Boston Radical Reference Collective

Transition to Slack

The Boston Radical Reference Collective has expanded into the New England Radical Reference Collective and has moved its activities to Slack. Join us on Slack by filling out our contact form: https://forms.gle/nzWznxzXvgnvdPAC6.

This shift to Slack was prompted by closure of all the radicalreference.info mailman listservs in 2020.

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April 29, 2020

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Boston Collective Meeting Notes: 3-30-2017

Attendance: 10 folks; academic (reference, collections), archives, oral histories, corporate, public

Boston Rad Ref feedback on points of unity

From “Big Rad Ref” conference call, make mission statement into points of unity
Points of unity as political statements, guiding principles of practice, how we are different/in opposition to and defining ourselves in relation to
Kathleen will help Rebecca in drafting this and then send out to Big Rad Ref
Question about on-boarding with new collectives: how to make them adhere to POU? Or do we want to have them to try to adhere?

May 1 (May Day) action/participation

Action ideas
- Library contingent marching
- Theatrical action: reference service; stationary or mobile
- Resources to share
  - Know Your Rights
  - What resources are available in the public library for you to access
  - What groups exist that are helpful for you
  - Reading lists
  - Different types of content/handouts
Cosecha rally on Boston Common
- Janet: opportunity for Rad Ref to participate in rally
- Adam will get more information for us to decide how we can participate, ask Cosecha what types of questions/information would be good for us to have at the event
- Susie will ask Student Immigration Movement
- Steve will ask his partner who’s involved with several groups at e5
Next steps
- Get more info about Cosecha opportunity
- March together
- Prepare handouts/flyers
- Consider saving April 29 for sign-making/craft party and have portion of day set aside for other Rad Ref agenda items (including finding May facilitator)
- We’ll do handout/signs/flyers online
- Connect with Chelsea, East Boston, Everett librarians – display along parade route or come

Updates on other possible projects/ collaborations

Concerned Archivist Alliance
- Community Archives Round Table forming at NEA
- Jaimie will connect with Adam and Janet about East Boston oral history projects

Community archives with AV material Adam and Rebecca
- Aliza Shapiro/Traniwreck
- Jeff Kaplan collections
- AV grant from NEA for next year

Next meeting/not covered tonight

Transcribe-a-thon and WGBH/public media audio and video transcription game
Wikipedia (incl. Local wikis) Edit-a-thon and/or Data Refuge events
Schedule meetings & events for April, May

Meeting notes

April 3, 2017

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Boston Collective Meeting Notes: 2-28-2017

Present: 10 folks; academic, K-5, media, archivist, public, reference, cataloger, legal fields

Discussion of “Big Rad Ref” email from NYC collective to radicalref listserv

Call/Getting Together
- Yes!
- Yes, but let’s focus conversation on developing/working on specific projects and establish plan for those (agenda)
Mission/Audience
- Curious to know where else in the country folks are organizing
  - If namely east coast let’s consider doing a regional meeting
- Yes, to mission statement revisiting
- Would consider a name change, but interesting to keep “Radical Reference” as a specific project within larger umbrella group
- Who’s the audience?
- Interest in Boston to revive reference service and connect with local independent media/journalists to learn if that’s useful vs. another service
Accountability/Collaboration
- Would be good to setup system or structure to support sustained volunteer contribution
- Can we consider a different type of organizational model to pull off collaborative projects across collectives/across cities rather than working locally?
- Locally in Boston let’s assess what we’re doing in the context of this “Big Rad Ref” discussion; we use the name, but have been
- Local collectives still doing their own thing – we may want to think about how we want to organize the BRRC
- What does collaboration with PLG, #critlib, SRRT look like – if any?
Tech
- Who would maintain, support website or other related projects?
Projects/Ways to collaborate
- Reference service revival
- Tabling at Allied Media Conference
- Developing events/kits that can be shared, replicated
- Monthly interview/different perspectives on librarianship from members; help support mentor/mentee relationships or general “phew someone like me”
- Rad Ref website as platform for sharing presentations, lesson plans, ; similar to Teaching History website
- Short weekly resources whether on website, via email (Community Change Inc’s Resources for Justice model)

