Al Kagan ALA Social Responsibilities Round Table Abstract This article is a five-year update to the author’s book, Progressive Library Organizations: A Worldwide History, published by McFarland in 2015. It includes information on all the organizations covered in the book except the Library and Information Workers Organisation of South Africa which folded in 2000. These … Read more Progressive Library Organizations Update, 2013-2017
The MIRIAM BRAVERMAN MEMORIAL PRIZE, a presentation of the Progressive Librarians Guild (PLG), is awarded each year for the best paper about an aspect of the social responsibilities of librarians, libraries, or librarianship. Papers related to archivists, archives, and archival work are also eligible. The winning paper will be published in a forthcoming issue of … Read more Miriam Braverman Memorial Prize
Message from Michael Matthews, Progressive Librarian Book Review Editor: Dear Progressive Library Workers: Do you like balmy summer late afternoons, listening to the crickets chirp as you paddle a canoe along a mountain stream while watching a mother moose and her adorable calf drink clear, unpolluted water as an eagle swoops down, clutching a PCB-free … Read more Call for book reviewers for Progressive Librarian
In Defense of Libraries and Culture in the Middle East Statement from the Progressive Librarians Guild: Media coverage of the destruction of libraries and antiquities in northern Iraq during March 2015 has aroused the indignation of people around the world. The Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, has initiated this destruction and used … Read more In Defense of Libraries and Culture in the Middle East
Dear Colleagues, The *Progressive Librarian* editors’ cooperative is planning an issue to commemorate the Freedom Libraries of Freedom Summer 1964 which is being done in conjunction with reprinting Miriam Braverman’s 50 year old *SLJ* work “Mississippi Summer” November 1965 *School Library Journal*, pages 31 – 33. In a message from one of the editors, (Elaine … Read more CFP in celebration of Miriam Braveman’s “Mississippi Summer”
Elaine Harger sent the following note to PLG members this morning… Dear PLGers, Yes, 25 years ago, about 20 librarians from up-and-down the east coast met in NYC for the first meeting of what became the Progressive Librarians Guild. We didn’t have a name until the midwinter conference of ALA in Chicago in 1990, but … Read more PLG’s 25th Anniversary – A Message to Members from Elaine Harger
McMaster University Librarian Jeff Trzeciak’s recently revealed in a talk at Penn State that he plans not to hire librarians in the future at his library, setting off a firestorm in Canada. (He said that he plans not to hire MLS holding librarians for professional positions but people with PhD’s in other fields instead.) The … Read more University of Alberta PLG on McMaster University Librarian Jeff Trzeciak’s rather open comments
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS Are you an LIS student interested in activism and the struggle for social justice? Do you stay awake at night thinking about how your politics might inform your professional practice? The MIRIAM BRAVERMAN MEMORIAL PRIZE, a presentation of the Progressive Librarians Guild (PLG), is awarded each year for the best paper about … Read more Miriam Braverman Memorial Prize – Call for Submissions (student paper contest)
Folks at the Progressive Librarians Guild have put the full text of back issues of their journal, Progressive Librarian, online. Coverage goes back to issue number one, from 1990. I was on the editorial board of Progressive Librarian for a number of years, and consider them an important venue for library literature that works to … Read more Progressive Librarian in full text
June 1, 2010 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Miriam Braverman Memorial Prize Winner Announced (University of Oregon, Eugene, OR) The Progressive Librarians Guild is pleased to announce the winner of the 2010 Miriam Braverman Memorial Prize. This year’s prize has been awarded to Kristen Hogan for her essay entitled ‚ “‘Breaking Secrets’ in the Catalog: Proposing the … Read more 2010 Braverman Prize Winner
This post is a presentation of two lists of priorities – first, priorities of the Social Responsibilities Round Table (SRRT), and second, a list of the kind of issue that I think SRRT ought to emphasize instead. The first list is as complete a list as I was able to compile of the subjects of … Read more Two sets of priorities
Announcement that went to PLGnet-L this morning: The Progressive Librarians Guild is pleased to announce the winner of the 2009 Miriam Braverman Memorial Prize. Sarah Clark has been awarded the prize for her essay entitled “Marketing the Library? Why Librarians Should Focus on Stewardship and Advocacy.” Ms. Clark is currently enrolled in the Department of … Read more 2009 Miriam Braverman Prize Winner Announced
Questioning Library Neutrality: Essays from Progressive Librarian, edited by Alison Lewis, has been out for a while. I was just taking a look at it, and it occurred to me that it might be a good thing to put Alison’s introduction to the book online, so I have done that. It’s a good, quick read … Read more Questioning Library Neutrality – Introduction
Progressive Librarians Guild Calls for Elsevier to End Corrupt Publishing Practices and for Library Associations to Take Advocacy Role on Behalf of Scientific Integrity http://libr.org/plg/elsevier.php Progressive Librarians Guild. May 12, 2009. Elsevier, which describes itself as the “world’s leading publisher of scientific and health information,” was partner to the efforts of Merck & Co. to … Read more PLG statement on Elsevier’s fake journals
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS Are you an LIS student interested in activism and the struggle for social justice? Do you stay awake at night thinking about how your politics might inform your professional practice? The MIRIAM BRAVERMAN MEMORIAL PRIZE, a presentation of the Progressive Librarians Guild (PLG), is awarded each year for the best paper about … Read more Braverman Prize – Call for Papers
This is a very long post and one that I think some people will wish I had simply sent to the PLG listserv instead of putting it here before the world. I have chosen to post it here because 1) I think that it is a more effective way of getting the issues that I … Read more On the past, present, and future of PLG
Jeff Lilburn has reviewed Questioning Library Neutrality for the blog LibrarianActivist. His review is careful not to be overly excited by the book, but is much appreciated as the first review of the book to hit the screens, and by a person who understands what the book is trying to say. Thank you Jeff and … Read more Review of Questioning Library Neutrality
It is still not dead. A resolution has just been sent to the ALA Council list for discussion, calling on ALA to recognize the dissident “independent librarians” as members of the library community who deserve our support as colleagues, calling for the return of “library materials” to the “independent libraries,” and calling for the release … Read more The Cuba Debate – Why the “middle” is not the middle
Media Release Contact: Dr. Terrence W. Epperson Chair, Miriam Braverman Memorial Prize Committee Progressive Librarians Guild Phone: 609/771-3352 FAX: 609/637-5177 E-Mail: epperson@tcnj.edu April 29, 2008 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Miriam Braverman Memorial Prize Winner Announced (The College of New Jersey, Ewing, NJ) ‚Äì The Progressive Librarians Guild is pleased to announce the winner of the 2008 … Read more 2008 Braverman Winner
American Libraries’ April issue was focused on the environment and global warming, and had an “On My Mind” piece by The Progressive Librarians Guild‘s Elaine Harger: Global Warming and Us: Assessing Our Environmnetal and Professional Liability. This brief article is thought provoking and worth a read.