Using information to inspire changeOne of the nicest things about walking is stumbling across things you never expected to see. Take, for instance, a display of consciousness-raising signs I saw while strolling across campus. The theme of the sign display is poverty, a growing crisis in the city where I live. Here are some messages from the signs (parenthetical references added by me):
“Help the people in your community”
“66 million primary school-age children attend classes hungry across the developing world” (10 facts, n.d.)
“Being poor is being always tired” (a quote heard in Kenya, as cited in Narayan-Parker, 2000, p. 30)
“Poverty is like living in jail, living in bondage, waiting to be free.” (a quote heard in Jamaica, as cited in Attacking Poverty, 2001, p. 16 )
As an aspiring librarian, I spend a lot of time thinking about information literacy. The roadside signs captured the spirit of the concept perfectly. Being information literate is about more than knowing where to find the information you need to make your point. It’s about knowing how to use that information to transform your environment and get a dialogue going.
Sometimes the dialogue is internal. The signs made me think about what more I could be doing to help the people in my neighborhood. Sure, I vote progressive, support progressive causes, and volunteer when I can, but that does not seem like enough. I want my library career to be about service to marginalized communities, but what will that “service” look like in real-world terms?
While thinking about that question, I discovered that the American Library Association (ALA) has a policy statement on library services to the poor. Part of it reads
“…it is crucial that libraries recognize their role in enabling poor people to participate fully in a democratic society, by utilizing a wide variety of available resources and strategies. Concrete programs of training and development are needed to sensitize and prepare library staff to identify poor people’s needs and deliver relevant services. And within the American Library Association the coordinating mechanisms of programs and activities dealing with poor people in various divisions, offices, and units should be strengthened, and support for low-income liaison activities should be enhanced”
The statement lists 15 policy objectives, including this one:
“Promoting among library staff the collection of food and clothing donations, volunteering personal time to antipoverty activities and contributing money to direct-aid organizations.”
I wonder how many people know about these ALA-endorsed statements. I feel like I should be on a street corner waving books and proclaiming librarians’ anti-poverty values.
Of course, the best way to proclaim them is to practice them, like the North Carolina State University Library staff did last December when “they sorted 21,000 pounds of sweet potatoes” (“Staff Volunteers at Food Bank,” 2018) for the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina.
Unfortunately, I have let my Food Bank donations lapse in recent years. The excuse I’ve been using lately is that I’m a student who can’t afford to give right now. But that’s all it is – an excuse. If I can find a buck for Lindor chocolate balls, I can find 2 for the food bank. As a library student who cares about marginalized communities, I need to do something real to help.
In the future, I want to work with other library staff to ensure that libraries are welcoming and supportive places for people living in poverty. Right now, I’m heading to the Food Bank website to donate my money. I hope others who can will do the same.
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References
ACRL Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. (2011, October 27). American Library Association. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/visualliteracy on April 7, 2019.
Attacking Poverty: World Development Report 2000/2001. (2001). New York: Published by Oxford University Press for the World Bank.
B.8 Services and Responsibilities of Libraries (Old Number 52). (2010,August 4, 2010). American Library Association. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/aboutala/governance/policymanual/updatedpolicymanual/section2/52libsvcsandrespon on April 10, 2019.
Narayan-Parker, D. (2000). Can anyone hear us? : Voices of the poor (Voices of the poor). New York: Published by Oxford University Press for the World Bank.
10 Facts about Hunger. (n.d.) World Food Programme. Retrieved from https://www.wfp.org/stories/10-facts-about-hunger on April 7, 2019.
“Staff volunteers at Food Bank.” (2018, December 20). NCSULibraries News. Retrieved from https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/news/staff-news/staff-volunteers-food-bank
Copyright © 2019 by Stacy Torian. All rights reserved.
Stacy Torian 