'Not Sitting Quietly Anymore': How Librarians Are Fighting Trump | by Arianna Rebolini

Librarians | Activism | Social justice

February 20, 2017

Photo by B. Harvey via Stocksy

 

 

Though some people may think the job involves more shushing than rallying, many librarians consider "making America read again" to be a radical political proposition. 

When Audrey Lorberfeld woke up in her Brooklyn apartment on Saturday, January 28, she was, like much of the country, angry. In the first week of his presidency, Donald Trump had already signed executive orders reinstating an expanded global gag rule, calling for the construction of a border wall between the United States and Mexico, reopening the possibility of the Dakota Access pipeline, and, on Friday, January 27, barring any travelers into the US from seven Muslim-majority countries.

Within hours of the order's signing, two Iraqis who'd flown into JFK—53-year-old Hameed Khalid Darweesh, arriving from Iraq, and 33-year-old Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi, arriving from Sweden—were detained. Overnight, while lawyers representing the two refugees worked to file a suit for their release, news of their detention spread, and by 11 AM on Saturday, organizations like the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) had put out a call for protesters outside JFK's Terminal 4.
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It may only take 3.5% of the population to topple a dictator – with civil resistance | Erica Chenoweth

Civil disobedience | Democracy | Human rights

The United States has a rich history with effective uses of nonviolent resistance. It’s time to become familiar with it

Nonviolent resistance works not by melting the heart of the opponent but by constraining their options.’

Photograph: Frank Franklin II/AP

Many people across the United States are despondent about the new president – and the threat to democracy his rise could represent. But they shouldn’t be. At no time in recorded history have people been more equipped to effectively resist injustice using civil resistance.


Today, those seeking knowledge about the theory and practice of civil resistance can find a wealth of information at their fingertips. In virtually any language, one can find training manuals, strategy-building tools, facilitation guides and documentation about successes and mistakes of past nonviolent campaigns.

Material is available in many formats, including graphic novels, e-classes, films and documentaries, scholarly books, novels, websites, research monographs, research inventories, and children’s books. And of course, the world is full of experienced activists with wisdom to share. Read more...

Reading As Rebellion | Save NYC Libraries

Reading As Rebellion | Save NYC Libraries

 Come out and read out for public libraries in New York City. Once again the three library systems are facing historic cuts and once again library supporters are pushing back. The third 24 Hour Read In will take place on June 9-10 from 4PM to 4PM and once again we will be on the steps of the Brooklyn Public Library in Grand Army Plaza. It will be another days worth of literary library activism.
This is going to be our biggest year ever. The base of the protest remains the same, over a hundred voices read around the clock. A full 24 hour day is broken into 15 minute intervals and volunteers read pretty much whatever they like for their quarter of an hour. The rules are simple, no speeches only reading. Family storytime is from 8AM to noon on Sunday so select your materials accordingly. The dark hours from 2AM-4AM are for the steamy stuff and heckling is to be expected.  Read more.

Related articles

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• NYC Libraries Testify on Impact of $96 Million Budget Cuts (theepochtimes.com)
• Opposing the New York Public Library: Who's Reading the Books? (thedailybeast.com)
• New York Public Library President Anthony Marx (wnyc.org)
• The New York Public Library Controversy (mbanks.typepad.com)
• Fahrenheit 451 in NYC (dianeravitch.net)

A black day for heritage: burning the Egyptian Scientific Institute

A black day for heritage: burning the Egyptian Scientific Institute

Copyright © 2011 Cybrarians : the arabic portal for librarianship & information science. All Rights Reserved.

 

 

Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011

Cairo, Egypt 

 

 

This day will be marked as "the Black day for Egyptian Heritage". Morning during conflicts between some Egyptian protests, the Egyptian Scientific Institute which established in 1798 by Napolean Bonaparte has been burned. The Egyptian Scientific Institute is the oldest sceintific institute in Egypt and Middle East at all. It has the most rich and rare library in Egypt.

 

The fire started on the lower floors of the building, which is on Qasr al-Aini Street in central Cairo, but later reached the higher floors. The firemen, who arrived very late at the site, could not initially control the fire. Eyewitnesses were reported to have seen protestors throwing a Molotov cocktail at stone-throwing soldiers at the Shura Council building, but the projectile missed the intended target and instead landed in the Egyptian Scientific Institute.

The library contains about 40.000 items of rare books and manuscripts, however it has unvaluable items, like:

•  The original copy of the french book "Description de l'Egypte"  
• Atlas of Old Indian arts.
• German atlas about Egypt and Ethiopia, 1842.
• "Egypt: the mother of the world", 1753.

Professor Mahmoud al-Shernoby, the general secretary of the institute, told state TV in a phone interview that the damage is a “great loss” to Egypt and that those “who caused this disaster showed be punished.” 

Related articles

• The burning of a Library in Egypt and the Philosophy behind it (capitalisthistory.wordpress.com)
• Video Shows Egyptian Soldiers Beating and Shooting at Protesters (thelede.blogs.nytimes.com)
• EGYPT:Cairo protesters set historic library on fire (laaska.wordpress.com)
• How do you know if your Egyptian (wiki.answers.com)
• Deadly unrest continues in Cairo (bbc.co.uk)