Historic photos of AFSCME librarians

Old photos and a radio interview from the Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs of AFSCME-represented librarians:

"Librarian Carol Fortman checks in resources for blind library patrons such as audio recordings and braille books. She was a member of AFSCME Local 426, Milwaukee Public Library & Museum Employees."

http://www.afscme.org/union/jobs-we-do/library-workers/resources/historic-afscme-library-photos-audio

Center for Labor Education & Research Winner of Sessions Memorial Award

This year's winner of the John Sessions Memorial Award is the Center for Labor Education and Research at the University of Hawai'i West O'ahu. From the award committee:

"The mission of the labor archive at the Center for Labor Education and Research (CLEAR) is to preserve labor history materials for future generations, protect the artifacts and make them accessible for public use, and defend the importance of working class history."

The John Sessions Memorial Award is presented by the Reference and User Services Association of the American Library Association. 

Budget Cuts at National Library of Australia

Coming budget cuts at the National Library of Australia are expected to result in the elimination of at least twenty staff positions and reduced services, including cancellation of subscriptions. Additionally, some services may be outsourced. Community and Public Sector Union deputy secretary Beth Vincent-Pietsch stated: 

"What's become clear from our meetings is that the cuts to jobs and programs that have been announced so far are only the start of the process. We expect all of these agencies to be forced to make further cuts. The government needs to recognise the long-term and in many cases permanent damage these cuts will do, and reverse them immediately so that Australia's cultural heritage can be kept alive."

The reduction in funding from the Australian government will result in similar measures being taken at other Australian cultural institutions, including National Museum of Australia, National Portrait Gallery, Museum of Australian Democracy, National Film and Sound Archive, and National Gallery of Australia. 

National Archives Workers Reject Enterprise Agreement

Workers at the National Archives of Australia have rejected an offered enterprise agreement from the government for the first time in its history. According to the press release issued by the Community and Public Sector Union, the agreement would have removed workers' "important rights and conditions". The archives has been under a wage freeze for the past 18 months.

REMINDER - Upcoming Librarians & Archivists Conference

The Canadian Association of University Teachers is hosting From Talk to Action: Building Successful Campaigns to Action, a conference for librarians and archivists on October 31 and November 1 in Ottawa, ON. From the website:

The purpose of this conference is to boost our collective ability to defend and advance the interests of academic librarians and archivists. Through presentations (part one) and hands-on practice (part two), the event will explore how to conceptualize a campaign, effectively incorporate visual design and communication elements, and build alliances to move issues forward.

Registration deadline is October 10.

Upcoming Librarians & Archivists Conference

The Canadian Association of University Teachers is hosting From Talk to Action: Building Successful Campaigns to Action, a conference for librarians and archivists on October 31 and November 1 in Ottawa, ON. From the website:

The purpose of this conference is to boost our collective ability to defend and advance the interests of academic librarians and archivists. Through presentations (part one) and hands-on practice (part two), the event will explore how to conceptualize a campaign, effectively incorporate visual design and communication elements, and build alliances to move issues forward.

Registration deadline is October 10.

UC San Diego Acquires Union Archive

The University of California San Diego has acquired the Farmworker Movement Documentation Project, a digital archive of the United Farm Workers of America. The archive includes posters, newspaper clippings, and oral histories from the 1960s - 1990s.

Labor Poster Exhibits

Activist Stephen Lewis has accumulated a large collection of labor posters from organizations across the world. The posters are frequently part of exhibits set up at public libraries in the state of Massachusetts. Some of Lewis's 4,500 posters are currently on display as part of two separate exhibits. During the month of January, Lynnfield Library is hosting The 99% Resist: The Art of the Labor Movement. Another exhibit entitled Human & Labor Rights can be viewed at The Peabody Institute Library of Danvers until the end of February.

AFL-CIO Donates Labor Archives

The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations has donated its labor archives, the George Meany Memorial Archives, to the Hornbake Library at the University of Maryland. The collection has been called "the raw material of so much of America's labor history".

New Online Trade Union Poster Collections

On September 27, the Victoria University of Wellington Library will launch two online historical poster collections, The Dan Long Union Library Poster Collection and the Therese O'Connell Poster Collection.

