Fall 2025 ACRL/NY Social and Political Affairs Affinity Group

Please join us!

Inaugural Meeting for 2025-2026 academic year
ACRL/NY Social and Political Affairs Affinity Group

November 7th, 2:30 pm - 4:00pm
(in person)

NYU Bobst Library, 70 Washington Square South, Room 61

First of all, we welcome Symphony Bruce, Critical Pedagogy Librarian at NYU, as our new co-convenor! She is joining Liam Adler in stewarding this group

We will meet in person!  At NYU on November 7th at 2:30 pm at NYU’s Bobst Library. We want to connect for real, in a way that is all too rare these days. We are talking about big, important things in this group, and we value the trust and camaraderie that we can build simply by being in a room together.  

We’ll do two big things:

1. 1. Write to the New York State Assembly about New York State Assembly Bill A5464, which would, amongst many things,  “establish protections for school library media specialists and librarians against harassment and discrimination in employment related to the refusal to remove library materials.” We can write to encourage the bill's speedy progress, perhaps suggest ways to strengthen the legislation while it's still in committee, and discuss the bill and its impact generally. This is part of ACRL/NY’s commitment to being in solidarity with library colleagues. We also acknowledge that censorship and harassment impact all of us. 

      
      

   2. We’ll talk about a modest coordinated cross-institutional book display effort! It can take any number of forms! Maybe it's as simple as putting a sign or a book up in our offices, maybe it’s a big giant display, maybe it's different at each library. We will strategize how this might work at each of our libraries despite varying policies, bureaucracy, and vibes. But we’ll somehow do some sort of cross-institutional display that is in some way related to banned books! We look forward to having a lively discussion and we'll have snacks.

      
      

*Note that your name and email will be provided to the front desk to allow for entry. When you enter, just let the guard know that you are there for the ACRL/NY event!