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#libraries

26 posts22 participants0 posts today
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It comes from a loose coalition of #archivists & #librarians, who are standing athwart #history & yelling “Save!” They belong to organizations such as the #InternetArchive, which co-created a project called the End of Term Web Archive to back up the federal web in 2008; the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative, or #edgi; & #libraries at major #universities such as #MIT & the University of #Michigan.

As the #Trump regime deletes the bio of Gen. Colin Powell and the story of the 6888th Central Battalion (the 1st all black women battalion) from the Arlington Cemetery website and bans #Books about #blackhistory from being discussed in presidential #libraries it seems like a good time to talk about how to just exist in #america as a black person is a political act.
#BlackMastodon #BlackFedi #bookstodon

kyradavisauthor.substack.com/p

Blood, Sweat & Words by Kyra Davis Lurie · The Politics Of Being BlackBy Kyra
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Update. "#Trump Executive Order Targets #IMLS for Closure"
wordsandmoney.com/trump-execut

"In a March 14 Executive Order, President Donald Trump has targeted seven more federal agencies for permanent closure, including the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

If some parts of IMLS are "statutorily required" and cannot be shut down by an executive order, the #OMB has seven days to show it.

"EveryLibrary is hosting a petition [to keep IMLS open]…The American Library Association has…weighed in with a statement."

Words & Money · Trump Executive Order Targets IMLS for ClosureIn a March 14 Executive Order, President Donald Trump has targeted seven more federal agencies for permanent closure, including the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The order states that the president has determined IMLS is “unnecessary” and gave agency officials seven days to submit a report to the OMB

get library cards and use them often (online e-book and audiobook rentals count!). sign up to volunteer at your local library. donate money to your library’s general fund. run for a spot on the library board.

join and participate in your local “friends of the library” group. donate books (if your library accepts book donations). set up your own little free library. vote for library funding when it’s on your local ballot.

The Guerrilla-Librarian Resistance

“My dad’s from Bosnia, and that’s informed my outlook on what can be irretrievably lost,” he said, citing the destruction of nearly two million books when Sarajevo’s National Library was shelled in 1992. Now he’s teaching dozens of Americans to save data from their own rogue government
#libraries #DOGE #RESIST
newyorker.com/news/the-lede/th

The New Yorker · The Volunteer Data Hoarders Resisting Trump’s PurgeBy Julian Lucas
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Update. "A Call for Harm Reduction Strategies"
katinamagazine.org/content/art

"The new US presidential administration has launched an unprecedented assault on research and higher education. This isn’t just collateral damage from wide-ranging realignment of budgets, which would be bad enough, but an orchestrated attack on academic freedom, research funding, and the institutional autonomy that underpins intellectual progress…Resistance is most effective when collective action amplifies individual efforts rather than occurring in isolation. This means fostering more frequent and open dialogue across all sectors of the academic and research community [e.g. #libraries and #publishers]."

Katina Magazine | Annual ReviewsA Call for Harm Reduction StrategiesThe Trump administration has launched an orchestrated attack on academic freedom, research funding, and the institutional autonomy that underpins intellectual progress. We must act now, together.

Public #libraries should host #Mastodon servers. I really think this could be a good thing.

The county (or city/town depending on how it works in your area) IT department could host it, and people would use their library card to access the server. Or, alternatively, perhaps some kind of private-public partnership could be arranged where a non-profit organization handles the hosting and library staff can administer it.

My thinking is: #fediverse platforms like Mastodon offer a high quality, ad-free social media experience, but there are barriers to entry that will keep most people from benefitting from it. It’s been discussed ad nauseam, but there are the technical barriers. I don’t see financial barriers discussed as often though. It costs money to maintain your own server, and even with many people chipping in, most people aren’t going to pay a few bucks or more a month to use a social media platform. There are of course free client apps, but the best ones cost money, at least in my opinion.

Maybe this isn’t the strongest point to make at a time when libraries are struggling to stay funded and are likely at risk of losing a significant amount of funding, but assuming that’s a problem with a solution, allocating funds to #library budgets to run a Mastodon server (I’m guessing a relatively small line item) seems doable. Content moderation is another issue to be dealt with, but again, I think one not without a solution.

Thoughts?