The Guardian has a wonderful slide show of photos of Occupy Movement libraries that have sprung up in cities across the globe. (The photo below is from London.)
One of my favourite chapters of This Book is Overdue by Marilyn Johnson was her chapter “To the Ramparts!” about librarians on the street during protests, giving information to all comers. During the Republican National Convention in New York in 2003, there were many protest marches. Radical Reference, a group of on-the-street librarians, was there to help:
They had numbers for emergency legal services, details on area restaurants, copies of laws governing assembly and protest. So they could alert one another to trouble spots and police cordons, they used a mass text-messaging service designed especially for activists, called TXTmob, which inspired Twitter. And they had back-up: on-call librarians with computers and access to reliable databases and reference materials. They circulated among and served not just the 500,00 people marching in the United for Peace and Justice protest, but the thousands of other protesters in multiple other actions. (109)
Here is an article today on the Occupy Toronto free library, including a list of the books.
I love how, after the City of Toronto in great numbers chose Rob Ford as mayor, the same city rose up so strongly to oppose his cuts to libraries. And the fight continues.
It is one of those things that make up the backbone of a city that we too often take for granted.