Overcoming Silence - 9 June 2010
Radical Reference and the Right to the City
by Melissa Morrone
Red Channels got in touch with Radical Reference in the summer of 2009 to be part of a series of films related to "the right to the city." The specific event that we were invited to was called "Historical Memory: The Library in 1956" which was chiefly a screening of a short documentary by Alain Resnais about the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Toute la mémoire du monde) and a feature film about censorship and McCarthyism in a U.S. public library (Storm Center). Both films were made in 1956 but represent different aspects of librarianship—and not just the difference between the missions of a public library and of a national library (which, strictly speaking, the U.S. does not have). Toute la mémoire du monde explores the treatment of *materials* by the institution that will house and care for them, while Storm Center focuses on the experiences of *individuals*, particularly the head librarian, who are involved with a type of library that is influenced by the political climate of its municipality. There is an excellent write-up of both films by a librarian present at the screening, posted at http://thedeskset.org/?p=665.
Radical Reference is a nationwide collective of library workers and students that supports activist communities, progressive organizations, and independent journalists by providing professional research support, education and access to information. We've been around since the heady days leading up to the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City.
The NYC collective of Rad Ref was happy to have Red Channels reach out to us and make us part of this community event. The Brecht Forum is a great venue, and the crowd included library types as well as ordinary folks. After the two films, there was a group discussion that touched on topics from intellectual freedom in libraries to public library practices in times of budget cuts (is the solution to buy only titles with mass appeal?). A non-librarian spoke about the importance of libraries' offering up a range of views—they are both repositories and living collections, she said. We also learned, from a librarian and Rad Ref member who had recently returned from an international zine library conference in France, that there are municipally-funded zine libraries in some French cities with socialist mayors!
Any event that gets library workers and library users together to discuss issues of shared interest is time well spent, in my opinion. I hope that Red Channels continues their work of bringing people into community spaces to view provocative films and talk about what matters to them.