Data Collection Project Milestone
and an inspirational Libraries & Lemonade stand example!
Happy July!
Summer has arrived! July is the perfect time to set up a free lemonade stand and talk with your communities about the importance of public libraries. FTP community member Pepper sent us some inspirational pictures of her Libraries and Lemonade stand, which you can see below. Congrats to Pepper and crew for being the absolute best!
FTP recently reached a big milestone with our data collection project by hitting 100% “checked-out” status for public library system research. This means that every public library system in the U.S. has an FTP volunteer who has committed to researching details on its board of trustees. Read on to learn more about this milestone, what comes next, and to see our monthly volunteer scoreboard and prize winners.
But first, here are some recommended events and articles that we think you’ll enjoy.
Recommended Events
July 10th - Run for Something is hosting a Candidate Intro webinar
July 12th - Abolitionist Library Association (AbLA) will host a Divestment Working Group conversation, sign up to join the conversation here and learn more about the group here: Library Divestment from PIC Labor Working Group.
July 13th - Library Freedom Project has an Anti-Doxxing Training
July 16th - Library Patrons Union Monthly Meeting
July 19th - Run for Something is hosting a Candidate Intro webinar
July 20th - Metadata Justice in Oklahoma Libraries & Archives Symposium
July 29th - Prison Library Support Network has their next volunteer orientation
Recommended Reading
Mayor Adams and Council agree to $107B budget, add funding to libraries, CUNY and senior programs (Elizabeth Kim and Giulia Heyward for Gothamist)
These Umbrella-Twirling Drag Defenders Are Protecting Libraries from Bigots (Kelly Weill for The Daily Beast)
Dayton Metro Library becomes ‘sanctuary’ to protect banned books (London Bishop for Dayton Daily News)
Beyond Prisons podcast episode: Prison Librarians (Kim Wilson with guests Jeanie Austin and Sarah Ball)
LGBTQ librarians are trying to keep vital books accessible to queer youth, despite bans (Beth Greenfield for Yahoo! Life)
Seattle Public Library Kicked Out of Trans Pride After Hosting Anti-LGBTQ+ Activist Kirk Cameron (Erica C. Barnett for PubliCola)
Illinois has Officially Banned Book Bans (Kelly Jensen for Book Riot)
Republicans Are Now Trying to Defund the Libraries (Sonali Kolhatkar for In These Times)
The Fight Against Book Bans Is Mobilizing a New Generation of Student Activists (Emily Drabinski for Truthout)
Have you checked out our summer project, Libraries & Lemonade?
We often hear people tell us that they want to do something to help public libraries, but they’re not sure where to get started. This is the ideal starter step - it’s easy, it’s fun, we’ve prepped a guide, and we’re even offering $50 in lemonade stand funds for anyone who registers a stand and requests funding.
If you’re looking for encouragement, look no further than the pics below! Pepper shared these pics of her stand and it’s an inspiration.
Be like Pepper and set up a stand!
A heartfelt HUGE thank you to our #LibraryDefenders who have planned stands already - we’ve got Libraries & Lemonade stands popping up at the Center Street Farmer’s Market in Des Moines, IA on July 5th; in Fresno, CA; and every other Sunday at Logan Square (the organizer says, “find us in the grass behind the Logan Street Farmer’s Market!” in Chicago starting this weekend.
Download the L&L toolkit and register your stand today!
Data Collection Project Update + Volunteer Scoreboard and Monthly Prize Giveaway
For The People is compiling the first-ever nationwide database of public library board seats to support leftists in running for office (or seeking appointment). Back in early March we launched our Data Collection Project Volunteer Task Force - since then we've had nearly 200 people help out in one way or another, and over 150 people have signed up to work on batches of 25+ public library systems.
We recently hit a huge milestone by reaching 100% “checked-out” (i.e. someone’s committed to working on it), and over 50% of the total dataset returned (i.e. completed, or researched, but determined not to be available online).
We are now accepting volunteer signups for "Phase Two" of the data collection project. This next phase will involve direct outreach to the public library systems that don't publish the info we're seeking on the web, and re-assigning some of the previously "checked out" batches in cases where volunteers may need a helping hand completing research.
FTP Data Collection Project Volunteer Scoreboard
Huge congrats to Tracy M for coming in 1st place! And massive thanks to Tawny and Anonymous Volunteer Extraordinaire for being our next two highest level contributors. All volunteers will receive a prize package as described below.
We really appreciate all of the amazing volunteers who have helped out with this project so far. Sign up to help if you’d like to join the fun. The prizes are incredible, as you can see below:
1st place🥇: Two items from the For the People Bonfire Store (not to exceed $70 in total value) + A signed copy of Mariame Kaba's book Let This Radicalize You (or a $10 Bookshop gift certificate)
2nd place🥈: One item from the For the People Bonfire Store (not to exceed $30 in total value) + A signed copy of Mariame Kaba's book Let This Radicalize You (or a $10 Bookshop gift certificate)
3rd place🥉: A signed copy of Mariame Kaba's book Let This Radicalize You (or a $10 Bookshop gift certificate)
The scoreboard is an opt-in situation, so volunteers are named "Anonymous Volunteer Extraordinaire" by default unless they explicitly agree to have their name or an alias included on the scoreboard.
Thank you for making it all the way to the end of this newsletter- More to come soon!