Global Call to Action Against Poverty- A Librarian at Every Table. No. 248

A LIBRARIAN AT EVERY TABLE
February 27, 2005. No. 248.
Sources & Sites for Community Building.


At a press conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos, leading political and civil society figures expressed their support for the The Global Call to Action Against Poverty and called upon world leaders to deliver on the promises they have made.

T he Global Call to Action against Poverty is a worldwide alliance of hundreds of organizations that represents some 150 million people from a plethora of different organizations. In one of the biggest anti-poverty campaigns ever, people are calling on world leaders to fulfill their commitments on trade justice, more and better aid, debt cancellation and for more action at a national level in the South including meeting and exceeding the Millennium Development Goals .

"Extreme Poverty is Stupid." --Bono

Book:
Serge-Christophe Kolm
Macrojustice: The Political Economy of Fairness
Cambridge University Press
December 2004

PBU8

Politics of Culture- A Librarian at Every Table. No.247.

A LIBRARIAN AT EVERY TABLE
February 18, 2005. No. 247.
Sources & Sites for Community Building.

The Center for Arts and Culture aims to inform and improve policy decisions that affect cultural life. The guiding principles include freedom of imagination, inquiry and expression, as well as freedom of opportunity for all to participate in a vital and diverse culture.
CPANDA-Cultural Policy and the Arts National Data Archive is an interactive digital archive of data on the arts and cultural policy in the U.S., available for research and statistical analysis, with data on artists, arts and cultural organizations, audiences, and funding for arts and culture. Reports such as "Public Participation in the Arts "
are easily retrieved from CPANDA.

Book:
Gigi Bradford and others, eds.
The Politics of Culure: Policy Perspectives for Indivduals, Institutions and Communities
New Press, 2000.

Sustainability: Journal of Community Informatics: A LIBRARIAN AT EVERY TABLE. No. 246

A LIBRARIAN AT EVERY TABLE
February 14, 2005. No. 246.
Sources & Sites for Community Building.

"Sustainability and Community ICTs" is the theme of the latest issue of the
Journal of Community Informatics. Community Informatics (CI) is the study and the practice of enabling communities with Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs). CI seeks to work with communities towards the effective use of ICTs to improve their processes, achieve their objectives, overcome the "digital divides" that exist both within and between communities, and empower communities and citizens in the range of areas of ICT application including for health, cultural production, civic management, e-governance among others. The Journal of Community Informatics brings together a global range of academics, CI practitioners and national and multi-lateral policy makers. The Community Informatics Research Network (CIRN) promotes and represents community informatics and community networking internationally. CIRN sponsors the Journal of Community Informatics.

WAR! on the War on Poverty : A LIBRARIAN AT EVERY TABLE. No. 245.

A LIBRARIAN AT EVERY TABLE
February 5, 2005. No. 245.
Sources & Sites for Community Building.


Librarians will have many challenges in the days ahead with the release and analysis of the Federal Budget. Vulnerable communities will find program funding is slated for cuts and re-direction. There will be a war declared on the long fight against poverty. It will be re-packaged in high sounding words, but the effects will be powerful.

The nation's most vulnerable people will be at risk when the new budget is released.The White House has already begun disclosing information about what to expect – including cuts and freezes for programs serving people in the United States who are most in need. The Coalition on Human Needs will provide updates. The Children's Defense Fund and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities hosted religious leaders at the National Press Club on Friday, February 4, to discuss maintaining moral standards in the 2005 federal budget. Speakers at the forum warned that the most vulnerable Americans are likely to shoulder a heavy and disproportionate share of budget cuts this year. The Center issued an analysis: CUTS TO LOW-INCOME PROGRAMS MAY FAR EXCEED THE CONTRIBUTION OF THESE PROGRAMS TO DEFICIT’S RETURN. The OMB Watch Federal Budget Weblog will provide ongoing reports.

Books:

Michael Harrington
The Other America: Poverty in the United States
New York, MacMillan, 1962.

Leiyu Shi and Gregory D. Stevens
Vulnerable Populations in the United States
Jossey-Bass, 2005.

David K. Shipler
The Working Poor :Invisible in America
Knopf, 2004/

David Wagner
The Poorhouse: America's Forgotten Institution
Lanham, 2005.

Poverty in the United States: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics and Policy
ABC-Clio, 2004.

Black History Month-2005: A Librarian at Every Table. No. 244.

A LIBRARIAN AT EVERY TABLE
February 1, 2005. No. 244.
Sources & Sites for Community Building.


The Association for the Study of African American Life and History
sets the annual theme for Black History Month. The 2005 theme is The Niagra Movement: Black Protest Reborn.
Vivian G. Harsh, the first African American librarian in the Chicago Public Library System, began a "Special Negro Collection" which is the largest African American history and literature collection in the U.S. Midwest.

Some important public library collections:

• Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. Carter G. Woodson Regional Library. Chicago Public Library.

• Schomburg Center for Black Culture. New York Public Library.

• Auburn Avenue Research Library on African-American Culture and History. Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System.

• African-American Research Library and Cultural Center. Broward County Library, Florida.

• African-American Museum and Library at Oakland. Okaland Public Library, CA.

Book:
Henrietta M. Smith
Coretta Scott King Awards: 1970-2004. American Library Association, 2004.
---Librarian