social justice bibliography

In 2008-2010, I was a member of the 2010 Program Committee of the Anthropology and Sociology Section (ANSS) of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). We were charged with putting on the ANSS program for the 2010 American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference. In honor of the conference location--Washington, DC), we put on: "Standing Up and Sitting In: Libraries and Social Change."

For the program, I put together a selected bibliography of social justice libraries, archives, collections, and other resources, which include the following categories: general (social change / justice / protest); civil rights / human rights; genocide / holocaust; labor; lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgenders; social work & welfare; and women. Erin Gratz, ANSS webmaster, has kindly reformatted it to make it more accessible. It is now available as you see it below, as well as downloadable Word document. Thanks, Erin!

what's in a name?

I wrote this post way back in September, but I guess I never finished it. Since I'm going to write some more on this topic, I'm going to go ahead and publish this now. Here is what I wrote then:

When I started to write my post on our new reference reading room, I immediately got sidetracked by the name of the room. So, I decided to move that whole discussion to a separate post.

So, what's in a name? Technically, it's just called the reading room (as the sign on the picture below indicates), but since our reference collections are in there and that's where our reference desk is, I think it should be called the reference reading room. I might just be partial to that term, though, because, when I worked in the Main Reading Room of the Library of Congress, the area where the librarians provided reference is called the reference reading room.

Seriously, though, what are the implications of calling it the reading room vs. the reference reading room? I think that part of the reason I would rather call it the reference reading room is because reference is part of what I do, so giving it that name would give credence to what I do. However, I'm not that vain to think that it should be called that just so I'd feel good about what I do. I happen to think that most students/researchers could use some assistance, whether they realize it or not, and it's good to remind them that that's what reference means. However, I'm not tied to the use of the term reference--it could just as well be the word research; I just think that there should be a notion of active research in the name.

I know that this space is intended to be a quiet space in contrast to what is expected to be the more noisy collaborative spaces in the research commons. However, calling it a reading room implies that it's just a place to read. Now, there is absolutely nothing wrong with reading rooms or study areas. However, if you are going to put the reference desk in there, then it's not going to be totally quiet. And, really, if we're going to be spending money on them, then those reference books shouldn't just be for decoration. So, which one is it? Is it a reading room, or is it a reference room?

Juliet in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, says:

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."

However, L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables counters:

I read in a book once that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but I've never been able to believe it. I don't believe a rose would be as nice if it was called a thistle or a skunk cabbage.

So, which one is it? I guess we'll see when it opens...

reference reading room

Continuing my previous post on my library's renovation, I will give you a peek at our new reference reading room in this post.

Moving on Up

Previously, our reference desk and collections were towards the back of the first floor. The reference desk was so far back that people would have to pass the security desk and the information desk first. Then they might go to circulation first before they could find us. Our collections were out in the open in that area and quite spread out. Our temporary conference room (during the renovation) was even more out of the way. It was an enclosed room at the end of a long hallway on the A-level. The new reference reading room is out front, immediately to the left of the entrance. I think that's a great thing because then people will find us immediately. However, there is this welcome sign/exhibit area that somewhat obstructs visitors from seeing it right away, so that's not so good.

People Who Work in Glass Rooms...

The room is now enclosed, with the entrance area walls in glass --this area includes the reference desk and consultation area, some of my colleagues have been referring to it as the "fish bowl." I like this idea of an enclosed reference reading room, though I didn't mind the open space before either. Here are some pictures of the glass walls.

This is obviously the entrance to the room. You can see the reading tables and the shelves. (We just moved the materials the last couple of weeks.)

This is to the side of the entrance. That brown wood is the reference desk.

Here is the view from the corner.

Ask a Librarian

The reference desk area is immediately to the right of the entrance to the reading room. Here's a picture I took from the front (and when it was still empty).

Here's a view from the other side of the desk. There are swing doors on either side of the desk.

From this picture, you can see that the table at which the reference librarians will be sitting is lower than the part at which the patrons will be standing. What you can't quite tell from these two pictures is how deep the table is. I don't know what the actual dimensions are, but I think it might be around 3 feet deep. Needless to say, this setup would make reference a very unfriendly and uncomfortable experience. The patrons are a) separated from the librarians by a tall barrier and swing doors, b) would have to be standing during the transaction (you have to remember that we are the research library, so many questions are in-depth and can take 20 minutes or more), and c) the computer with which the librarians would be helping them and showing them what to do would be quite a distance from them. We (those of us who have to work at the desk) know this is a problem, so we are trying to figure out ways of making this work.

