Progressive Librarians Guild
UA Chapter -- Summer/Fall 2009 Newsletter
Volume 2, Issue 1
From the President
Kristen Curé
Thanks to our very active and creative chapter members
as well as through collaborations with others in the com-
munity, Spring semester 2009 was packed with engaging
and successful events:
• Our first professional development event of the semes-
ter was a town hall discussion on the Google Books
settlement, led by SIRLS professor Peter Botticelli
on February 18, 2009: Google
and the Future of Libraries.
• As an ongoing project through
out the semester, we have col-
laborated with the Dry River
Collective to organize and cat-
alog their community resource
and zine library.
• PLG teamed up with LSO to
bring the Fourth Annual SIRLS
Graduate Student Symposium
the first weekend in March.
The symposium theme—Pro-
active Librarianship: Creative
and Innovative Approaches to
Information—came to life in
every aspect of the event. Stu-
dents attended a dinner with the Symposium Keynote
speaker, Rory Litwin the night before the presenta-
tions. The day of the symposium, funds were raised
for library and literacy projects in Belize and the ma-
jority of the student presentations covered progres-
sive topics.
• On March 25th, 2009, we held the Intellectual Prop-
erty Workshop for Progressive Librarians to look at
how intellectual copyright laws affect many aspects
of LIS professions, including: education and schol-
arly communications, information ethics and indig-
enous communities. Dan Lee, Kay Mathiesen, Atifa
Rawan and Eugenia Charles-Newton took part in the
panel and sparked an informative and dynamic dis-
cussion.
• On April 1, 2009, we invited Marti Lindsey to present
How to Get the Most Impact from Outreach. Her pre-
sentation focused on successful outreach approaches
for LIS professionals.
• Dawn Hunziker from the Disability Resource Cen-
ter brought us the Accessibility Workshop on April
13, 2009. Her very engaging and practical workshop
covered how to make web pages
and web documents more acces-
sible for people with disabilities.
The techniques she covered can
also benefit people relying on old
computers or even people who use
PDAs.
• We also participated in
three social events this semester:
an opening social at Hotel Con-
gress in January, a joint potluck
and barbeque with LSO and SLA
in April, and our one year anniver-
sary brunch at Lovin’ Spoonfuls in
May.
continued on next page
From the Editor
Welcome to our third newsletter. From events and work-
shops to community projects, the past semester has been
a whirlwind of activity for PLG-UA. Not only that, our
Chapter celebrated its first anniversary.
In this issue you can read about a few of the events spon-
sored by PLG-UA over the last semester: our workshop
on community outreach; our townhall discussion on the
continued on next page
1
continued from previous page (From the President)
• We closed the semester with the awarding of the first
ever Most Progressive Faculty Awards at the SIRLS
Graduation Ceremony on May 15, 2009.
As with the Fall semester, the Spring semester brought
us additional new members that contributed to the va-
riety of perspectives and voices that participate in our
group. Our focus on the position of Project Managers
as the event planners and community collaborators of
the group has allowed us to continue to program diverse
projects and events. Anyone, whether an officer or not,
can volunteer to be a Project Manager (or part of a Proj-
ect Manager’s support team), allowing a wide number
of members to become involved and take the lead PLG
events. This system helps to make PLG-UA more di-
verse by bringing more opportunities to more members
for leadership and teamwork experiences. It also allows
people to focus on the issues that they are most passion-
ate about—if you have an idea for a project or event that
you find compelling, you can make it a reality at PLG.
The spring and summer have also brought the gradua-
tion of two of our officers. Rebecca Bliquez, who served
as our very efficient secretary as well as on the sympo-
sium planning committee, graduated this year. Nicole
Pagowsky also graduated this year. As founding Presi-
dent, she not only worked to bring PLG-UA into being,
but it was her vision of the group as fun; creative; and
most of all, inclusive; that has allowed us to grow and
enabled the success of our many projects and events.
In addition to serving as President, Nicole was also a
part of the symposium planning committee and a proj-
ect manager for some of our events. Thanks to both of
you for your contributions and good luck in your future
endeavors!
Finally, a glimpse at some of what is planned for Sum-
mer and Fall 2009:
• In continued support of commitment to collabora-
tion with the community at large, we are in the early
stages of working with Read Between the Bars to or-
ganize and catalog their collection. As with our work
with the Dry River collective, we feel that establish-
ing community connections is an essential way for
us to use our LIS skills to improve our community.
• We are currently planning a Panel Discussion on
2
Traditional Cultural Expression and how progressive
librarians can work in culturally competent ways.
• Originally started as an Earth Day project, we will
be planting a desert tree with the Sahuaro Girl Scout
Council on their Tucson day camp and program
site.
• After the success of this spring’s workshop, we have
discussed with Dawn Hunziker the possibility of
bringing us another Accessibility Workshop.
• We also plan to complete our initial fundraising ef-
forts for our international library and literacy project
so that we can ship our first collection of books to
Belize.
If not already a member, we hope you will consider join-
ing PLG-UA this semester. Everyone is welcome—new
students, students who have been in the program for
some time, alumni and LIS professionals in town— and
we encourage as much participation as is comfortable
for each member. You will find information on how to
join in this newsletter, as well as in our online wiki.
Cheers!
Kristen Curé / President
continued from previous page (From the Editor)
Google Books settlement; the Fourth Annual SIRLS
Graduate Student Symposium jointly sponsored by
PLG-UA and LSO; our newly created Most Progressive
Faculty Awards; as well as an update on our ongoing
Books to Belize Project.
At the core of this newsletter is an in-depth look at one
of our community outreach projects: the organization
of the small lending library at Tucson’s Dry River Col-
lective.
These projects are just a slice of what UA-PLG and its
members have been up to over the past semester. Check
out From the President for other events and to see what
we have in store for the future.
Best,
Jez Gaddoura / Webmaster
Community Outreach Workshop: How to Get the Most
Impact from Outreach
Nicole Pagowsky

