LibrarianActivist.org

The Center for Human Rights Documentation and Research is holding a free conference this October 4-6, 2007 on the subject of Human Rights Archives and Documentation.

Link to the conference.

-PC-

With the drama and urgency of a sportscaster, Hans Rosling debunks a few myths about the “developing” world. Rosling is professor of international health at Sweden’s world-renowned Karolinska Institute, and founder of Gapminder, a non-profit that brings vital global data to life. (Recorded February 2006 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 20:35) - More TEDTalks at http://www.ted.com

(via Citadel of the Blogs)

- JH

A reminder of the approaching deadline for submissions to this conference.
Apologies for cross-postings.

Call for papers

Taking a Stand: A Conference on Activism in Canadian Cultural Archives

This conference focuses on the archives of Canadian writers, visual artists,
performance artists, filmmakers, composers, and other culture creators who
are involved with activism and advocacy. How do archival materials show
imaginative work being created in the context of work for social justice or
in support of political action?

The conference invites dialogue between the archival, scholarly, and
cultural professions concerning how creative artists engage with activism
and advocacy. Activism may encompass concerns for religious or cultural
identity, poverty, racism, mental or physical disability,
gender equality, sexuality, or alternative and mainstream political
movements.

How is the intersection of art and activism demonstrated in archival
holdings and how could this connection be better documented? How do activist
or advocacy concerns overlap with imaginative creative work in artists’
archives? What new types of archival materials are emerging?

Presentations should be based on the content of Canadian archival holdings
and discuss Canadian creative producers. Proposals (300­500 words) and a
brief biographical note (50­100 words) should be sent to:
Dr. Kathy Garay garay@mcmaster.ca, Dr. Christl Verduyn cverduyn@mta.ca
, Catherine Hobbs catherine.hobbs@lac­bac.gc.ca
and Dr. Pierre Anctil panctil@uottawa.ca by 15 September 2006.

The conference will take place in Ottawa at Library and Archives Canada ,
June 12-14 2007.

*********
Appel de présentations

Prendre position : Un colloque sur l’activisme comme thème dans les archives
culturelles canadiennes

Ce colloque porte principalement sur les archives d’auteurs, d’artistes
visuels, d’artistes de la scène, de cinéastes, de compositeurs et d’autres
créateurs de culture canadiens qui se sont démarqués par leur activisme et
leurs prises de position. Comment les documents d’archives reflètent­ils la
création artistique dans le cadre d’engagements pour la justice sociale ou
le militantisme politique?

Le colloque a pour but le dialogue et l’échange dâ??idées parmi les
représentants des domaines de l’archivistique, des universités et du monde
de la culture, à propos de la façon dont les artistes et créateurs
s’adonnent à l’activisme et au militantisme. L’activisme peut être lié Ã
des préoccupations liées à l’identité religieuse ou culturelle, à la
pauvreté, au racisme, à des déficiences intellectuelles ou physiques, Ã
l’inéquité, à la sexualité, ou bien à des mouvements politiques
traditionnels ou alternatifs.

Comment cette convergence de l’art et de l’activisme se manifeste­t­elle
dans les fonds et collections d’archives, et comment pourrait­on mieux la
documenter? Comment les questions d’activisme ou de militantisme
s’entrecroisent­elles avec le travail de création et d’imagination? Quels
nouveaux types de documents d’archives commence­t­on à produire?

Les présentations devraient se baser sur le contenu de documents d’archives
canadiens et porter sur des artistes et cré ateurs canadiens. Veuillez faire
parvenir vos propositions (de 300 Ã 500 mots) et une courte biographie (de
50 Ã 100 mots) aux professeurs Christl Verduyn (cverduyn@mta.ca), Pierre
Anctil (panctil@uottawa.ca) ou Kathy Garay (, et à Catherine Hobbs
(catherine.hobbs@lac­bac.gc.ca) au plus tard le 15 septembre 2006.

Le colloque se déroulera à Ottawa, les 12-14 juin 2007 à Bibliothèque et
Archives Canada.

Catherine Hobbs,
Archivist, Literary Archives (English-language)
Library and Archives Canada
WS 598, 550 Blvd de la Cité
Gatineau, QC, K1A 0N4

Tel: (819) 934-8331 Fax: (819) 934-8333
e-mail: catherine.hobbs@lac-bac.gc.ca

- JH

The BCLA is at it again, creating really interesting and inspiring conferences. This year’s is entitled “Sharing a Vision: the power of collaboration”. Here are some of the many interesting presentations:

• Including the Socially Excluded: Community development strategies for public libraries: One of the speakers, Annette de Faveri, is part of the “Working Together Project”, a project to develop library services for the socially excluded started by the Vancouver Public Library but also running in other Canadian cities. You can check out an article written by de Faveri republished in Information for Social Change.
• Beyond Article 19: Examining Library Services in the context of Broad Human Rights: A talk given by the incredible Toni Samek. She is currently working on a book “Librarianship and human rights : a 21st century guide” that should be published this year.
• Libraries Across Borders: Assistance to libraries fund: Libraries Across Borders is one of BCLA’s interest committees and its mandate is “to give “under-libraried” areas within Canada and the World access to funding which will provide for the development and maintenance of local libraries.”
• Ain’t on the G&M Bestseller List: I think this is done at the ALA. It’s a roundtable where people have 90 seconds to describe an item, usually alternative materials, that would be good to add in your library’s collection. Sounds like fun!

There’s obviously much much more. Go check it out!!

I know this has made every listserv and LIS blog, but it’s worth mentionning again and again. The ALA council passed a resolution against the war in Iraq. It is wonderful news indeed, although, I think it’s over 2 years too late. The Librarians for Peace called for this type of resolution back in 2003:

One would think that the American Library Association (ALA) given an opportunity to express its opposition to what was declared to be imminent war, given an opportunity to protest at least the gross misallocation of the US’ own resources which this fantastically expensive war was known to entail, at a time when it was also known that our deficits were already skyrocketing and that our social, health and educational (including library) sectors were being savagely slashed, that - if not for moral reasons, for purely practical reasons - the American Library Association at its mid-winter 2003 conference in Philadelphia would have stood up and opposed the war.

Instead its Council and Executive consciously refused to oppose the war against Iraq, refused to embrace even a tepid, least-common-denominator resolution, based on self-interest alone, created to allow it to ’say no to war’!