Progressive Librarians Guild
Rider University Library
2083 Lawrenceville Rd.
Lawrenceville, NJ 08648

Ten point program presented to the groups which met at the Vienna Conference of progressive librarians sponsored by KRIBIBIE

  1. We shall work towards an international agenda as the basis of common action of librarians everywhere actively committed, as librarians, to social justice, equality, human welfare, and  the development of cultural democracy.
  2. We will unite librarians and information workers in opposition to the marketization of public goods, to privatization of social resources and to outsourcing of services and will oppose international treaties and institutions which advance destructive neo-liberal policies.
  3. We insist upon the equality of access to and inclusiveness of information services, especially extending such services to the poor, marginalized and discriminated against, including the active solidarity-based provision of information assistance to these groups and their advocates in their struggles.
  4. We shall  encourage the exploration of alternative models of human services; promote and disseminate critical analysis of information technology's  impact on libraries and societies; and support the fundamental democratization of existing institutions of education, culture, communications.
  5. We shall undertake joint, interdisciplinary research into fundamental library issues (e.g. into the political economy of information in the age of neo-liberalism and corporate globalization)  in order to lay the basis for effective action in our spheres of work.
  6. We will support cooperative collection, organization and preservation of the documents of people's struggles and the making available of alternative materials representing a wide range of progressive viewpoints often excluded as resources  from the debates of our times.
  7. We will investigate and  organize efforts to make the library-as-workplace more democratic and encourage resistance to  the managerialism of the present library culture.
  8. We will lead in promoting international solidarity among librarians and cooperation between libraries across borders on the basis of  our joint commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related covenants  which create a democratic framework for constructive cooperative endeavours.
  9. We will organize in common with other cultural and educational progressives, to help put issues of social responsibility on the agendas of international bodies such as IFLA and UNESCO.
  10. We shall oppose corporate globalization which, despite its claims, reinforces existing social, economic, cultural inequalities, and insist on a democratic globalism and internationalism which respects and cultivates cultural plurality, which recognizes the sovereignty of peoples, which acknowledges the obligations of society to the individual and communities, and which prioritizes  human values and needs over profits.