Progressive Librarians Guild - UA Chapter invited Marti Lindsey, Director of the Community Outreach & Education
Core (COEC) of the Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center (SWEHSC), at the UA School of Pharmacy, to
present her new research on community outreach on April 1, 2009. Marti explained her Synergistic Cascading Model
of Outreach to our group, along with how to reach audiences at four levels, and how to build on past successes.

Community outreach is essential to librarianship; it helps ensure libraries remain (or become) relevant to the com-
munities they serve, helps improve equitable access, and markets the library to those who might not be using it. Pro-
gressive Librarians Guild fully supports all of these objectives, and we were interested in learning how to promote
them through a better understanding of successful outreach. What is more, Marti is Director of an office with a focus
on environmentalism, environmental health, and educating special populations on these topics, so this event was a
perfect marriage of interests.

An important point Marti makes is that outreach is not effective as one-size-fits-all, and through Marti’s Synergistic
Cascading Model of Outreach, Marti was able to demonstrate how there are many different angles to consider when
trying to reach individuals and groups with a message. For successful outreach, flexibility is essential; understanding
the target audience and their needs (and wants), the environment and methods used to deliver the message, and how
best to measure successes means it is imperative to have a mindset of fluidity. After assessment and re-assessment, it
might then necessary to adjust and re-direct energies toward more suitable approaches.

The event turnout was excellent and some great discussions were spurred through Marti’s presentation. If you

Books to Belize Project

continued on page 5

Molly Osborn

The Books to Belize project endeavors to promote lit-

eracy and library development in Central America by
sending children’s books to Peace Corps Volunteers
working in Belize schools.

The books have been collected, and fund-raising efforts

continue to bring us closer to our goal. We extend our
sincere gratitude to the following businesses that have
assisted in our efforts. Thank you!

The Loft Cinema

Bookman’s
The Espresso Art Café
Raging Sage
Adventure Roasters
PLG-UA Founder and former President Nicole
Jimmy John’s
Pagowsky receiving the University of Arizona’s
Bentley’s House of Coffee & Tea
Graduate/Professional Leadership Award this
Café Luce
Spring. Congratulations!

