For our July meeting, we’ll be gathering at Encuentro 5 (http://www.encuentro5.org/home/) to collaboratively research & write responses to unanswered questions on the Radical Reference website (http://www.radicalreference.info/). If you’ve never answered a question on the Rad Ref site before, this will be a good opportunity to learn how to create an account, compose an answer, and post it. We can buddy-up or get into small groups to make the research more fun. Encuentro 5 has generously agreed to let us use their computers, so there’s no need to bring your own laptop (unless you want to save your Rad Ref account/log-in data in your own browser).

This will be a great meeting for all members — old and new, and for folks curious about Rad Ref but not sure about what we do, exactly. It’s also a great opportunity to help out without making a commitment to an ongoing Boston RR Collective project.

Hope to see you there!

P.S. I (Alana) have some extra letterpress posters I made for Rad Ref last year, and will be happy to distribute them to folks who come & would be willing to find a place to post them in the Boston area. This is another way to get the word out about the work Radical Reference is doing online and in Boston.

Update on Community Change/Yvonne Pappenheim Library for Antiracism

• Collection is already cataloged, goal is to increase use of circulating collection, RR plans to help with collection-building & outreach
• Met 2 weeks ago with members of group previously in charge of the library and new volunteers
• Next meeting: June 7, probably at 6:30 (Susie will email BRRC list)

BPL update

• Trustees have identified 4 branches for closure
• Decision now in city councillors’ hands
• A number of local groups have joined together to advocate against closures & in support of a public decision-making process and give the BPL system a year to conduct a public, investigative process. Groups involved include: AFSCME Local 1526, Boston Firefighters Local 718, Massachusetts Jobs With Justice, BPL Library Professional Staff Association, and us (among others).
• Rally & hearing at Boston City Hall on June 3, 2010 – Rally at 5 p.m., Hearing at 6 p.m.
• More info available from People of the Boston Branches.

Queer librarian contingent at the Dyke March (June 11, 2010)?

• Alana & Andrea will coordinate a get-together to make HQ76.3 patches or labels to distribute at the parade

Critical Library Instruction event

• Reading group/salon to discuss selections from Critical Library Instruction: Theories and Methods
• Alana will identify a date & location so we can then publicize (looking to Aug/Sept)
• Outreach to PLG, other local library groups & chapters of professional orgs
• Suggested locations/collaborators: Brookline Booksmith, Porter Square Books — Alana will follow up

Discussion: What does membership in BRRC mean/involve?

• Volunteering to take on responsibilities that help maintain the group, on a rotating basis, i.e., coordinating meetings, organizing events, taking notes & posting them. Length of term could be flexible, as long as there’s a schedule for this & a plan for knowledge-sharing in advance
• Alana and Heather have been responsible for coordinating meetings & taking notes thus far — AK will talk to HM about when we could rotate out of the meeting-organizing role (end of summer?); perhaps note-taking could happen on a meeting-by-meeting basis?
• How can we support the work happening through the main Radical Reference website? >> BRRC could provide rotating volunteer service, e.g., two members at a time could commit to weekly shifts, on a rotating basis
• Q & A: How does discussion between RR collectives happen? What is Rad Ref (history)? Can non-reference librarians join? (answer to that last one, if there was any doubt, is yes!)

Next meeting: June 16
Other summer meetings: July 21 & August 18