Libraries amid protest : books, organizing, and global activism / Sherrin Frances.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Frances, Sherrin, author.

Series:

Studies in print culture and the history of the book

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Libraries and society.

Libraries and society--Case studies.

Libraries and community.

Libraries and community--Case studies.

Libraries--Political aspects.

Libraries.

Libraries--Political aspects--Case studies.

Protest camps.

Genre:

Case studies.

Physical Description:

xiii, 235 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Amherst : University of Massachusetts Press, [2020]

Summary:

"In September 2011, Occupy Wall Street activists took over New York's Zuccotti Park. Within a matter of weeks, the encampment had become a tiny model of a robust city, with its own kitchens, first aid stations, childcare services--and a library of several thousand physical books. Since that time, social movements around the world, from Nuit Debout in Paris to Gezi Park in Istanbul, have built temporary libraries alongside their protests. While these libraries typically last only a few weeks at a time and all have ultimately been destroyed by police, each has managed to collect, catalog, and circulate books, serving a need not being met elsewhere. Libraries amid Protest unpacks how these protest libraries-labor-intensive, temporary installations in parks and city squares, poorly protected from the weather, at odds with security forces--continue to arise. In telling the stories of these surprising and inspiring spaces through interviews and other research, Sherrin Frances confronts the complex history of American public libraries. She argues that protest libraries function as the spaces of opportunity and resistance promised, but not delivered, by American public libraries"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Part 1. Definition of a protest library

Origins (BiblioSol, Madrid)

Materiality and virtuality (BiblioSol, Madrid)

Behavior in space (OWS People's Library, New York)

Visual spectacle (OWS People's Library, New York)

Library as a democratic institution (NYPL Central Library, New York)

Part 2. Libraries and undercurrents

Carnegie's influence (Biblioteca Popular, Oakland, CA)

Library as social space (Biblioteca Popular, Oakland, CA)

Borders and barricades (Gezi Park Library, Istanbul)

A library without books (Maidan Library, Kiev)

Lenin's influence (Library of Ukrainian Literature, Moscow)

Part 3. Reinvention

The new shape of space (BiblioDebout Paris)

Phases of the protest library (BiblioDebout Lyon)

Reinvention as collective (Freedom Square Library, Chicago)

Circling back (BiblioSol reinvented as Tres Peces Tres, Madrid).

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781625344915

9781625344908

1625344902

1625344910

OCLC:

1129173722

Publisher Number:

99985061506