To the side of the desk and along the wall of the reference desk area are shelves. They were supposed to have our core collection (the ones that we consult the most). However, because the area is sort of closed off with the swing doors and we want the core collection to be more accessible, we decided to put some of our G. K. Hall sets instead since these aren't used that much and they look pretty (these shelves can be seen through the glass walls).

Behind the desk, there is this opaque glassy partition. This is what's on the other side. These are map drawers. We will use this to put maps that are "on hold," i.e., maps that are not in our open map stacks.

There is then another desk. I'm not entirely sure what we're using this area for. I think it would make sense to use this as a research consultation area or for office hours for subject specialists. Someone mentioned something about having small classes or meetings--that didn't make too much sense to me, especially since the reading room is supposed to be quiet space.

The empty shelves along the wall are for materials that are building use only. You can also see more of the glass walls in this picture.

Tables and Shelves Galore

In the center of the room, right in front of the entrance, is this row of brightly-lit study tables, which have outlets in the center. Before the renovation, there were hardly any outlets on the first floor, which made it difficult for the students to work for long on their laptops. The picture below was taken before we moved in, which is why the shelves are still empty. The shelves to the right are for our regular reference collections. The shelves on the left are for our discrete collections--the ones on the foreground are for our core collection, while the ones at the back are for our education/career/testing materials.

This is the view from the back of the room, after we'd already moved the collections.

Breaking up the row of table is this bright blue seating area. I like having this single pop of color in the room. And I also really like that it's a round form amidst all the angles.

To the left of the room from the entrance are drawers for reference microfiche and commonly-used maps and a couple more tables.

Directly behind this area is the copier room. We also acquired a scanner (Finally! We never had one since I've been here.) but it's too big, so it has to go somewhere in the research commons instead. Also in this room are day lockers.

On the other side of the copier room are more shelves. These contain our oversized materials, mostly atlases.

Behind the copier room are the computer terminals and more shelves. These terminals will require authentication for use. Previously, we did not require authentication. On those shelves are the National Union Catalog of Pre-1956 Imprints. We thought it best to put those there because it was a single range of shelves and that's what fit.

Here's a wider view of that side of the room, along with a closer view of the blue seating area.

Along the outside windows and all the peripheral walls are these leather? chairs. I think they're supposed to be the comfy chairs. (If you've noticed the rest of the chairs are wooden ones. Those aren't comfortable). I've sat in it, though, and I don't think it's comfortable. But maybe it's because I'm short. Maybe they're more comfortable for taller people.

So, there you have it. This is our new reference reading room. It looks very nice and sparkly. We'll see if people find it comfortable enough to stay for long periods of time. And we'll see if we get a lot more reference traffic now that we have a more prominent location.

Our soft opening for this room is on Monday, September 19, the first day of the fall quarter (though not the first day of classes--that's on September 22).

renovations & revelations

For almost two years now, the main floor of my library has been under renovation. During this time, this is what happened to the services and departments on that floor:

• Information desk: GONE. (Most people probably asked questions at the circulation desk.)
• Circulation desk (including holds and graduate reserves): STAYED in place, though had to deal with changes due to construction, then MOVED to its new location near the entrance.
  
• Reference desk and collections: DOWNSIZED by about 50% and MOVED temporarily to an out-of-the-way location on the A-level (the floor below the main floor) while the new reading room on the main floor was being built.
  
• Periodical stacks: permanently MOVED into renovated space on the A-level.
• Presentation room and executive conference room: STAYED.
  
• Collections, Research, and Instructional Services(my department): two separate areas permanently MOVED into combined and renovated offices on the A-level.
  
• Access Services: permanently MOVED into renovated offices on the A-level.
• Library Human Resources: permanently MOVED into renovated offices (shared with Library Business Services) on the 2nd floor.
  
• Library Administration Office: STAYED.
  

So, what's new on this floor, you ask? A research commons, a café, a big seminar/ presentation room, and an exhibit room for special collections. As already mentioned, the circulation desks and reference reading room are also on this floor, but in different locations from before; another exhibit area has also been moved to a different location.

The space is set to open in time for the fall quarter (which begins September 19). My department, which is in charge of some of the spaces--namely, the research commons and the reference reading room, finally got a tour of the blocked-off spaces a month ago.