From the article:

The Dan Long Union Library Poster Collection and the Therese O’Connell Poster Collection offer a unique opportunity to examine digital images of over 400 posters created during the last 50 years by trade union, protest organisations, government departments and other groups from New Zealand and overseas.

The collections include posters published by groups like the New Zealand Public Service Association, New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, and International Labour Organisation, promoting the cause of trade unionism and taking positions on important issues of the day.

York Libraries to be Run by Benefit Society

Beginning next year, a "community benefit society" will be charged with running libraries and archives in the city of York. Explore Libraries and Archives Mutual will be partially owned by staff members . A union official stated that this new plan has "significant financial risks which are being transferred to employees".

Regional Newspaper Archives Closing in UK

Trinity Mirror, a newspaper publisher in the UK, will be closing all regional newspaper archives and transferring their contents to a central archive in Watford. Eleven jobs will potentially be made redundant, while eight others will be created at the central archive. The National Union of Journalists has expressed their opposition to this plan.

Labor Archives of Washington Wins Award

The Labor Archives of Washington is the 2013 recipient of RUSA's John Sessions Memorial Award. The award "recognizes a library or library system which has made a significant effort to work with the labor community and by doing so has brought recognition to the history and contribution of the labor movement to the development of the United States". The Labor Archives is receiving this award "or its steady stream of exhibits, outreach efforts to the community and the impressive LibGuides site and digital collections portal site". 

Delta (BC) Museum & Archives negotiations

CUPE Local 454 reports that negotiations with the municipal government of Delta, British Columbia are not going well.  The local represents staff at the Delta Museum and Archives, among other civic workers.  The main issues are sick leave, hours of work, and benefits but apparently little progress is being made.

Archivists' On to Ottawa Trek

On May 28, Canadian archivists protested federal funding cuts to archives across the nation as well as job losses and further funding cuts at Library and Archives Canada.  The protests were organized as the Archivists' On to Ottawa Trek and were held in Ottawa with coordinated protests in Edmonton, Alberta.  The Ottawa events featured a march, a "funeral" for archival funding, and several speakers including Members of Parliament from the New Democratic Party and the Liberal Party.

For further context, listen to this story from CBC Radio.

Archivists' On to Ottawa Trek

In response to massive cuts to Library and Archives Canada and the National Archival Development Program (which funded archives and archival projects across Canada) earlier this week, Canadian archivists are organizing a massive response to the Conservative government. 

The Archivists' On to Ottawa Trek is modelled after the 1935 On to Ottawa Trek, in which unemployed workers by the hundreds made their way to Ottawa from western Canada to demand action from the government in the midst of the Depression.  The workers' movement was violently suppressed by the RCMP in what came to be known as the Regina Riot.

Archivists join the fight against austerity; this could end up being a pretty big deal.

Canadian archives community devastated

The Canadian archival community received a stunning blow on Monday: the management of Library and Archives Canada announced that the National Archival Development Program (NADP) would be discontinued.  The NADP was a grant program that funded archives projects and temporary jobs across the country in archives of all sizes.  This means that several projects around Canada will be stopped in their tracks and many archivists will be let go or essentially laid off.  The consequences across the country will be devastating, not to mention the fact that the NADP provided entry-level positions to an untold number of up-and-coming archivists (including this here blogger).

In other bad news from Canada, 245 workers at Library and Archives Canada will have their jobs affected with over 100 of those workers laid-off.  This is part of wide-spread and crippling budget cuts across the federal government that are being imposed by Stephen Harper's Conservative government.  Tough times, indeed.

Unison protest archives cuts

In other news from England, Unison is also protesting cuts to the local archives in St. Helens, England, saying that the cuts will threaten the archival holdings currently housed in the public library.  Town council denies these allegations, but Unison makes a very strong case for the importance of professional archivists.

Egyptian librarians organize

After lots of bad news in recent posts, here's something much more uplifting: over 200,000 librarians, archivists, and information workers have unionized in Egypt.  The development was a long time coming and was built on the efforts of information workers from all manner of libraries and archives as well as students in the field.  Congratulations to our comrades in Egypt and solidarity in their struggle as workers!