Although this lecture was a long time ago, I am going to try my best to sum up the main themes of it. There are three requirements for being able to participate in the global knowledge society. They are literacy, or the ability to read and write, content, which refers to the information being in one's language and being suitable to one's needs, and access to that content, which means having an internet connection, having transportation to libraries, etc.
The main theme of this presentation was that racism was very alive in libraries before the 1960s. In the early 1903s, there were very few libraries in the South. Franklin Delano Roosevelt introduced the Works Progress Administration, which developed suitable libraries. This helped to put a lot of libraries in the South. For example, Ruth W. Brown was fired for circulating Nazi propaganda, when she was truly fired for being an early integrator. Emily Reed was almost even fired in 1959 for circulating a book called "The Rabbits Wedding" because there was a picture of a white rabbit and a black rabbit on the cover. Finally, the ALA banned all segregated libraries in 1962.
The thing to take away from this lecture is that many racist acts were taking place related to libraries, but the wrong-doers would try to cover it up by rationalizing them in some way. World War 2 and accusations of communism were a few of the more popular excuses.
Video Reflection
14 years ago
To add a few more about Robbins' presentation:
ReplyDeleteMostly the South didn't have any libraries, and very poor funding for schools. Julius Rosenwall of Chicago had to go down and set up schools in the South for the blacks that lived down there. During WWII many scientists and their wives were brought into towns in the South to work in petroleum factories, which led to the educated women starting organizations in churches, YWCA buildings, libraries and schools. They often were also apart of CORE (congress of racial equality).
Her ending point was that the digital divide is news because it is digital, not because it is a divide.