Concerned Archivists Alliance volunteer opportunity

Moving from statement to organization: Looking for grassroots organizations who may have information needs CAA can offer its expertise to or holding workshops around specific topics to support needs like records management, digital archiving, security/privacy for community organizations
Connecting directly with organizations first, explaining needs broadly in-person and then followup with survey about needs and interests to pair volunteers with organizations
Resources
- Witness – community archiving guide
- Why archive pamphlet from Occupy

Update/assessment projects started in Jan meeting (Resource List and Online Reference Service)

Let’s discuss these two ideas with the larger Rad Ref group whenever that call/meeting occurs (see #1 on agenda)

Planning for March and upcoming meetings

Concerned Archivist Alliance follow-up
Wikipedia Edit-a-thon and/or Data Refuge events
- Editing Boston, Cambridge or Somerville Local Wikis
May 1 participation – action added or our own event – how we do want to participate, sign-making, preparation, collaborating and blitzing of resources for justice, preparing FAQs (performative), if coalition starts to form maybe get a table, fact-checking reference, handouts, wall questions with instant answers (like NYC subway)
How to archive some of the resources we’ve been sharing on the Facebook page; Zotero?
Tours/visits to different libraries in the area (e.g., Science Fiction Library, private home collections)
March 8 – International Women’s Strike – contingent for libraries?
Transcrib-a-thon and WGBH/public media audio and video transcription game
Emily will facilitate March meeting; will put out shared agenda

Methods of Communication – Facebook vs. Email

Make sure to post important announcements to both
We’ll “pin” listserv info to Facebook page to encourage sign-up there
Longform discussions on Email
Short resources sharing on Facebook and listserv

Organizing around Fake News

Can we share information on the listserv/Facebook as we come across interesting events and resources
Lani & Rebecca & Steve to discuss offline

Meeting notes

March 8, 2017

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Boston Collective Meeting Notes: 1-12-2017

Our meeting focused on picking two ideas from our December meeting and planning next steps:

Creating Best Practices List/LibGuide/Resource
- Create survey about best practices
  - What are people doing in your job (legit, authorized, unauthorized)
  - As a worker how do you leverage your skill and power for your own ends, a cause, betterment of services, for your users
  - Lesson plans
  - Proposal templates around events, issues, forming committees
  - Interpersonal dealings
  - Data collections/privacy issues around patron data
- #critlib discussions
- Consider how this might languish
- Susie had experience with a “road show” events – sharing resources and identifying people in your area who can serve as local experts or facilitators on certain topics
- Tim will serve as point person to get us started
Reviving Rad Ref online reference service
- Started with independent journalism; different audience? Who our audience would be?
  - Social justice and advocacy groups
    - Focus locally in Boston
    - Consider it a way to connect groups within Boston with one another
      - ACT-MA
      - United for Justice and Peace
      - MIRA Coalition
      - Jobs with Justice
      - Social Forum movements
      - E5 space
    - Jason Pramas – BINJ
  - Community outreach needed
- Talk with NYC group about history and usage
- Technology considerations
  - People Link
  - Drupal
  - Technical assistance needed
- Launch
  - Announcement, leveraging participation
- Next steps
  - Articulate ideas around the importance of this
  - Come up with list of questions
  - Determine who we might want to talk with
  - Developing ready reference resources about Boston area
  - Connect with NYC – structured idea to spark action
  - Document what we’re doing
  - We may want to determine our own capacity to answer
  - Structure
    - Subject expertise
  - Rebecca will serve as point person to get us started
Other ideas/possibilities for action
- Supporting local organizations (e.g., CCI collection, Community Church of Boston)
- Volunteer day unrelated to libraries
- Prison Book Program
- Black & Pink pen pal program
Discussion of upcoming marches/activism
- Trans & Queer Liberation Rally
- People’s Inauguration Day
- Women’s March
- If Not Now – Tue 6-730pm
- Civil Disobedience
- Sign-making night at ProjectFirst Cambridge
- Greg Cookland event page to facebook group
Meetings
- We’ll try to meet monthly through April and reassess