We started our tour in the café. The café's name? Café 451. Sound familiar? It is named after Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, who wrote that novel in the basement of Powell Library. (Do I work in the Powell Library? No. Do I know what the significance of that number is and what the book is about? Yes.) Here are a couple of pictures of the café:

Next to the cafe is the exhibit room for highlights from our special collections. I didn't take a picture of the room.

We proceeded to the seminar/presentation room, which is where one of our departmental offices used to be. This is a space intended to invite campus events--seminars, meetings, films, performances, lectures, etc.--into the library. It features two-way video technology.

It also includes a translation room, shown below (though you can't really see it with our reflections in the glass). The translator would sit here and provide real-time translation of the event; foreign guests or anyone else needing translation services would receive the translation on headphones. This presentation space is still unfinished and probably won't be open by the start of the fall quarter, though the first event is slated in October.

This is the research commons area. It is full of bright orange, lime green, and blue furniture in "pods" and other grouped arrangements. The pods all have screens, which I think are meant to display what's on your computer screens, so you can all look at the same thing.

This is the back of one of the chairs. It looked striking, so I had to take a picture of it.

In addition to the main group work area, the research commons have several other areas. This area is an instructional space for small groups.

I believe (I wasn't listening all that carefully) that big screen, the space in front of it, and the room across from it (the wall on the right side of this picture) is part of a digital demonstration area/research lab. (I don't want to call this a digital humanities lab since our department/library serves both the humanities and social sciences.)

There is another instruction area, which is enclosed. I didn't take a picture of it, but I think it is the wall on the left of the picture below. It has similar green chairs as the other instruction space. It has two-way technology, so a class can be talking to another class or a lecturer in another part of the world. On the right of this picture are group study rooms. There are more study rooms at the end of the hallway, where the exit sign is. Many of the rooms have computer screens. These can be booked in advanced; unreserved rooms are available for walk-ins.

Outside the research commons is a hallway that is being dubbed "the street." You can kind of see it to the left and the back of this picture.

Here's a view from the top of "the street."

At the end of "the street is this seating arrangement.


I'll end this post here and put the rest of the photos in a separate post.

library day in the life 7.5

Or, TGIF!

I'm writing this post really late, and I've forgotten most of what I did on Friday, really. But it was an exhausting week, not only work-wise, but also with the writing of these posts. (It was taking me 3 hours to write these posts, so I was going to bed after midnight, and I wake up just after 5.) By Friday night, I just didn't have the energy anymore. Anyway, here it is for what it's worth. Hopefully, some pictures will make it more interesting. :)

Here's a very approximate breakdown of the day:

• 3 hours - email/social networking/feeds
• 4.25 - serials review
• 1 hour - lunch
• .5 hour - chat with colleagues
• .25 - added pictures/modified libday 7.4 post

Getting There

I thought I'd share more pictures for this day's post. So this is what happens before I get to my office.

As I mentioned at the end of Day 4's post, I'm on vanpool. If you don't already know, traffic in LA is atrocious. I hate to drive, and being on a vanpool is the only thing making the commute somewhat bearable. The UCLA Vanpool is a university-sponsored service. Each rider has to pay a monthly fee, and the drivers are also van riders. My van meets at the far end of a K-Mart parking lot, 5 miles away from where I live. (There's actually an earlier pick-up that's about half the distance but, since the pick-up is earlier, I usually go to this one instead.)

And this is my van. It seats 11 people. Vans used to have the UCLA logo on them, but these were taken off because people--mostly those who are anti-animal testing--were vandalizing them.

It takes about 30 minutes to get to campus, which is 17 miles away. (Going home is a different story, though. It takes the van anywhere from 35-90 minutes to get back; the usual is about 45 minutes.) Since the drop off is at the southern part of campus, I have to walk another 20 minutes or so to get to the library.

As I also mentioned in Day 4's post, the main floor of my library is under renovation. Here's a peek (sort of) -- that glass room is where the reference reading room will be.

Everything is really still blocked off, so I couldn't take many pictures really. But you can see many, many more pictures on our University Librarian's blog. If I ever get a tour, I'll be sure to take my own pictures. :)

Down the stairs, you'll see another common area (sorry for the fuzzy picture). We have a limited number of computer terminals here, plus a couple of microform machines. At the bottom of the picture is the reference desk for microforms. The green covered drawers are some of our more commonly-used maps. You can't see it, but there are big round study tables by the windows.