3
 Members (l-r) Molly Osborn, Nicole Pagowsky, Rebecca Bliquez, and Kristen Curé hanging out at
the PLG-UA Semester Social held on January 30, 2009, at Hotel Congress.
Proactive Librarianship: The 4th Annual Graduate
Student Symposium
Kristen Curé
This year, the UA chapter of the Library Student Orga-
nization (LSO) teamed up with PLG-UA to organize the
4th Annual Graduate Student Symposium at the School
of Information Resources and Library Science. The
symposium theme—Proactive Librarianship: Creative
and Innovative Approaches to Information—was at the
heart of every aspect of the event; from the morning re-
freshments, to the student presentations, to the keynote
speaker.
The day opened with coffee and pastries donated by
Espresso Art Cafe and Bentley’s in an effort to support
library and literacy development in Belize. Molly Os-
born, of PLG-UA, had worked throughout the semester
as project manager and fundraising coordinator for the
Belize library and literacy project and she encouraged
symposium attendees to give free-will donations for the
morning refreshments as part of a fundraising effort for
the Belize project.
During the symposium, students presented on a range of
4
topics, including: online health information resources,
strengthening diversity initiatives in difficult econom-
ic times and Internet literacy education on the Navajo
Reservation. PLG-UA members Nicole Pagowsky and
Kristen Curé presented research and experiences from
working with the Dry River Collective on their infoshop
and zine library organization project. Kristen Curé and
PLG-UA members Olivia Baca and Yamilia El-Khyat
joined classmate Natalia Fernández to present cultural
competence as key component for quality service in ev-
ery LIS context.
The symposium planning committee and SIRLS were
very honored to welcome Rory Litwin as the keynote
speaker at this year’s symposium. Rory Litwin has been
active in both the Progressive Librarians Guild parent
chapter and in ALA’s Social Responsibilities Round Ta-
ble for many years. He is currently a reference librarian
at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. He started shar-
continued on next page
 continued from page 3 (Community Outreach)
missed the event or would like to hear it again, you
can find the podcast and an electronic version of the
handout here: [http://milton.sbs.arizona.edu/files/
podcasts/20090401lindsey.mp3].
If not all materials are posted by the time this write up
is published, please visit the PLG-UA site to obtain the
supplemental items: [http://sirls.arizona.edu/PLG/me-
dia].
More information about Marti, COEC, and SWEHSC
can be found here: [http://coep.pharmacy.arizona.edu/
about/marti_lindsey.html], with page updates coming
soon.
continued from previous page (Symposium)
ing progressive ideas through the web zine he published
called Library Juice. He continues to publish Library
Juice as an active blog and as recently begun focusing
his energy on book publishing through the progressive
publishers Library Juice Press and Litwin Books. Rory
Litwin was able to spend a few days in Tucson so that
he met with students both before and after the sympo-
sium in informal settings, in addition to attending and
speaking at the symposium. As a result, students were
not only able to attend his formal symposium address—
From duality to dilemma: Balancing the library on mis-
sion, community, and democracy—but they were able
to participate in engaging discussions with Litwin in
social settings.
The 4th Annual Graduate Student Symposium gave
SIRLS students the opportunity to share and discuss a
myriad of ideas for proactive librarianship and to think
about what LIS professionals are already developing
in the field. A special thanks goes to all of the sym-
posium volunteers from both LSO and PLG-UA: Re-
becca Bliquez, Kristen Curé, Patricia Escarcega, Sara
Hayden, Sho Ikeda, Michelle Martin, Molly Osborn,
Nicole Pagowsky and Brenda Taylor.
Want more information?
Symposium: http://sirls.arizona.edu/LSO/symposium
Library Juice: http://libraryjuicepress.com/blog/
Google and the Future
of Libraries: A Townhall
Discussion
Jez Gaddoura
In February of this Spring PLG-UA hosted a townhall
discussion with Dr. Peter Botticelli, Assistant Profes-
sor of Practice at SIRLS, and Coordinator of the Digital
Information (DigIn) Program, to talk about the recent
Google Books Search Project settlement.
Dr. Peter Botticelli (above)
Begun in 2004 in partnership with the so-called “Big
Five” -- University of Michigan, Harvard, Stanford, Ox-
ford, and the New York Public Library -- the Google
Books Project (as it is more commonly known) is an
ambitious effort to digitize nearly 15 million items with-
in ten years. The project has expanded to include a num-
ber of other institutions and libraries and has scanned
some 7 million items thus far.
Many of the scanned items, while no longer in print or
commercially available, are still in copyright. This, in
part, is what prompted publishers and authors to sue
Google in late 2005.
In the Fall of 2008, Google reached a $125m settlement
agreement with publishers and authors that would al-
low it to continue scanning copyrighted materials. The
agreement established royalty percentages for copy-
righted works included in the project, and created a
fund from which authors would receive their portion of
advertising revenue. The settlement agreement is cur-
rently under review by the Justice Department to assess
continued on page 9
5
Chapter Project: Organizing a Local Collective’s
Lending Library
Nicole Pagowsky
Volunteers from our chapter worked together this se-
mester to partner with Tucson’s Dry River Collective1
to organize their small lending library. The group main-
tains their library containing books and zines2 them-
selves, which is located within their infoshop3. Their
library had been organized as an aesthetic rainbow, forc-
ing browsing, which served as an impetus for asking us
