Library Juice is the library blog of Rory Litwin, and continues where his online serial of the same name left off in the Fall of 2005. From 1998 to late 2005, Library Juice, the web and email zine, covered topics of interest to passionate librarians, from a political Left perspective that he believes is linked to and implicit in the fundamental values of the profession in its modern form. Among the topics covered in Library Juice have been and still are:
- Information as a public good (and attendant political struggles)
- Privacy
- Government and corporate secrecy and disinformation
- Intellectual Freedom and Civil Liberties
- The Public Sphere and its decline
- International solidarity in information issues
- Print culture, web culture, visual culture, and the meaning of literacy
- The state of the library profession (issues of identity, work life, and deprofessionalization)
- IP: Information Policy, Intellectual Property
- The Information Society
- Information Ethics
- Social infrastructures
- The Decline of Civilization and the position in which it puts us as librarians
I moderate comments. I don’t accept comments that have hate, and consider anonymity a reason not to approve a comment.
Feel free to write to Rory Litwin at: rory [at] libraryjuicepress.com.
ISSN 1544-9378
Congratulations on your new site!
I just had to say something about the word “decline” — especially decline of civilization. I’m reminded of that famous quote of Gandhi:
REPORTER: What do you think of Western civilization?
GANDHI: It would be a good idea.
But even the idea of decline of the public sphere is troublesome. I don’t think it’s so simple. Take the public sphere — there may have been a time when it was larger or healthier somehow FOR SOME PEOPLE, but it was totally denied to many people.
Too often, including in libraries where I have worked and colleges where I have studied, the presence of newcomers has been accompanied by worried discussions on the part of the old guard of “decline” — decline of standards, of civilization, of housing prices, etc. And that can crete a hostile environment for the newcomers. The tone and sentiment is even reminiscent of the white flight people like myself have witnessed in our lifetimes — we move in and the old residents say “there goes the neighborhood”.
So anyway, i don’t think I’m alone in my sensitivity to the usage of “decline”.
Comment by iespinal — March 8, 2006 @ 5:58 am
Good point, Isabel.
Comment by Rory Litwin — March 8, 2006 @ 6:42 am
[...] Litwin at the excellent Library Juice blog suggests three things we can do to remind ourselves why privacy [...]
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[...] with the final product and am so happy to have been able to do something like this. Working with Rory Litwin was great and Library Juice Press is a top notch operation. Speaking of which, Litwin Books/Library [...]
Pingback by lauren’s library blog - My book is now available! — June 30, 2009 @ 9:52 pm
I live in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, and my partner and I would like to open a community library in a very crowded, poor neighborhood here. Does anybody have any information or advice for somebody who would like to start this kind of project? Are there any organizations that might want to help support us while we develop this project? Thank you.
Comment by Andy — July 23, 2009 @ 11:51 am