Meeting 15.04.15
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Discussion began with getting a feel for what we mean by ‘radical librarianship’
as a few people there had come along feeling unsure about what exactly we
hope to achieve and wanted to learn more - explained safe space ideology and
also that by ‘radical’ we don’t necessarily also have to mean ‘militant’
Listed potential goals for the group - regular meetings, twitter chats, an event this
summer, some kind of publication blog/zine or such to discuss/publicise our
ideology in a more cogent way
Discussed the connotations of the term ‘radical’ and whether this might put
people off - considering ways we can promote the group and dispel negative
connotations of name as Twitter character limit doesn’t allow for this level of
explanation/detail
o How safe do we feel identifying as ‘radical’?
o Blog to be established
Established interest in what kind of action we can take as a collective - possibility
of things like letter writing campaigns and such - further discussion required as
group expands
Noted that working can often be draining, we discussed our hope to help revive
interest and passion for sector in those feeling fatigued
Discussed the relative safety of libraries in Oxford and surrounding area possibility of discussion with public libraries, hope to get an idea of how or why
libraries are safe and use this information for advocacy purposes
o Are library services more valued in more affluent areas despite the fact
they’re more needed in less affluent areas? - worth investigating and
discussing further
o Hoping to get people from public libraries coming along as this will add to
discussion - need to look into ways of promoting group around
Oxford(shire)
Reiterated the purpose of the value of information professionals in the information
age - people do not realise the need for us as they think they can find everything
they need at home
o The idea that google and other such services ‘get to know’ you and narrow
searches depending on what it thinks you want/need - this isn't always
positive and information professionals we can educate on information
literacy so that people aren’t experiencing this restriction
o Discuss further - possibility of running information literacy sessions in
future?
Discussed the ides of value from the perspective that because material value is
more tangible it’s hard to promote libraries/librarianship, which holds a more
abstract kind of value (ie not obvious financial gain), and is an unfortunate
consequence of neoliberal values, marketising libraries or making public libraries
into more commercial spaces is perhaps a consequence of this - considering
ways in which we can advocate for libraries bearing this in mind as the concern is
that those who need free/accessible services will end up in the position of being
financially/economically locked out
Discussed ideas for meeting
o Contact established with RLC SE group regarding a national meeting, our
group feel Birmingham is the best location - further
discussion/collaboration will hopefully occur between us and SE
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Still hope to have a smaller gathering in Oxford as this is something more
of our group can feel comfortable committing to - perhaps a day of
talks/workshops
Took down google email addresses as provisionally we intend to communicate
using a google+ community (and are already using drive for sharing documents)
but also looking into an alternative as slightly wary of google
o Community pages to be established but alternative forms considered for
those who do not have google accounts (everyone so far does)
Decided monthly meetings was too infrequent at this point if we hope to establish
a meeting, as such we hope to meet again toward the end of the month. Meeting
date set provisionally for 28th April, but will require finding a keyholder for OARC
again.
o Look into how to become a keyholder?