We’re talking with Kevin again about workers inquiry as an organizing tool and the example of the pamphlet The American Worker from 1947.

Twitter: https://x.com/AmericanWork47 

readingstruggles.info

notesfrombelow.org 

Media mentioned

The American Worker on COVER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikphd5bNza4&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Ff9eaa73e-0b64-4316-a994-c97369b4e555.usrfiles.com%2F&source_ve_path=Mjg2NjY

“Searching for the American Worker” https://newpol.org/issue_post/searching-for-the-american-worker/

Culbertson, Anna W. “Our Labor, Our Terms: Workers’ Inquiry in Libraries,” in “Assemblage, Inquiry, and Common Work in Library and Information Studies,” eds. Melissa Adler and Andrew Lau. Special issue, Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies 4; https://journals.litwinbooks.com/index.php/jclis/article/view/175 (CC BY-NC)

In and against the state: discussion notes for socialists. https://libcom.org/book/export/html/31378 

Reading Struggles: Working-Class Self-Activity from Detroit to Turin and Back Again. https://www.readingstruggles.info/

Guerillas of Desire: Notes on Everyday Resistance and Organizing to Make a Revolution Possible. https://www.akpress.org/guerrillas-of-desire.html 

Transcript: https://pastecode.io/s/bgobg2t9 

Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/zzEpV9QEAG

This week we have Kay back on to talk about AI and what the refusal of AI means in terms of library practice and theory. 

Bsky: @kslater.bsky.social

Media mentioned

Kay’s article in Library Trends: Against AI: Critical Refusal in the Library

The AI Con (book) https://thecon.ai/ 

“Synthetic literacy” forthcoming from Dr. Kishonna Gray https://www.kishonnagray.com/ 

librarians doing infolit session part of that is telling the students how it will track you - privacy issues

https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2016/putting-critical-information-literacy-into-context-how-and-why-librarians-adopt-critical-practices-in-their-teaching/ 

https://infolit.org.uk/privacy-and-surveillance-in-the-classroom-responding-to-new-information-literacy-challenges/ 

https://acrlog.org/2020/11/13/privacy-consent-and-the-virtual-one-shot/ 

https://datalabelers.org/ 

https://www.fortinet.com/resources/cyberglossary/cia-triad

The People’s Platform (book) https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250062598/thepeoplesplatform/

Transcript: https://paste.ofcode.org/HNKAPrHLSPgUpNuraN3m2F 

Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/zzEpV9QEAG

This week we’re talking with Young Adult author and children’s librarian Hal to talk about hir new book, vampires, monstrosity, the Old Internet, and the publishing landscape. 

Pre-order Fawn’s Blood here: https://www.sevenstories.com/books/4753-fawn-s-blood 

halschrieve.com 

Media mentioned

https://www.tumblr.com/librarycards

https://www.tumblr.com/gatheringbones 

Books/Literature

Small changes over long periods of time https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/small-changes-long-periods-time/

Failure to Comply https://www.featherproof.com/catalog/failure-to-comply-sarah-cavar 

Dead Collections https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/678855/dead-collections-by-isaac-fellman/

Carmilla https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmilla

Thirst https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/712422/thirst-by-marina-yuszczuk-translated-by-heather-cleary/

Peeps, Scott Westerfeld https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peeps_(novel) 

Little F (formerly Little Faggot) https://www.feministpress.org/books-overflow/litte-f

Mortal Companion, Patrick Califia https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/620928.Mortal_Companion 

The Fist of the Spider Woman https://arsenalpulp.com/Books/F/Fist-of-the-Spider-Woman 

Mermaid in Chelsea Creek https://store.mcsweeneys.net/products/mermaid-in-chelsea-creek 

Cold, Mariko Tamaki https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250831569/cold/ 

Read at Your Own Risk https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250323354/readatyourownrisk/ 

It Better Be Worth the Trip – First gay YA novel (1969) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27ll_Get_There._It_Better_Be_Worth_the_Trip

The Outsiders  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Outsiders_(novel)

Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speak_(Anderson_novel)

Looking for Alaska, John Green https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looking_for_Alaska