At the Office

This is the door to my office. On the door are 2010 census posters in Khmer, Lao, and Thai that my student worker at that time got for me. Those flyers, etc. on the side of my door are messy because the nameplate just got put there, and the workers moved them around. I haven't gotten around to fixing them.

I didn't take a picture of the interior of my office as it's a mess. But here's what you see from my door: the hallway leading to the reception area. These shelves are mostly for area studies and government documents librarians.

In the Stacks

As usual, I spent the first couple of hours or so on emails and feeds. Today, more time was spent on emails than on reading my feeds. Specifically, I had to write a lengthy feedback for one of my committee's report/workplan.

Then, it was back to serials review. I had mostly finished going through Burma serials the day before, so I just had to finish it in the morning. One of the last things I had to do was to look at a particular title (to see if we want to keep our subscription), which is in the stacks. I thought that would be a good opportunity to show you our stacks. This is the view of the 3rd floor stacks from the elevator:

Here's another view, this time in the Asian history section:

This was the title for which I was looking. The verdict: keep the subscription.

One of the things I like to do when I'm in the stacks is to check in passing the titles that are in the sorting shelves or the return shelves, so that I can see what topics folks are researching. Somebody appears to be doing research on war in Asia and the Pacific or Australia's involvement in it.

Rest of the Day

After Brunei, I worked on the Malaysia titles. It was very disheartening to see that there are a total of over 1300 titles. I probably only got through about 150 titles. So more serials review on Monday.

I actually ate lunch away from my desk on Friday. My friend, who had been away from work all week, was finally back, so we ate lunch together and talked. In the afternoon, we also had some mochi ice cream. Also in the afternoon, I chatted a little with another co-worker.

So, that's my Friday. If I feel up to it, I would like to write a post about this whole Library in the Life Project experience, but we'll see if it will happen...

library day in the life 7.4

Or, A Day for Details

Today was supposed to be a day to buckle down and focus on my Southeast Asian serials review. And I did do that. But I also didn't. I had a hard time getting started this morning. In my usual check of various email accounts and social networking sites, I was seeing so many great links to blogs and articles that I spent a little bit more time on it than I've been doing during the earlier part of this week. Then, I started really chugging on the serials, though there were some minor distractions here and there.

Here's the approximate breakdown of my day:

• 3 hours - emails / social networking / feeds (including during lunch & snacktime)
• 4.5 hours - serials review
  
• 1 hour - reference desk (brought circulars)
• .25 - stretching (am), looking for snack (pm)
• .25 hour - student consult

The Main Road

Serials review was the order of the day. It was extremely painstaking work; it involved:

• looking at last year's list and transferring notes for the titles to this year's list
  
• looking up all the titles on LC CAPSEA (Library of Congress - Cooperative Acquisitions Program for Southeast Asia) site, including those not on the list (just to be sure), to a) check if other institutions have cancelled and b) see if the publications are relatively current
  
• looking up our catalog records for titles we're supposed to have and see if a) we have a record for them and b) if our holdings match what LC has listed as sent to us, then writing notes for each title on my Excel spreadsheet
  
• looking up on OCLC for titles we don't have and check the holdings of other institutions, especially UC Berkeley, as well as to find out subject headings for titles that I don't already have notes for
• checking list sent by the University of Washington for titles that they are cancelling
• deciding whether to keep, add, or cancel, then writing notes on the spreadsheet
• adding totals to another spreadsheet that's keeping track of budget for both monographs and serials
  

I didn't get very far at all. It took me 2 hours to finish Brunei, and that's one of the easy countries to do. I worked on Burma for 2 1/2 but didn't quite finish. There has to be an easier or smarter way to do this. I do believe, though, that once I do all this heavy work for all countries, then it will be much, much simpler work in subsequent years.

Side Roads

Though I had a clear project, I needed to work on, I also had to do a couple of things, such as:

• reference desk - It actually was very quiet because a) it's summertime and b) our main floor is being renovated and the reference room is so hidden that you really have to be determined to get there (or, more often the case, you really want to borrow a laptop, which is in the same area as the reference desk). To get to the desk, you have to go down the stairs from the ground level and go down this hallway. (Follow the light...)
  
  When you reach the door, you see our fancy sign.
  
  This is what the inside of the temporary reference reading room looks like.
  
  This is the view from the reference desk.
  