Meeting notes

January 19, 2017

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Boston Collective Meeting Notes: 12-6-2016

Intros: a wide range of academic, public, archives, special collections, museum, corporate, media librarians and friends in attendance (25 folks)
Librar* Reactions/Responses: Post-election, what have we seen from the library profession?
- REFORMA – statements in support of immigrant communities
- NYPL – privacy policy changes in patron record collections
- Information literacy – importance of fact-checking, sources
- LibGuide from Indiana University on Fake News
- Google Docs around fact-checking
  - Information worker docs from NY and LA
- Catalogers LCSH politicized even further
- Anger around reinforcement of idea of neutrality
- Code4Lib diversity statement
- Digital humanities projects/datasets around language post-election in statements and activities
- Local curation and highlighting of local/available collections
  - Physical displays and exhibits
- Jumpstarted re-evaluation of our collections
  - Expand definition of what it means to support marginalized communities and critical inquiry in heavy STEM focused schools/collections
- Free Library of Philadelphia BLM LibGuide
- Yonkers Public Library displays on social justice, civil rights, BLM
- Budget impact
  - E-rate grants for public libraries
  - Sanctuary city funding
  - MBLC budget lines around IMLS services could be cut which directly impacts public library funding across state including Mass Lib System projects/services
- Supreme Court vacancy and impact on public unions
- Library Freedom Project
- Urban Librarians Unite Conference NYC – CFP on social justices
  - Interest in starting a Boston chapter? Contact Jazmin
Activists/Community Orgs Reactions/Responses: What have we seen from activist, community organizations – outside our library spaces? Calls for information? Calls to gather resources?
- SURJ
  - Volunteer hotline
- Socialist Alternative and Democratic Socialists of America
- Nonfiction Cartel: requests for what’s happening, what’s already been done/indexing, research started
- Cosecha: immigration, sanctuary schools/universities/congregations
- Artists actions/events
  - Encuentro 5/Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism (BINJ) on Fri Dec 9 – gathering artists interested in activism
  - Common Field, Design Studio for Social Innovation
- Harvard University
  - Dining workers strike
  - Student sanctuary
  - Custodial workers strike
  - Bannon protest
- Local neighborhood action
  - Roslindale Friends group – series of talks in 2017 around diversity, equity, inclusion
  - Somerville community meetings focused on gentrification and impact of green line extension
- Public schools action
  - BPS walkout
  - Cambridge schools walkouts
- Boston Common gatherings, vigils, in-community and protests post-election
- Inauguration Day events, protests
- Moral Mondays revival from North Carolina at Trinity Church
  - Interfaith gathering at Roxbury Interfaith Center Sunday Dec 11 at 6pm
- “The Next Four Years” conference
Historical Reactions/Responses: What we’ve seen in past 20 years or so that we can compare now to then?
- Vietnam War, draft dodgers to Canada
  - Migration/movement away from Maine/Lapaige
- Bush’s Iraq War in 2003
  - Will we see similar impacts like tuition increases in educational costs
- Media coverage of presidential election overshadowing economic downturn in 2008
- 9/11 response
  - Lots of energy, willingness to donate, to mobilize, but where to direct that and how
    - Some folks taking advantage of that energy
  - Technological response – opportunities to mobilize in person
  - Ronald Reagan
    - Worlds AIDS Day
    - Dangers to LGBTQA community resonates today with what AIDS crisis under Reagan
      - Many individuals today are asking on FB how can I do x, y, z before Trump takes office
    - Immigrant communities – vulnerability
    - Role of librarians in supporting our community members
    - Black Rose/Rosa Negra – anarchist organization
      - Susie
        