for help in creating a simple, yet more orderly system
for organizing and finding materials.
Because Dry River collective members are not librar-
ians, and are the ones who would be working with the
library, our group wanted them to do the decision-mak-
ing. We served more so as consultants, offering sugges-
tions, and based on consensus of Dry River, creating a
plan for organization. What follows is a brief run down
of what has been in the works for the past few months;
we hope to have an opening day celebration reception as
soon as all the cataloging and physical reorganization is
complete, and we hope you will join us!
Cataloging
We researched a number of options for what could be
used as a catalog: a simple relational database from an
open source program, Drupal, Koha, Joomla, a spread-
sheet, Goodreads, LibraryThing, and probably a few
more. Considering Dry River only has a few comput-
ers, volunteers might come and go, and not everyone has
extensive technological training, we therefore chose the
simplest interface with the easiest access, also making it
very easy for library users to wield, as well as share their
input: we went with LibraryThing. Although Goodreads
and LibraryThing have similar purposes, through our
exploration, we realized Goodreads was better suited
for an individual booklist, whereas LibraryThing would
work well for a group and allows for more sophisticated
cataloging.
Classification
As stated, Dry River, previously invoked an aesthetic
rainbow for their classification system, which forced
browsing. This system was visually based on the color of
6
the book, going in rainbow-order. Although this method
was certainly attractive, it made it very difficult to easily
find specific items. Likewise, because there was no cata-
log, the only way to find anything was to look through
every single book (or zine), and one would be very for-
tunate to have previous knowledge of the spine color. To
meet this plan in the middle, we found consensus in a vi-
sual classification scheme based on main subject head-
ing; in other words, a colored sticker would correspond
with a specific subject, and this sticker would be placed
on the spine of the book.
Again, because this is Dry River’s library and Dry Riv-
er collective members and friends would be using and
maintaining it, we felt it was very important for them to
choose their main subject headings for classification of
the books. We decided against pre-existing schemes and
subject headings, such as Dewey, LCC/LCSH, or similar
since the majority of items in the Dry River library are
of a radical nature, and these subject headings are still in
the process of becoming more accepting and supportive
of alternative lifestyles and beliefs. An example would
be that a zine created by rape survivors for rape survi-
vors, if using LCSH, would receive the subject heading
“rape victims;” another example is that “infoshop” is not
even an existing subject heading in LCSH! As Sandy
Berman has been arguing for many years, LCSH can be
offensive, exclusive, and just plain ignorant; our chapter
participated in the Radical Reference LCSH Blogging
Party last year (Spring 2008), based on Sandy Berman
and Jenna Freedman’s suggestions for new headings or
revisions to existing ones4.
However, I digress. Dry River chose their own headings
based on their collection, their needs, and plans for the
future, combined with consideration of our suggestions
as PLG-UA. Within LibraryThing, items can receive
numerous tags (yet authoritative ones if tagged by Dry
River), but on the shelf, as is the only option for tangi-
ble items, only one, main subject heading would apply,
as correlated with a color-coded sticker. This would be
more of a dilemma for the zines, as zines can encom-
pass many subject headings all in one, change subjects
capriciously from issue to issue, or be so sporadic and/
or ephemeral that it is difficult to have any idea what to
continued on next page
 continued from previous page (Dry River Project)
do with them. For this, main options can be organizing
alphabetically on the shelf and assigning an exorbitant
number of tags in the catalog (or filling out the descrip-
tion section – 520 in MARC fields), or to organize by a
main subject heading, trying to be as consistent as pos-
sible. At this point in time, Dry River has decided to
assign main subject headings on the shelf, independent
of the books, and will not be cataloging the zines in Li-
braryThing because their collection rotates so much, and
they often do not expect materials to return.
Circulation
Which brings up circulation. Dry River had been using
an openly visible sign out sheet for borrowers to write
their name, contact information, the item(s) they were
borrowing, and the date. Because they are a non-hier-
archical collective, they wanted all volunteers to have
the same access to the same information (not just library
volunteers having access to what has been checked out
and by whom).
Dry River receives numerous donations, finds materi-
als for free, and has a synergistic relationship with Read
Between the Bars, a local books-to-prisoners group here
in Tucson. These reasons mean acquisitions and collec-
tion development are not a major hurdle for this library.
In fact, Dry River recently needed to weed through their
collection to pare it down to only materials that would fit
with their mission and goals.
Dry River Library’s mission statement:
Dry River, functioning as a radical resource
center, hosts a library in order to provide an
array of radical books in an attempt to edu-
cate and inspire. We believe in an anti-author-
itarian, autonomous, hate-free future and we
believe that education is one of the many ves-
sels through which to get there. We are here
for you to find useful information, good reads,
and inspiring, dangerous ideas.
This is one of the best library mission statements I have
ever seen. Since they clearly know what they are setting

