t included in their traveling
reference desk folders, other librarians waiting at their home computers
were poised to research and deliver information by phone. Read more...