        Longterm commitment vs. short-term/burst of energy to participate
        
        Moving toward building movement rather than energy
History of Rad Ref
- RNC/ NYC – independent journalists/media activists
  - Connection with MayFirst
  - Online forum for questions services
- Working often with local organizations, smaller special libraries (e.g., Community Change, Inc.)
- Other previous events, actions, symposia, etc. can be found on the main Rad Ref page
What do we want to do?
- Take leadership from people of color, marginalized communities
- Make sure to support existing efforts or if we start on new projects make sure to be inclusive/equity
- Education
  - Rad Ref as space for self-education, training and learning within this community/movement work
    - Digital security
      - Library Freedom Project – Alison Macrina and Myrna Morales
      - Cryptoparties
- Public Library Support
- Rad Ref as Rapid Response Network
  - SURJ Hotline
  - Consider using Signal
- LibGuide
  - Best practices list of existing practices/efforts in libraries – collect this guide
Next Steps
- Schedule meeting for Dec/Jan – before inauguration
- Spend first 20 minutes deciding on agenda/what projects we’d like to focus on for that meeting; perhaps develop working groups based on interest/action

Meeting notes

December 8, 2016

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Boston Collective Meeting Notes: 3-1-2016

Several members met at MIT to discuss ongoing activities, projects and events. Join the listserv here.

Next Meeting: sometime in April to keep the momentum going. Likely will be a work party focused on one of the ideas below. Rebecca will send out a Doodle.
Clothing Swap: Jazmin is coordinating a clothing swap on Sun Apr 10! Entry fees will benefit the Prison Book Program. Additional donations of clothing, shoes, accessories, bags, etc. will be donated to Boomerangs. If you are interested in helping organize the event or want to volunteer the day-of, please check out the event page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/835483469930702/.
Papercut Zine Library: There was a large flood in its facility! Papercut is hosting a fundraiser to help cover the cost to have the wet/damaged zines professionally dried. Please consider donating or contacting the library to see how you can help: https://www.youcaring.com/papercut-zine-library-526013.
Anti-racism training for librarians: Sujei, Eileen and Rebecca are coordinating a training for librarians on institutional racism and how racism manifests in libraries /archives. If you’re interested in helping (facilitating, logistics, reserving space, publicity, etc.) please contact them.
CCI Library: Rebecca is helping Community Change, Inc. survey its media collection – DVDs, VHS, film reels, cassettes – to determine what can be “upgraded” to a newer format, what’s online/streaming, what can be reformatted manually, what can be donated and what can be responsibly recycled. Timeline is to have this complete by end of April. If you’re interested in helping contact Rebecca.
People’s Yellow Pages: The community sharing brainstorming group that’s been meeting lately in Somerville wants to work on an online/print guide to existing coop and noncommercial ventures, and information on how to start your own ventures (such as land trusts, coops, etc.). Tim, a Rad Ref member is part of that brainstorming group. Rad Ref discussed last night that it would be great to have a wiki or other collaborative resource available to start this and grow it to include other sorts of resources across town – mirroring the alternative guide to Boston we created for ALA Midwinter. We also discussed promoting it heavily among social justice, community organizations and small businesses in the area to try and get inclusive/wide ranging participation. If you’re interested in the community-sharing brainstorming group, get in touch with Tim; if you’re interested in the larger People’s Yellow Pages idea, I think we’ll discuss it more at the next Rad Ref meeting in April.
Wikipedia #1Lib1Ref (One Librarian, One Ref): We discussed hosting our own #1Lib1Ref party (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/The_Wikipedia_Library/1Lib1Ref) at one of our next meetings. Alli had recently participated in one and said she can spearhead the effort once we have a date set.
Knight News Challenge: FYI – entries are being accepted! Apply here: https://www.newschallenge.org/challenge/how-might-libraries-serve-21st-century-information-needs/submissions
Lantern Library: Anna, along with several others including a Simmons service-learning class, are helping to inventory and catalog a collection of around 7k titles on anarchism, social philosophy, and radical history. The Simmons class is also helping digitize a full-run of a Boston area anarchist periodical.
Library Legislative Day: is Tue Mar 8 at the MA State House. Attend if you can and take other action here: http://masslib.org/.
Mass Board of Library Commissioners Legislative Agenda: great infographic and content about jeopardized state funding for library services: http://mblclegislativeagenda.com/
Boston Coalition for Police Accountability: Eric Martin and Linda Jenkins, both members of BCPA, came to discuss possibilities for collaboration with Rad Ref. More about BCPA here: https://www.facebook.com/BostonCoalitionforPoliceAccountability/. Ideas discussed included:
- A “Know Your Rights” info packet that includes information related to legal rights, preemptive/safety rights. BCPA would create a first draft and get feedback from Rad Ref about content, format, delivery, etc. based on their experiences with patron questions/interactions. The info packet would contain a portion of a larger online resource guide. Possibilities/interest in having this is multiple languages too.
- A pilot/collaboration with a BPL Library, such as the Dudley Branch, to have the info packet, printed copies of the Boston police misconduct/complaint forms, training for library staff on how to fill out those forms, how to best serve those interested in filing complaints, “Know Your Rights” training for library staff. Once the initial pilot goes well we can take lessons learned and expand to other libraries in the area. Examples of this type of work: Enoch Pratt Free Library (Baltimore)’s Lawyer in the Library program: http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2016/01/public-services/enoch-pratt-free-library-brings-lawyers-to-the-library
- Exploring what resources law libraries, such as the Greater Boston Legal Services, might already be providing in terms of info packets related to “Know your Rights”
- Creating a police misconduct form page on Wikipedia that links out to various city’s forms making those easier to find. There is precedence in having government forms on Wikipedia. Let’s consider this.
- An extended partnership with the Boston Homeless Solidarity Committee: Some efforts/projects in the Boston area and throughout libraries already exist. Examples: BPL Health, Hunger, and Health resource guide: http://guides.bpl.org/guide4help and Extending Our Reach: Reducing Homelessness Through Library Engagement: http://www.ala.org/offices/extending-our-reach-reducing-homelessness-through-library-engagement.
- What additional possibilities exist here for collaboration?