Books by Raina Telgemeier

Books by Svetlana Chmakova

Books by Tiffany Jackson

Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales https://www.nathanhaleauthor.com/

We Are Palestinian https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/We-Are-Palestinian/Reem-Kassis/9781623717254 

These Olive Trees https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/703283/these-olive-trees-by-aya-ghanameh/

Hilwa’s Gifts https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/774226/hilwas-gifts-by-safa-suleiman-illustrated-by-anait-semirdzhyan/

Movies

Hackers (1995) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113243/

Dracula’s Daughter (1936) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027545/ 

Nosferatu (2024) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5040012/

Daughters of Darkness (1971) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067690

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116367/

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103874

Blade (1998) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120611/

I Am Legend

Disney Channel’s Zombies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombies_(2018_film) 

Transcript: https://pastecode.io/s/wruy3we6 

Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/zzEpV9QEAG

This week we’re talking about workers’ inquiry with the Blue Bottle Independent Union for cafe workers! Learn about workers’ inquiry, organization, and how you can do it too!

Media mentioned

Part 1 (on what cafe workers think and do while at work): https://notesfrombelow.org/article/class-composition-in-the-cafe-sector-part-1   

Part 2 (exploring how cafe workers are organizing at work): https://notesfrombelow.org/article/class-composition-in-the-cafe-sector-part-2 

Marx 101 questions Enquête Ouvrière (“Workers’ Inquiry”) for Benoît Malon’s French newspaper La Revue Socialiste https://notesfrombelow.org/article/introduction-karl-marxs-workers-inquiry

Blood in the Machine: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/brian-merchant/blood-in-the-machine/9780316487740/?lens=little-brown

https://theworkandus.squarespace.com/ 

https://newlaborforum.cuny.edu/

https://workingpeople.libsyn.com/ 

http://workersinquiry.work/

Support Blue Bottle Union

https://www.bluebottleunion.org/ 

https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/support-blue-bottle-workers-taking-on-nestle

Transcript: https://pastecode.io/s/jmhcyzvo

Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/zzEpV9QEAG

Recording of our first ever live show! Guests Alison and Jennie talk with us about organizing, contracts, AI nonsense, updates, and more! You don’t want to miss the audience participation either! 

[email protected] Email for LFP mailing list. 

Media mentioned

SPARC contracts library: https://sparcopen.org/our-work/big-deal-knowledge-base/contracts-library/ 

Data Cartels, Sarah Lamdan - https://www.sup.org/books/law/data-cartels 

https://commonslibrary.org/organizing-people-power-and-change-the-one-on-one-meeting/

Capitalist Realism, Mark Fisher - https://files.libcom.org/files/%5BMark_Fisher%5D_Capitalist_Realism_Is_There_no_Alte(BookZZ.org).pdf 

The fourth Librarian Futures report reveals critical gaps—and opportunities—in how librarians can lead on AI integration in higher education  https://www.sagepub.com/explore-our-content/press-office/press-releases/2025/05/20/new-technology-from-sage-report-explores-librarian-leadership-in-the-age-of-ai 

Siembra ICE training: https://www.siembranc.org/

Kay Slater, Library Trends upcoming article on AI. 

https://labornotes.org/events

One on One training https://commonslibrary.org/organizing-people-power-and-change-the-one-on-one-meeting/ 

Transcript: https://pastecode.io/s/whwtxubp 

Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/zzEpV9QEAG

We have David Demchuk on to talk about his new book The Butcher's Daughter. We also talk about more Canada updates, including how the backlash against queer and Black literature is evolving in the Canadian landscape with US backing. 

Media mentioned

https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/19/youtube-apparently-unsure-if-shakespeare-is-in-the-public-domain/

Get the book here:

https://sohopress.com/books/the-butchers-daughter-the-hitherto-untold-story-of-mrs-lovett/ 

Transcript: https://pastecode.io/s/ik2fbytc

Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/zzEpV9QEAG

We’re talking with Kelly about the IMLS executive order and fallout. 

