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QUESTION: Radical Library History

Submitted by Anonymooose on Wed, 02/04/2009 - 5:28pm
question / pregunta: 

I'm looking at writing a paper for my Library History class (I'm in my final semester of an MLIS degree) on radical libraries. I'd like to start with anarchist/socialist libraries in the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as libraries associated with unions, or even worker co-op libraries. Ideally, I'll bring it down to the present day - I've got personal experience with working at infoshops, but little info that could be cited in an academic paper. I've been doing some looking in library history journals, but there seems to be very little out there beyond some articles on mechanics' institutes and the like. Does anyone have any leads for me?

Answers

Answer posted by: jenna

I affirm the recommendation for Toni Samek's book Intellectual freedom and social responsibility in American librarianship, 1967-1974 and her more recent Librarianship and human rights : a twenty-first century guide. You might check out Shinjoung Yeo's annotated Alternative Libraries and Infoshops list for leads, especially the bibliography developed by Cherie Yanek at the bottom.

There's a book predating Samek's that she cites several times. I can't remember the title offhand, but it'll be in the notes repeatedly.

Answer posted by: MRM

There is a relevant chapter in the original (1972) Revolting Librarians, edited by Celeste West and Elizabeth Katz: "Free Libraries and Other Ways to Fly" by Elizabeth Katz.

You might want to take a look at Activism in American Librarianship, 1962-1973, edited by Mary Lee Bundy and Frederick J. Stielow, though it doesn't really talk about radical libraries (it's primarily about activism from within the American Library Association).

Since you're in Montreal (McGill GSLIS is my alma mater!), you should of course mention the local anarchist library, DIRA, never mind the academics!

Answer posted by: tripmastermonkey

http://www.libr.org/pl/16_Herrada.html
On the Labadie Collection

from JSTOR on the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research
-The Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research, Los
Angeles The Southern California Library for Social Studies and
Research, Los Angeles
-Sarah Cooper
-The Library Quarterly, Vol. 59, No. 1 (Jan., 1989), pp. 47-54

-The Oral History of the Left in the United States: A Survey and Interpretation
-Paul Buhle, Robin D. G. Kelley
-The Journal of American History, Vol. 76, No. 2 (Sep., 1989), pp. 537-550

from JSTOR on anarchist education:
-Politics and Culture in Anarchist Education: The Modern School of New
York and Stelton, 1911-1915
-Florence Tager
-Curriculum Inquiry, Vol. 16, No. 4 (Winter, 1986), pp. 391-416

from JSTOR on the IWW
-The Intellectual World of the IWW: An American Worker's Library in
the First Half of the 20th Century The Intellectual World of the IWW:
An American Worker's Library in the First Half of the 20th Century
-Larry Peterson
-History Workshop, No. 22, Special American Issue (Autumn, 1986), pp. 153-172
#1Submitted by critzo on Thu, 02/05/2009 - 11:07pm.

Toni Samek

You might look at Toni Samek's 2001 title, Intellectual freedom and social responsibility in American librarianship, 1967-1974 as a starting point.
http://isbndb.com/d/person/samek_toni/books.html
#2Submitted by DebbieO on Fri, 02/06/2009 - 8:40am.

Radical Library History

International Association of Labour History Institutions (IALHI): membership includes libraries and archives of trade union federations and trade unions in Europe.

The Labadie Collection at the University of Michigan : based on the donated library of a prominent Detroit anarchist (late 19th century, early 20th).

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