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Reel Talk: Saving America’s Public Media Matters More Than You May Know

This is an opportunity for libraries to start curating a local collection of items, outside of book materials, based on the local needs of the community.

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While books still top the list of borrowed items, most libraries have expanded their offerings to include everything from musical instruments, baking pans, and science kits.

Ten Unexpected Things to Check Out at Public Libraries

We are able to collectively get all this history together and make context out of it, but we rely on our community for its history.

In centering voices that have often been sidelined and silenced, we challenge the status quo.

The Legacy of Black Life on the North Shore

Father and Son Banquet at the Emerson YMCA, circa 1917. Photo: courtesy of Helen Cromer Cooper

A gathering of African American men and boys seated at a formal dinner in the early 20th century

The Nation’s First Municipal Reparations Program, Grounded in Black History

Samip Mallick, executive director of SAADA with colleagues.

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Sharing Personal Stories from South Asian Communities 

For me, public knowledge means ensuring that knowledge access and production are treated as public and social goods ... for purposes that matter to people.

Everyone should have access to public knowledge resources, but certain challenges, like the so-called
digital divide, continue to prevent equitable access.

Patricia Hswe serves as program officer in the Public Knowledge grantmaking area at Mellon Foundation.

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Defining Public Knowledge with Program Officer Patricia Hswe

A cross-section of a book is photographed up close in black and white

Public libraries are spaces to access books, information, and increasingly, critical community services. Emily Drabinski, president of ALA, shares experiences from libraries across the US.

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Associate Professor

Emily Drabinski

America’s Saving Spaces

Inside the Faulkner Morgan Archive

The Faulkner Morgan Archive (FMA) preserves Kentucky's LGBTQ+ history through oral histories, media, and artifacts pooled by artist and co-founder Robert Morgan (second from left). Photo: John Ashley

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Painter Henry Faulkner (center) openly celebrated his queerness, which led to arrests and stays at psychiatric hospitals built for the "criminally insane.” Faulkner with two sailors, 1949. Photo: FMA

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Born in the 1890s to formerly enslaved parents, Sweet Evening Breeze spent decades breaking barriers and advocating for the LGBTQ+ community. Teatime portrait at her home, 1972. Photo: John Ashley

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FMA preserves Kentucky's LGBTQ+ history while also recording present-day queer Kentucky. Ian Smoking, 2014. Photo: Casie Lewis

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A masculine-presenting couple, both of whom testify to the early queer presence in Kentucky, undated. Photo: FMA

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A feminine-presenting couple in drag, signifying the unprecedented inclusivity of the early queer community in Kentucky, undated. Photo: FMA

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Henry Faulkner, who was widely recognized for his quirky habits and impish exploits, in drag, circa 1940. Photo: FMA

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Actor, singer, and drag queen Harris Glenn Milstead (better known as Divine) on stage at Lexington’s Club Au Go Go, 1981. Photo: FMA

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"If something happens to me, nobody will know any of these stories or what any of this material was about."

Quote by Robert Morgan

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I thought, ‘If something happens to me, nobody will know any of these stories or what any of this material was about.’ 

If you stand on this street, this is what there used to be and this is what happened here.

Chinatowns in cities in America, such as New York, San Francisco, and Washington, DC, are sites impacted by modernity and change. Preserving the character and histories of these places is important to educating people about the histories and experiences of Chinese Americans. Photo: Getty Images

An image of a street scene at Pell Street in Chinatown.

Making Chinese American Histories Part of Everyday Life

Reading, Power, and Freedom: A Virtual Discussion

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Mellon Foundation President Dr. Elizabeth Alexander led a conversation about the power of unfettered reading, and how we might mitigate efforts to undermine it throughout the United States. 

Reading, Power, and Freedom

How do libraries facilitate civil and community engagement?

Event America Library

Originally livestreamed on October 27, 2022. This event included Mellon Foundation President Elizabeth Alexander, Tracie Hall, and John Szabo.

America is at the Library—Not Just the Ballot Box

Libraries are deeply integrated into our community spaces; and, while we always need more libraries, they pepper the entire landscape of the United States.

Radical librarians aim to center community voices and scrutinize how institutional resources are allocated. 

Three people stand in a library with shelves on either side of the group. Together, they hold a book in front of their faces so they are not visible to the camera.

Libraries Are Vital Community Spaces (and, They Need to Evolve)

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Libraries and librarians need to see themselves as active agents … who must support community participation and take a stand against social injustice.

A historical photo of a SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) demonstration at the Cairo pool. USA. Cairo, Illinois. 1962. Photo: Danny Lyon / Magnum Photos

In black and white, three demonstrators from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee stand together, holding hands

Living History From One Generation to the Next with the SNCC Legacy Project

The Video Lab at the Library of Congress National Audio-Visual Center processes moving images recorded on aging VR2000 Quad and Sony ½” EIAJ VTRs. Photo: Stefan Ruiz for Mellon Foundation

An interior room filled with audio and video equipment 

Expanding Public Knowledge

Artists as Catalysts

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Beyond Incarceration

A side profile of a Black poet who is wearing glasses and a hat with a feather hat pin.

Borderlands Cultures

In portrait orientation, an aerial view of a major highway running parallel to a large border wall set on a hilly landscape

Civic Engagement

A man in a brown jacket stands in front of blue bulletin board that is covered with papers and advertisements  

Evolving Higher Education

A vertical image of an Indigenous person who is sitting on a chair in front of a backdrop.

Monuments and Memory

A multicolored painted totem pole set in front of a foggy forest landscape

Multivocality

Five people stand together in a group photo. They are laughing and smiling.

Power of the Word

Five colorful neon signs hang on the wall with messages that include, "Freedom cannot wait," "Brown owned," and "America is for Dreamers."

Public Places‚ Public Stories

A group of Indigenous Maskoke people stand and sit in the wooden frame of a structure in a woods

Puerto Rico and Its Diaspora

In a vertical image, a black leather vest is adorned with colorful pins across the front of it. Embroidery on the vest reads: "Felícitas "La Prieta" Méndez" 