Considering their circulation system, individual privacy continued on page 10

would conflict with group transparency. Having all in-
formation out in the open could not only create a poten-
tial chilling effect for library users (especially because
materials are of a radical nature), but could also be a per-
sonal danger with the recent wave and always-present
possibility of FBI raids of infoshops5. With user infor-
mation out in the open, it would be even easier for fed-
eral agents to just take it or even come in unannounced
and scan the list.

These considerations, although Dry River collective

members did not seem too worried about the potential-
ity, prompted us to suggest a discreet circulation system
that would be easy to destroy in a moment’s notice. This
also would mean not including user information in the
catalog. Therefore, when an item is checked out, it will
receive a tag in LibraryThing noting it is checked out
and the date it was borrowed, but there will be no cor-
responding user information anywhere on the Dry River
computers. Instead, a concealed box with check out slips
or a more discreet, easily destroyable checkout list will
be employed for only Dry River library volunteers to
monitor.
Acquisitions, Collection Development, &
Preservation
PLG Fair Trade Tote Bags
These one-of-a-kind totes were sewn by DouglaPrieta
Works, a women’s cooperative based in Agua Prieta,
Sonora, Mexico, and feature PLG-UA’s custom logo
designed by artist Dorothy Gambrell of the Cat and
Girl web-comic. A limited number of tote bags are
still available. Contact PLG-UA Fundraising Coor-
dinator Patricia Escarcega at pie@email.arizona.edu
for more details.
7
Introducing the Most Progressive Faculty Awards
Kristen Curé

This spring, PLG-UA wanted to recognize faculty who

have exhibited excellence and progressiveness. PLG-
UA members established criteria for evaluating faculty
progressiveness as well as rules for choosing the award
recipients. It was determined that each semester, at the
SIRLS graduation ceremony, one award would be pre-
sented for full-time faculty and one award for adjunct
faculty. No person would be able to win consecutively.

