libraries

I wanted to add a couple more libraries and other resources regarding The Blast and other anarchist materials held in the Bay:

California State University (East Bay) and the University of California (Santa Cruz) also have original editions of The Blast.

I haven't been to the Longhaul Infoshop in Berkeley in a good while, but they should have materials on anarchist history in the Bay Area. It may not go as far back as the 1910's, but i know they have a sort of library in there.

Freedom Archives is an audio archive with materials on all kinds of social movements in the Bay Area and beyond. Doing a search for "anarchism" gives you a number of results on the anarchist inspired Food Not Bombs project. (Searching for "anarchy" or "anarchists" brings some stuff up, but it's not Bay Area stuffs.)

The Labor Archives at San Francisco State University has one entry of materials relating to anarchism:
* JEAN PAULINE: (b. 1921) Retired from Modern Times Bookstore Collective in 1996 after
twenty-five years; discusses youth in Brooklyn, 1920s-1930s, early interest in cooperatives and
anarchism, coming to California, 1944; helping establish Peace and Freedom Party in San Diego,
1967; and Modern Times Bookstore Collective in San Francisco, 1971; describes assisting
victims of AIDS crisis, San Francisco, 1980s.
Interview conducted by Harvey Schwartz

The San Francisco Public Library has an entry for a 1992 anarchist newsletter called The Web. It's not clear what their holdings are. You might want to contact the archives of the San Francisco Public Library to see what they have as well.

Adding to my RR colleagues here: on scholarships, and on the connection of Chicana/o studies to librarianship:

While not everyone who graduates with a BA in Chicana/o Studies is necessarily a person of color, I would like to point out the scholarship opportunities from the American Library Association directed to such folks. The Spectrum Scholarship has been around for a decade now and has helped a number of students-of-color with costs through library school. The American Library Association has a bunch of other scholarships that anyone interested in librarianship should seek out as well. I am a spectrum scholar and like to promote when i can!

As for the connection of Chicano Studies to librarianship:

I see that you're in Ventura, between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. In Los Angeles, if you have time to get out there (and you can just email or call these folks, as well), there is the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research (SoCalLib)which broadly has materials on social movements in LA, there's UCLA's Chicano Studies Research Center Library & Archives, and the County of Los Angeles Public Library's Chicano Resource Center.

In Santa Barbara there is the University of California's California Ethnic & Multicultural Archive (CEMA) which is another institution to contact about the connections between your degree and librarianship.

I did a cursory search of Ventura County's libraries, and didn't find a specific repository of Chicana/o materials, but you should contact that system as well to see what they have.

Lexis Academic, University News, Chronicle of Higher Education, past 2 years gets 13 hits for the search: video games. These don't come right out and mention libraries specifically, but it is clear that some voice pointed concern about video games interfering with student's work. For example, a letter in CHE Feb 24, 2006; "Disengaged' Students Are the Victims, Not the Culprits" says: "All too eagerly, colleges augment the [pop-culture] trend, handing out iPods and dignifying video games like Grand Theft Auto as worthy of study." In the September 2, 2005 issue, "Logging On, Tuning Out" quotes a few health officials and medical professionals on the question of students’ addiction to computer games. One article, "For Many Students, One Computer Is Not Enough", mentions the overloading of campus computer infrastructure.

University Wire gets 645 hits on the search: video games, but the search: video games and libraries is mainly "pro" video games – at least to the extent of collecting them as important social and cultural artifacts. Rather than plowing through 645 hits in hopes of finding something that implies disagreement with libraries’ collecting these games, I would try a number of other words. Video games and students cuts those 645 University Wire hits down to 186. A quick scan finds "Video games distract students from classes" Staff Editorial, Sidelines; SOURCE: Middle Tennessee State U. April 16, 2007.