SPOKANE, Wash. — The Joint Conference of Librarians of Color took place here Oct. 7-11, with more than 800 attendees from libraries around the country. Younger Latinos, Blacks, Native Americans, Asians and Pacific Islanders made up the bulk of the predominantly female participants.
Pathfinder Press was one of 35 exhibitors at the conference. Many visitors to the booth were attracted to the number of Pathfinder titles in different languages, including English, Spanish, French, Arabic and Farsi.
Many met Pathfinder at the American Library Association or REFORMA conferences this year. REFORMA is an organization of librarians advocating for more Spanish-language books. Seventy-six books in English and Spanish, including 10 copies of Cuba and the Independence War in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde: The Fall of the Last Colonial Empire in Africa by Cuban leader Víctor Dreke, were purchased. Over 50 participants signed up for more information on ordering Pathfinder books.
Roseanna Andrade told Pathfinder volunteers, “I got The Politics of Chicano Liberation by Olga Rodríguez because I’m interested in Chicano studies. My parents worked in el movimiento in East L.A., and I do educational presentations at the New Mexico penitentiary for the Chicano Club. I also got Revolution and the Road to Peace in Colombia by Fidel Castro, because his words are important, especially now with what Washington is doing to Cuba. And I got Thomas Sankara Speaks.”
Taking on government attack on immigrants
Several workshops and talks focused on fights for funding, against book bans, and confronting government attacks on immigrant workers who rely on libraries for using computers.
Many library workers described families fearful of coming to the library today, after Immigration and Customs Enforcement stops and arrests. They want to make their libraries a welcoming place for the community and hosting “Know Your Rights” sessions. They’re also seeking ways to take the library out to the community, through bookmobiles and tables at local events.
Kathy Isaacs is a branch manager at the public library in St. John, a town in eastern Washington of just over 500 people. After looking at the front-page Militant article on rallies against immigration raids, she decided to subscribe and got Problems of Women’s Liberation by Evelyn Reed.
Conference sessions also addressed the right of library workers to join unions. One workshop was titled, “Organize your library: Unionizing 101,” hosted by Christina Ordonez and Esther Daranciang. They had helped organize a union at the library in Salt Lake City, the first library in Utah to go union.
“Our first meeting was on my living room floor,” Daranciang said. “We thought about starting our own union, but decided that was a bad idea, and got organized by AFSCME Local 1004 instead.”
“I’m concerned with freedom to access information,” said Tyler Mayser, assistant director at Prince William Public Libraries. “When you have to fight for the right to get access to information, for people to make their own informed decisions, that’s really important.”
Ashley Marshall, from the School of Library and Information Science at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, and Kaeli Gretter, assistant teaching professor there, staffed a booth to recruit to their school. Marshall looked up the Militant website. “I think I might end up making an assignment out of something here, there’s so much we could do with it. Students could read some articles and discuss them. This is fantastic!” Overall 10 people at the conference subscribed to the Militant.