The nominees for full-time faculty were Dr. Pati Mon-

tiel-Overall and Dr. Hong Cui. The adjunct nominees
were Dr. Margaret Higgins and Dr. Judi Moreillon. The Dr. Hong Cui (left) and Dr. Judi Moreillon (right)
award nominees were chosen because they showed pro-
classroom.
gressiveness in at least two of the following criteria:
Dr. Cui was also recognized for her community outreach
1. Progressive research
as exhibited through her readiness to advise students in
2. Activism and community work or out-
their community projects as well as follow-up by incor-
reach
porating a review of these projects into her future cours-
3. Progressive teaching style (interactions
es so that outreach projects will be used as concrete ex-
with students, involvement, integration
amples in her lessons.
of technology)
4. Professional development (working to
We appreciate the efforts and excellence of our entire
incorporate progressive values into pro-
faculty, but are especially proud to congratulate and give
fessional career; contributing/participat-
special recognition to Dr. Judi Moreillon and Dr. Hong
ing in professional organizations in a
Cui as the Spring 2009 winners of the Most Progressive
progressive manner such as activity in
Faculty Awards!
SRRT, PLG, action councils, etc.)
PLG-UA Officers
After all students were asked to vote, Dr. Judi Moreil-
lon won the Most Progressive Adjunct Faculty for her
progressive teaching style as exhibited in the interac-
Fall 2009
President: Kristen Curé
tive and creative website for her course Children’s and
Co-President: Yamila El-Khayat
Young Adult Literature in a Multicultural Society that
Treasurer: Diana Olivares
took full advantage of Web 2.0 tools.
Secretary: Georgia Taylor
Fundraising Coordinator: Patricia Escarcega
Dr. Moreillon was also recognized for her community
Faculty Advisor: Tom Wilding
activism and outreach as shown through her involve-
ment in the renowned collection of international youth
literature—World of Words—and her advocacy for fam- Spring 2009
ily literacy through Pima County Public Library’s Proj- President: Nicole Pagowsky
ect L.I.F.T. Co-President: Kristen Curé
Treasurer: Diana Olivares
Dr. Hong Cui won the Most Progressive Full-time Fac- Secretary: Rebecca Bliquez
ulty award for her progressive teaching style that values Webmaster: Jez Gaddoura
student feedback and input while integrating hands-on Fundraising Coordinator: Patricia Escarcega
experience into the foundation of the virtual or physical Faculty Advisor: Tom Wilding

