Commitments and questions
What PLG stands for
PLG's commitments are to:
- a librarianship informed by and actively engaged in social struggles against capitalism, sexism, racism, and all practices and ideologies that refuse to recognize, respect and support the inherent worth of every human being and the natural world.
- people's right to know and public access to information, and support for those whose actions contribute to a fully informed citizenry against forces of misinformation, disinformation, and falsehood.
- preservation and sharing of the human record, and protection of endangered cultures and languages.
- creating alliances with marginalized communities, the homeless, poor, imprisoned, exploited, excluded.
- an environment of welcome, inclusion, and participation of all ages, genders, races, languages, socio-economic and educational backgrounds in the development and provision of library services and resources.
- bridging hierarchies within librarianship between public and technical services; academic, public, special, and school librarianship.
- opposition to business and management practices and ideologies in determining library operations, services, and resources, to the commodification of information, to consumerism, and the commercialization of library services.
- the rights of both humanity and nature such as established in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Law of the Rights of Mother Earth (Bolivia), and other articulations of rights as they are developing and evolving today, for example:
- rights of communities and natural communities which include ecosystems and nature;
- the rights of citizens to defend ecosystems and nature;
- expressions of the right to subordinate corporate rights to those of ecosystems and people, insofar as corporate actions are against the common good.
- the demand that our profession cease alliance to systems that destroy the possibility of human happiness and fulfillment.
PLG members and our journal Progressive Librarian explore questions such as:
- What is the current reality and role of public, academic, school libraries in today's capitalist, corporatist state? What myths conceal the services libraries provide practically and ideologically to the service of the state and against the common good?
- How do the practices of librarianship in all aspects of our work either support or challenge unjust status quos?
- What is intellectual freedom seen through the lens of social responsibility?
- What about the elements of care, empathy, service? Might they be highlighted?
- Do libraries truly provide people with resources for self education, intellectual development, skills to become active, engaged, knowledgeable citizens?
