Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/10/22/alice-g-smith.html
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Two of my favorite books have libraries as central, important parts of the plot.
The Name of the Wind by Pat Rothfuss of course has the great library of the University as a central character of the book.
The Skill of Our Hands by Steven Brust and Skyler White uses a public library as a safe haven and meeting place for a radical group.
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Interesting observation from her talk, about the social value in libraries/librarians helping patrons parse resource value:
They [the Southern Poverty Law Center] came out with a video (6 min long, it’s linked in the resources) talking about Dylann Roof the man who murdered nine people in a black church in South Carolina. He used Google to get information on “black on white crime” which, I can tell you right now, isn’t a thing. I mean it happens, but white people get killed by white people more often, much more often. Google sent him to white supremacist sites which were using effective SEO to reach the top of the results and they offered him “fake news” and bad information that led him to believe that not only was there a lot of black on white crime, but it was going unreported! This is a strategy using what people call “data voids.” A library wouldn’t do that. It wouldn’t even have a White Supremacist section. So when people ask “Why libraries in times of Google?” this is one of my go to stories.
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The whole idea of “data voids,” that you find something that isn’t well represented n search engines and then you DOMINATE it, is a really weird and creepy aspect of SEO esp when you see white supremacists using it. Here’s more to read on this idea from danah boyd and Michael Golebiewski
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The terms ‘social justice’ and libraries don’t really go together. The SJ movement has had multiple incidents involving book burning and are well known for mobbing those who do not agree with their ideology. This is diametrically opposite of what a library stands for. The idea of making libraries more friendly and inclusive is laudable, but that can be done without using labels for movements which repress empirical based research and publication of peer-reviewed work they don’t agree with. If you hire a fireman with a salamander shoulder patch to run your library don’t be surprised if the fire alarm goes off.
Are you going to provide evidence for that? Here’s my counter argument
I can find one potential example in that list.
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the author has their MLIS, what credential or experience makes you so confident you know more than them?
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hot take: libraries, a building full of free stuff, are inherently socialist.
they have a history section that would have mein kampf, books that glorify war, psudoscientific books on pick up artistry etc. but they have to be sought out, they’re not actively recommended.
(I say this as someone who read way too many books about ANCIENT ALIENS and other weird psudoscientific shit in middle school)
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The talk explains why I think the term “social justice” applies to the work we do in libraries. I really am not sure where your definition is coming from, but I’m literally referring to how we work with social movements to be more inclusive of everyone (unpopular opinion holders included as long as they don’t want to disinclude others from the big tent) within the institution known as the library.
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As the son of a librarian, I have strong feelings about this. 
Yeah, no. Inherently social, absolutely; inherently socialist, no. There’s no possible way Andrew Carnegie, one of the most successful robber barons of the 19th century, could count as remotely socialist, yet he poured millions into establishing and supporting a large number of public libraries.
But you’re right in broad context, in that public libraries are vitally important to any kind of forward-looking society, and a tremendous resource for democracy and equality.
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