8
On the Stacks
The Future of Ideas
by Lawrence Lessig
The Future of Ideas is an examination of the factors that
enabled the explosion in creativity at the end of the 20th
century -- the internet revolution. Published in 2001,
The Future of Ideas was written by widely-regarded law
professor, copyright reform activist, and co-founder of
the Creative Commons, Lawrence Lessig.
The internet, according to Lessig, can be broken down
into three layers: a physical layer, a code layer, and a con-
tent layer. The model might best be described in terms
of a highway. The physical layer, which consists of the
hardware used to connect machines together on the in-
ternet -- the wires, the computers, the routers and so on
--- are like the road on which we drive. The code layer,
consisting of the protocols used to send information
across these interconnected machines, can be thought of
as the rules governing the road -- which lanes may be
used, at what speeds and times, and for what purposes.
The last layer, the content layer, is what usually gets
the most attention. These are the cars -- cargo and pas-
sengers -- or on the internet, the information, that gets
passed along the physical layer according to the rules
set out at the code layer. Information is, of course, what
it is all about.
The Future of Ideas posits that what made the internet
the perfect vehicle for creative development was that to
a large extent all three of these layers -- the physical,
code, and content layers -- were kept free and open for
individuals and companies to develop as they saw fit.
No one player or institution controlled the wires, the
protocols, or the information. As a result, the internet
evolved to resemble a public highway. This outcome
was not inevitable, and Lessig explores how the internet
came in to being to explain what kept it from evolving
in to a private road.
The central message of The Future of Ideas is that if the
internet is to continue to enable creativity it needs to
be kept free and open. In particular, market forces that
dominate in the real world must be kept from inappro-
priately leveraging their power to control future devel-
opment of the virtual world, and the government should
play a role in making sure this does not occur.
Rather than getting mired in technical details, Lessig
deftly uses them to illustrate the big picture. Anyone cu-
rious about the history of the internet, the dismal state
of current copyright law, and the critical importance of
open and free access to information should take a look
at The Future of Ideas.
-Jez Gaddoura
continued from page 5 (Google)
anti-trust issues.1
The PLG-UA townhall discussion was a well-attended
and lively event. Views ranged from optimism about the
possibility of gaining access to millions of items that are
currently out of print, to concern over whether librar-
ies will have sufficient access to scanned materials and
whether the settlement gives too much power to Google.
One point of agreement emerged, however: because of
the huge scale of the project and settlement, the library
world is sure to be impacted -- for better or for worse.
Check out the podcast of this event at: http://sirls.ari-
zona.edu/node/1613
(1) For example, see the recent NY Times article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/10/technology/
companies/10book.html
9
 continued from page 7 (Dry River Project)
out to accomplish with the library in general, we sug-
gested they construct a collection development policy to
make weeding and collecting easier. They are currently
working on this policy.
Although all materials in the library can be borrowed,
they have low circulation, so on one hand they might
want to consider preservation (especially for the zines),
but at the same time, it might not be an issue. Because of
this, at this point in time, preservation is not factoring in
to the library plan.
Conclusion
Footnotes
(1) See our write up on Dry River in the inaugural issue
of the PLG-UA newsletter, volume 1, issue 1, published
for fall semester 2008. Dry River site: http://www.
dryriver.org
(2) Do-It-Yourself, self-published periodicals, typically
of low print runs, and not created for money. See: http://
www.barnard.edu/library/zines/whatarezines.htm
(3) A community space often serving more marginalized
populations, used for meetings, entertainment, educa-
tion, and often containing a small library. See: http://
wiki.infoshop.org/Infoshop

Dry River Collective Members are currently cataloging (4) See Inaugural Issue of the PLG-UA newsletter for
materials and then will be color-coding them and adding write up about this. You can also visit our blog: http://
items to the shelves. They are also working on a collec- plg-sirls.blogspot.com
tion development policy. We are answering questions as
they come up and have offered to assist with more cata- (5) See Long Haul Infoshop, California, where the FBI
loging if they would like our help. stormed in, broke locks, took computers with library in-
formation, and presented the warrant well after doing
From conducting a great deal of research on the topic so: http://thelonghaul.org/?cat=5
of infoshops, radical libraries, and zines, Kristen Cure
(incoming PLG-UA President) and I (outgoing PLG-UA
President) put together a presentation on this project for
the 4th Annual SIRLS Graduate Student Symposium,
and shared our information on Saturday, March 7, 2009.
We include more details about the options we had and
why we chose what we did; a more extensive back-
ground on zines; why infoshops and zines are impor-
tant; and why librarians and traditional libraries should
be interested in them. We re-recorded our presentation
and will have it synchronized in SlideShare, available to
view in the near future (although, our original presenta-
tion was much better!). We also provided a handout of
all of our resources and references. Please check [http://
sirls.arizona.edu/PLG/media] for some or all of these
items when they are posted.

If you would like more information, you can contact

me (nicolepagowsky@gmail.com) or Kristen (kkcure@
email.arizona.edu), and we can also send you any of
those materials mentioned directly. Check out PLG-UA online
Finally, I would like to thank Dr. Hong Cui, who advised
http://sirls.arizona.edu/PLG
us on this project.
Event podcasts and other media at:
http://sirls.arizona.edu/PLG/media

