retrobacklore.net » radicalreference

My year in review – a month or so late.

Renee — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:51:31 +0000

In the year 2009 I…

1.) Hosted many Interlibrary Lushes, then…didn’t.
One of the biggest changes was the passing of the Interlibrary Lush torch. I began Interlibrary Lush, the monthly meetup for librarians and information professionals, in September 2008, and one year later I decided to move on to have time for other projects, and let someone else take over. So that is done. Besides the occasional, ‘How do I start a librarian happy hour in my town?’, I have little part in the group but the new organizers continue to host meetups each month. For more information on ILL check out the MySpace page, as well as the Facebook group.

2.) Learned to accept that I work in an archive, not a library
Having worked in libraries since 2001, this was difficult for me. For a long while I wanted to return to the library environment, the one I felt most comfortable in, and found it frustrating to live in a city with such a competitive job market – particularly for librarians. Two years ago, I found work in a departmental archive, and did not like it. I felt like I was settling, but over time this changed. It took a lot of work but now the archive is something of my own creation. I have a ’system’ in place – it is efficient and it works, and I am pretty happy about that.

3.) Completed many Rad Ref related projects
Which I have mentioned here and here and here.

4.) Wrote a fanzine about Margot Ruth Kidder
The fanzine is called Margot Ruth Kidder: Queen of the Margotnauts and is about all things related to Ms. Kidder. For those of you not familiar with her work…well, guess what? You actually ARE familiar with her work! Maybe from Sisters or Amityville Horror but most likely from the Superman movies where she played Lois Lane. Issue #2 is in the works but its completion date, at this point, is unknown.

5.) Read one million comics books
Yes, one million comics books, which need to be reviewed, so I will, here, and soon!

Premiere of Bitch Magazine’s Lending Library!

Renee — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 19:11:24 +0000

Back in August of 2008, myself and a few other members of the Portland Radical Reference Collective came together to organize and catalog the 800+ titles that comprised Bitch Magazine’s lending library. After some researching, we created a thesaurus and assigned subjects to each book, then had a cataloguing party with a slew of Rad Ref members and labeled and shelved the collection in its entirety. We determined the ’social catalouging’ site LibraryThing, which is cheap, has a social networking component, and is pretty intuitive to use, would be used to catalog the Bitch library. Procedures were then written up to assist future volunteers in assigning subject headings and cataloguing new titles. And that was that! Bitch volunteers finished the online cataloguing and on July 30th, during Portland’s Last Thursday, the lending library will make its debut!

Unfortunately, I’m guessing the Dolly photo will have to be changed at some point.

From Bitch Magainze’s Facebook events page:
Come celebrate the grand opening of our community lending library with us! It’s happening at our Alberta Street office during July’s Last Thursday. The Bitch staff will be hanging out and showing off our 800+ book collection that covers topics like feminist theory, media studies, queer and gender studies, history, and sociology, to name a few. Bring an ID and a piece of mail and we’ll get you signed up to borrow books.

The library is open to the public on Mondays and Wednesdays from 4-7pm, and on other weekdays by appointment. We hope to see you on Thursday!

More DEETs:
Date: Thursday, July 30, 2009
Time: 5:00pm – 8:00pm
Location: The Bitch Offices, 4930 NE 29th Ave., Portland, OR
Email: library@b-word.org

And don’t forget to check out the library catalog here: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/bitchlibrary

Everything you wanted to know about public records access and archival methods in 15 minutes or less!

Renee — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 05:48:41 +0000

Interested in copyright issues, information access, public records, and seeing my face turn 30 shades of red? Then you may be interested in the Rad Ref Collective’s “What is fair, free, and available, and how to make sure it lasts” talk Saturday, June 6th @10a at the Portland Anarchist Bookfair…

Flyer courtesy of Axiom Infoshop

So you want to become a librarian?

Renee — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 04:55:35 +0000

Next month myself and a few other very awesome librarians from the Portland Rad [so rad, on so many levels] Ref Collective will be taking part in the ‘So You Want to become a Librarian’ panel hosted by the Independent Publishing Resource Center. We will discuss the librarian’s journey, beginning with our own stories as once innocent, starry-eyed Lib Sci students thrust into the sobering world of unemployment, particularly in Portland, and how we learned to cope and eventually emerge triumphant. So don’t worry! I promise the panel will have a happy ending.

Blurb + Deets:
Wed Feb 4, 7pm
How To Become A Librarian (at IPRC)
Cost: Free
Do you love getting lost in a maze of book stacks? Are you passionate about community outreach, intellectual freedom, and the dissemination of information? Do you meticulously organize your personal library and what’s more – enjoy it? If so, you may want to consider the field of library science! Join four local librarians as they discuss librarianship in every shape and form – from what it means to be a librarian in the new millennium [and in Portland] to choosing the right school and landing employment afterwards. Q&A session to follow – all are welcome!