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...