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Considering joining PLG-UA? MOVED OUT OF TOWN?
Distance members are able to attend meetings through
Here’s a rundown on chapter membership!
Breeze, collaborate on the wiki and through the listserv,
and contribute to our newsletter. Distance students can
1. WHO CAN JOIN PLG?
also run for certain officer positions (Webmaster/Newslet-
Library and Information Science students at SIRLS, alum-
ter Editor and Fundraising Coordinator).
ni of SIRLS, and current library workers in Tucson at any
level can join.
7. WHO CAN BE AN OFFICER?
Because we are a University group, only students can run
2. HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
for officer positions; however, any paying member can be-
$20 for 2 years of membership
come a “Project Manager.” A Project Manager (PM) takes
the lead in organizing a particular even, and reports infor-
3. WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF JOINING?
mation to the group. There can be more than one PM per
PLG: UA is one of only six student chapters of PLG in
project.
the country, and currently the newest, so you would have
the opportunity to shape the direction of our chapter and
8. I’VE NEVER REALLY DONE ANY ACTIVISM IN
help build our programs, events, and structure. You would
THE PAST; WOULD I FEEL AWKWARD JOINING?
be able to participate in creating our newsletter, work
No; you do not have to be a “seasoned” activist to join
with Tucson community groups to create ties and orga-
PLG: simply an interest in progressive librarianship and
nize events, and get to know fellow students in the SIRLS
hopefully a willingness to participate and collaborate with
program, alumni, and community library workers. Please
us is all we ask.
complete the membership form and pay the appropriate
dues to join.
9. I’M STILL NOT SURE IF I’M INTERESTED OR
NOT, WHAT ELSE CAN HELP ME DECIDE?
If you are interested in joining the PLG parent organiza-
That’s okay -- you can still join the listserv and come to our
tion, please go to their website for more information on
meetings to get a feel for PLG to see if you want to become
dues and benefits: http://libr.org/plg/index.php
a member. To subscribe to the listserv:
Send an email message to: listserv@listserv.arizona.edu
4. HOW MUCH OF A COMMITMENT DO I NEED
with an empty subject line, and with the following as the
TO MAKE?
only line in the body of the message:
As much or as little as you would like. We have bi-weekly
subscribe UA-PLG Yourfirstname Yourlastname
meetings, collaborate on our wiki, and promote discussion
Because the list engine registers your email address as a
through our listserv. We don’t require a certain amount of
subscriber instead of your name, only the email account
participation, but do encourage at least some. However, if
you registered will be allowed to receive postings or to post
you choose to run for an officer position, most will require
messages. You may register all of your email addresses.
a substantial time commitment.
We discourage students from subscribing with a Hotmail
email address as this has caused problems the LSO listserv
5. WHERE DO I SEND MY DUES?
in the past.
You can send them C/O our Treasurer to the SIRLS build-
ing:
10. I’M NOT A LIS STUDENT, ALUMNI, OR WORK-
ER; HOW CAN I PARTICIPATE?
School of Information Resources and
We are unable to take individuals as members who do not
Library Science
fall in the above categories; however, we are very interested
PLG: UA Chapter -- C/O Treasurer
in collaborating with community groups, so please do get
1515 E. 1st St.
in touch with us if you are with another group!
Tucson, AZ 85719

-Checks should be made out to --

“Progressive Librarians Guild: UA Chapter”

6. WHAT IF I’M A DISTANCE STUDENT IN THE

SIRLS PROGRAM OR AN ALUMNI WHO HAS
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 Progressive Librarians Guild: UA Chapter Membership Form

Name: ___________________________________

Email Address: ____________________________

Mailing Address: ___________________________

________________________________________

Student – Expected Graduation Date: _______

Are you a virtual student? YES NO

SIRLS Alumni – Graduation Date: __________

Current Library Professional – Library: __________________________________________________

Areas of Interests/Specialization: _________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________

Membership Dues:

$20 for 2 years of membership

Please make checks payable to “Progressive Librarians Guild: UA Chapter”.
Send checks and membership forms directly to the UA Chapter.

Submit Form and Dues to:

School of Information Resources and Library Science

PLG: UA Chapter -- C/O Treasurer
1515 E. 1st St.
Tucson, AZ 85719

PLG USE ONLY:

Entered into Database – Date: __________

Payment:

Cash

Check - Check no.: ___________________

12