Essential to the Public: Libraries at the End of the World
Live transcription is available here.
Libraries are among the last funded public spaces open to the public. Anyone can enter a library and borrow a book, join a storytime, learn to read, meet with a friend, use the bathroom, warm up in the winter and cool down in the summer, among the many other resources and services available in the building. Libraries are also under attack by organized extremists who use censorship as a bludgeon against one of the few public institutions still standing. From Florida to California, Michigan to New York, book ban attempts are swiftly followed by efforts to defund the library. As progressives, we must be as organized as they are, putting libraries on the top of our organizing agenda.
Emily Drabinski is Critical Pedagogy Librarian at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. She publishes and presents widely on power and politics in libraries with a focus on organized labor. Drabinski’s term as President of the American Library Association will begin in June 2023.
This event is co-sponsored by Project NIA, the Barnard Center for Research on Women (BCRW), and the Barnard Library. Project NIA hosted a related event, Toward Narrating A People’s History of U.S. Public Libraries, on March 4.
Accessibility
ASL and live transcription will be provided. RSVP is encouraged.