The New Monastic Librarians

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An activist herself, Freedman dreamed up Radical Reference, an in-the-streets service supporting demonstrators at the Republican National Convention. With the help of others, Radical Reference went on to become an online reference service (www.radicalreference.info) where volunteer librarians field questions from activists and independent journalists. Freedman publishes her own zine, the annual Lower East Side Winter Solstice Librarian Shout Out, and often participates in the online zine librarian forum she founded at Yahoo Groups.

James Danky Looking for Local Voices

Whenever Jim Danky finds a periodical published in Wisconsin, he makes sure the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison subscribes to it. As the society's librarian in charge of newspapers and periodicals since 1976, he has his share of homegrown printed matter arriving at the door.

Danky archives other materials as well. Thanks to his efforts, the WHS library has a vast collection of military base publications -- titles like Shoot 'Em Down, Danger Forward, and Bulldogs on Five. The library also collects an impressive number of Native American and African American newspapers and magazines. In fact, Danky seeks out periodicals by and for Americans from nearly all nationalities and ethnicities as well as from the radical fringe.

If you want to look at contemporary American life, Danky says, libraries must throw open the doors. "Libraries are in the business of promoting democracy -- not for partisan purposes, but rather to expand the debate about our society, to make our future one that incorporates as many visions as possible."

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