Kelly on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/heykellyjensen.bsky.social 

Literary Activism Newsletter: https://bookriot.com/newsletter/literary-activism/ 

Media mentioned

https://mn.gov/mmb/budget/federal-investments/data-and-reporting/

https://www.13newsnow.com/article/news/local/virginia/virginia-beach-moca-museum-of-contemporary-art-federal-grant-terminated/291-bbbaeb6f-6954-4f3a-ab6d-96d63b962619 May 11

IMLS stories

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.rid.59257/gov.uscourts.rid.59257.64.0.pdf (May 21)

https://bookriot.com/trump-seeks-stay-in-imls-injunction-sonderling-bashes-imls-employees-in-declaration/ (May 20)

https://www.wordsandmoney.com/ala-urges-court-to-deny-dojs-motion-for-reconsideration-in-imls-case/ (May 14)

https://bookriot.com/massive-victory-in-lawsuit-filed-against-trump-administrations-dismantling-of-imls/ (May 13)

https://bookriot.com/the-latest-from-the-institute-of-museum-and-library-services/ (May 6, 2025)

https://bookriot.com/recent-attacks-on-libraries/ (Apr 15, 2025)

https://bookriot.com/imls-gutted/  (Mar 31, 2025)

Labor Lessons from the US South event: bit.ly/laborlessons 

Live show tickets: https://bit.ly/librarypunklive25 

Conference sticker fundraiser: https://ko-fi.com/s/8b9407ef58 

Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/zzEpV9QEAG 

Transcripts: https://pastecode.io/s/57rpgz05 (more disjointed than usual due to recording issue)

We're doing a commentary track for Party Girl! Download this and manually sync up while you listen.

You can also download a version with the Party Girl audio ducked while we talk here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/krw8v6bq8hh5d6b2svmif/149final.mp3?rlkey=925eywxqlana90acil7eeaqsd&st=hbgjxs3n&dl=0 

You can also join the discord to see other ways to enjoy this track!

Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/zzEpV9QEAG

Transcript download: https://pastecode.io/s/wxnjkfox 

This week we’re talking with the editors of the new book Censorship is a Drag. We talk about putting yourself on the line, personal and professional risks, and reacting to the latest administration’s onslaught against queer people. 

Order Censorship is a Drag here: https://litwinbooks.com/books/censorship-is-a-drag/

Media mentioned

The Joy of Gay Sex: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-joy-of-gay-sex-charles-silversteinfelice-picano 

Sara Ahmed’s works

The Feminist Killjoy Handbook: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/sara-ahmed/the-feminist-killjoy-handbook/9781541603752/?lens=seal-press 

Bri Watson join Homosaurus call: https://bsky.app/profile/brimwats.com/post/3lkvvyv4szk2w

Form for Homosaurus: https://forms.gle/tADEnq9qPYk3e5eE6 

Fairhope Public Library story: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/24/alabama-fairhope-public-library-book-bans 

Indigenous metadata projects to look into:

Maori: https://natlib.govt.nz/librarians/nga-upoko-tukutuku

Others: https://guides.library.ubc.ca/Indiglibrarianship/knowledgeorganizations 

Transcript: https://pastecode.io/s/r8istne2

Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/zzEpV9QEAG

We’re talking with Josh from TWOAPW about Patmos Public Library, his personal connections to it, and the issues around public library funding and censorship of LGTBQ materials. 

https://www.worstpossible.world/ 

https://www.twitch.tv/traditional_scrench 

TWOAPW Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:kp7xkxfutoinhqeg3sfswghd

Media Mentioned

Segment: https://www.kcrg.com/2025/02/25/bill-ban-obscene-material-iowa-libraries-advances/ 

Why it’s called the Patmos library: https://hudsedfound.org/what-we-do/engage-alumni/marvinandjunepatmos.html 

Whose Children Are They: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt18559276/ 

Reporting from the time of the initial removal vote: 

Reporting on the failure of the second vote:

Funding approved: 

MLive documentary on banning books in Michigan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x043zuGWgMA

Another Michigan library: https://bookriot.com/alpena-public-library/ 

Porn hunters in Canada: https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.6656855 

Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/zzEpV9QEAG 

Transcripts: https://pastecode.io/s/ybvo6u1t