Meeting notes

March 11, 2016

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Community Sharing Guide

Members of the Boston Radical Reference Collective have created a guide on community sharing – available here: Resource-Guide-on-Community-Sharing (PDF document; will open in new tab/window).

The guide was created in preparation for an open meeting that will provide space for Boston-area people to discuss ideas on how to share costs and resources, and to explore ways to work together in the future.

Consider joining us at the open meeting:

January 28, 2016
Somerville Public Library (though it is organized by a local resident)
79 Highland Ave., Somerville MA 02134
7pm to 9pm

Event page for the meeting: https://www.facebook.com/events/470025166533003/.

Guides, Projects

January 21, 2016

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LIS + (race, ethnicity) Guide

Members of the Boston Radical Reference Collective have started an LIS + (race, ethnicity) Collaborative Resource Guide: https://goo.gl/yN3pv5.

Please add resources, ideas, organizations, websites, articles, Twitter users, projects, etc. that lay at or focus on the intersection of libraries and race and ethnicity. Feel free to add new categories too.

This guide began as a project during #alamw16 at the Librarians of Color & Their Allies Meetup hosted by Boston Radical Reference, LIS Microaggressions, Students of Color at Simmons SLIS and the Spectrum Scholarship Program.

Guides, Projects

January 15, 2016

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Alternative Guide to Boston

Members of the Boston Radical Reference Collective collaborated to prepare an alternative guide to the Boston area in anticipation of the January 2016 ALA Midwinter conference. You can see the guide here: bostonradicalreference.wordpress.com/alternative-guide-to-boston/.

Guides, Meeting notes

December 24, 2015

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