Radical Reference: taking information to the street

Information Outlook, June, 2005 by Shinjoung Yeo, Joel J. Rane, James R. Jacobs, Lia Friedman, Jenna Freedman

Radical Reference (RR) is a volunteer collective of library workers (librarians, support staff, and library school students) who believe in promoting social justice and equality. We provide independent journalists, community activists, and the general public with reference services and access to information that may not otherwise be easily available, via our Web site and on the street at political events.

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RR was launched July 2004 to support citizens and activists protesting the Republican National Convention in New York City. During the convention, RR volunteers went into the streets to serve visitors from out of town, journalists, and anyone else who had a reference question. This "street reference service" was conducted using carefully crafted "ready reference kits" that included maps, transportation information, lists of emergency phone numbers, and so on (http://radicalreference.info/RNC_RRkit).

Teams of "home support" volunteers were also on call for questions that could not be readily answered on the street. Home support also acted as a virtual affinity group by monitoring local mainstream and alternative media to keep the street reference volunteers informed about various events and police activities during the convention.

In less than a year, RR has become well known in the activist communities, where people recognize the critical role that information professionals play in the movement for social justice.

In response to this increased visibility, RR has expanded its services to include fact-checking workshops and skill-sharing sessions on infoshops and alternative library resources, as well as fact checking at American Library Association (ALA) conferences. We have plans for projects as diverse as holding copyright activism sessions at ALA, creating indexes of alternative media resources, and creating an image archive for the New York City Independent Media Center. There are more than 150 RR volunteers across the United States, from a variety of professional backgrounds and with the ability to provide services in 10 languages.

Three factors have contributed to our group's success: recognition of community needs, well-managed collaboration among RR volunteers and with outside groups to meet those needs, and the skillful implementation of open-source computer technology to facilitate RR's work in the virtual environment.

Recognition of Community Needs

RR emerged in a political and social environment in which civil rights are under attack, corporate media fail to inform citizens in favor of entertaining them, and information itself has become a commodity to be bought and sold to the highest bidder. RR library workers advocate for the public interest and support activist communities with professional skills and expertise.

Many activists and organizations rely on quality information in their work; however, few have access to reliable and diverse information resources, or the time and skill sets to obtain that information in our rapidly changing world. By identifying this unmet information need, RR has been able to fill an important niche. RR volunteers have attended meetings of local activist organizations and participated in local events.

As a result of this direct participation, RR has become integral to these activist communities and able to provide services that are both responsive and proactive. For example, at the request of media activists in New York City, RR began providing research and fact-checking workshops, teaching people how to locate, analyze, and verify information. RR believes that to invigorate and empower underserved communities, it is crucial to teach them to recognize and satisfy their own information needs.

Collaboration

The second of RR's strengths is its commitment to collaboration. In the beginning, RR worked closely with the organizations planning for the Republican National Convention Convergence, and we have continued to seek opportunities to collaborate with many other groups. RR and the Boston Independent Media Center, for example, jointly organized a screening at the Lucy Parsons Infoshop of the film "Eyes on the Prize," a documentary that has not been publicly screened for more than 10 years because of copyright restrictions. This screening was part of a nationwide event--Eyes on the Screen--organized by Downhill Battle (www.downhillbattle.org/eyes/). As part of the event, RR led a discussion on copyright and its effect on public access to information.

We also enjoy close collaboration among our 150 volunteers, who bring diverse skill sets and social and political backgrounds to the group. RR's reference system is designed specifically to tap into this collective knowledge base by allowing for various avenues of input by volunteers, providing a wide range of resources to those seeking information. In addition, during outside events, street reference and home support volunteers work closely together to ensure quality service.

Open-Source Technology

As a largely virtual community, RR could not offer its collaborative services without the creative use of Internet technologies. RR consciously uses shared open-source technology, noncommercial software, and noncommercial Web hosting, maintaining our beliefs in synchronicity with our actions.