  
• circulars - For some countries, LC CAPSEA sends out circulars, or lists of titles; these come monthly. Since I knew the desk was probably going to be quiet (and it was to hard to do my serials review over there), I brought along circulars for the Philippines and Vietnam. All I did today was to go through the list and cross out the ones I already know I don't want, based on title or brief description. (Afterwards, I give it to my assistant or student to search on our catalog and OCLC for UCLA and other UC holdings, as well as to get subject headings and/or descriptions (since most of these are in languages I can't read) before I then make my decisions.) A note about Vietnam circulars: They are especially challenging because they do not have diacritics, and the Vietnamese language is all about diacritics. So, searching for more info is very difficult and time-consuming. I am really missing my student assistant (as I'm sure my staff assistant is), who won't be back until the winter quarter.
  

Off-Road

In addition to the things mentioned above, I also ended up doing other things, because a) I needed a break and b) I needed to deal with it right then before I forgot. These activities included:

• reading social networking posts/feeds - I get so much info through FB and, now, Twitter, especially related to libraries and librarianship. Examples from today include:
• Shepard Fairey, street artists brighten West Hollywood library - on a local library
• Are You Reading YA Lit? You Should Be. - on my favorite kind of literature
• Bravery based librarianship is the (only) future - on the need for pattern disruption in librarianship
• What Librarians Do - an infographic on the myriads of things librarians do (I do almost everything on there, except for the very technical stuff, such as actual preservation, cataloging, and creation of systems.)


• sending an email to the Preservation Officer - I saw him in the office, which reminded me that I had a couple of old materials in my possession: a set of ledgers and letters from early 20th century Philippines and an old Indonesian book of unindentified script. I want to add these to our collections, but they are in pretty bad shape, so I want to see if they're salvageable. He had to rush off to a meeting, so I sent him an email instead.
  
  This is the cover of the Indonesian book. I think it's leather.
  
  These are letters of previous owner (?) trying to ascertain the script; there is also a reply from a some expert -- he didn't actually know the answer, but he thought it was some sort of bastardized Arabic.
  
  And here's the actual content of the book. Do you know what script that is?
  
  This is the packaging for the Philippine materials; they belonged to a Mauro Tayko of Dumaguete. Have you ever heard of him? I wonder if it was sent by Donn V. Hart, well-known anthropologist and Philippine specialist.
  
  These are some of the papers on top, including a telegram (remember those? I never did get a chance to receive a telegram) receipt and a letter, both written in Spanish.
  
  Also included are ledgers, like the one below. As you can see, it's in terrible shape.
  
  
• look up classrooms for an instruction session - I know I'm supposed to do an instruction session in a week, but I actually hadn't thought about the details (too many other things to think about!). An email from the instructor nudged me, and I started to see if our classroom is available. However, it will all depend on how many student there will be -- I might have to book a classroom that requires permission from other people, so I started looking at possibilities. As this is a summer course, I realized that this might be a session that's more than an hour -- that's going to require more thinking/prep work. I sent an email to the instructor; I can't really move forward until I get more info. (Just got an email from the instructor: one hour is fine--whew!-- and 25 students--have to book a bigger room.)


• impromptu student consult - Okay, I admit it. I don't like it when students show up and think that I automatically have time to meet with them. I usually don't. I have other deadlines, and I have a lot these next two weeks. I especially don't like it when they show up 10 minutes before I have to leave work. (I am on a vanpool, and I have to leave exactly on time, or there will be 10 ticked off people waiting for me.) I asked if it was something that can be answered in 10 minutes, and they said it was just a quick question. Of course, it wasn't.
  
  The quick question was: where is the section for Filipino materials? The answer: there is no one section; it would depend on what your specific topic is. They didn't really know, so I told them to do some exploring first. I quickly showed them the library website (which they've never been on), the library catalog, and a federated search tool for general databases. Then, I said to make an appointment for additional help. I have to say that they were quite appreciative, so I'm glad I saw them after all.
  

So, that was my day. It was tiring; my back was aching by mid-morning. By late afternoon, I needed a little something sweet to reward myself and to keep myself awake, but I went searching for it too late; the store next door was already closed. Fortunately, there was a little bit of leftover ice cream from last week's retirement party. Yay! I was winding down my day with some ice cream and reading of emails/feeds. Until the students interrupted me, that is.

But it's all good. I had a good evening. I'm going to bed late again, though, writing this post. Tomorrow, more serials review. Oh, joy.