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Category Archives: Betsy
by Betsy | June 25, 2012 · 11:14
The People's Library summering on Governor's Island
This summer the People's Library has partnered with Superfront and artist collective DADDY in a project called the Library of Immediacy. Superfront challenged designers to create a semi-outdoor structure for our library within a set of strict parameters in a two-hour charrette that took place on June 10, 2012.
One of the aims of the project is to explore the notion of the library: to create and promote engagement, prompt collaboration and participation within a temporary public space–some of what we at the People's Library do best! The project will serve as an evolving art installation, a functioning library and a welcoming gathering place.
Here are details about the winning design. The structure is currently being built for us on Governor's Island–we plan to move a portion of the collection in to the space in the next few weeks.
The library will be open on Governor's Island weekends from July 21st through September 23rd. Check back here for details about library programming and info on the opening party.
Directions and Ferry schedules here.
Filed under Announcements, Art, Betsy, Education, Ephemera, Friends of the Library, Literature, Party time!, Public/Private Parks
Tagged as commons, DADDY, Governor's Island, public space, summer, Superfront
by Betsy | May 23, 2012 · 19:52
Media Alert for Library Press Event/Lawsuit: THURSDAY, MAY 24, 11:00 AM
For Immediate Release: May 23, 2012
Press Contact: press@occupywallst.org, 347-292-1444
For this action only: William Scott, 412-390-6510
Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Wall Street Librarians to file Federal Court lawsuit against Bloomberg, the City of New York and NYPD — legal effort to uncover November 15 raid details.
New York–A lawsuit will be filed tomorrow, May 24, in Manhattan Federal Court seeking redress for the destruction of books, materials and equipment from the popular and respected People's Library of Occupy Wall Street (OWS). NYPD raided and forcibly evicted Occupy Wall Street, including the People's Library, from its Liberty Square camp (also known as Zuccotti Park) on November 15, 2011. The middle-of-the night raid, by members of the NYPD and other city agencies, was authorized by NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Journalists were prevented from witnessing the attack; some were arrested. The raid struck not only at Constitutional rights but at a fundamental tool of enlightenment – thousands of library books and materials were destroyed.
What: Federal Court lawsuit filing, press availability with OWS Librarians and lawyers. Copies of the complaint will be available.
When: Thursday, May 24, at 11:00 AM
Where: United States District Court (Manhattan Federal Court), Manhattan. Press availability OUTSIDE — directly across the street from the 200 Worth entrance, on the sidewalk in front of Columbus Park
Who: Occupy Wall Street Librarians from the People's Library, lawsuit attorneys Norman Siegel and Herbert Teitelbaum of Siegel, Teitelbaum & Evans.
Occupy Wall Street is part of an international people powered movement fighting for economic justice in the face of neoliberal economic practices, the crimes of Wall Street, and a government controlled by monied interests. #OWS is the 99% organizing to end the tyranny of the 1%. For more info, visit www.occupywallst.org and www.nycga.net
Filed under 11/15 Eviction, Announcements, Betsy, Cops, Media
Tagged as #Occupy, Bloomberg, economic justice, Kelly, lawsuit, Norman Siegel, nypd, Wall Street
by Betsy | March 14, 2012 · 20:11
Wall Street to Main Street
Six months after Occupy Wall Street (OWS) sparked a global 99% movement, Occupy with Art and Masters on Main Street launch "Wall Street to Main Street" (WS2MS) in historic Catskill, NY. Through a dynamic series of art exhibits, performances, screenings, happenings, public discussions, community- and family-focused activities, WS2MS will not only illuminate the amazing phenomenon of OWS, it will explore possible futures of the movement and build a creative bridge to connect the protests with the real needs and values of Main Street, USA.
Occupy Books: An Experiment in Communal Reading, located at 450 Main Street. This site is books + couches and reading lamps, including an opportunity to write on its walls reflections, quotes, messages and/or whatever you want. Importantly, the books at Occupy Books are by donation, in keeping with the OWS People's Library, which will be contributing books from its collection for this action.
WS2MS opens March 17, 2012 in Catskill, NY.
If you would like to donate books directly to the show, please ship to the address below:
Occupy Books
C/O Green County Council on the Arts
P.O.Box 463, 398 Main Street
Catskill, New York 12414
Filed under Announcements, Betsy, Literature, Solidarity
Tagged as Main Street, Occupy Books, Wall Street to Main Street, WS2MS
The People's Library on board the Illuminator
The Illuminator made its official debut with librarians Danny and Betsy on board.
Here's a brief video Brandon Neubauer shot and edited showcasing The Illuminator's first stop at Liberty Square on March 3, 2012.
Filed under Betsy, Danny, Direct Action
Tagged as #Illuminator, 99%, info shop, mobile library
Community Agreements
Hey library peeps, spring is upon us and I'm interested in finally nailing down a community agreement within our working group. We've danced around this for months now and I think we should finally be finished with it and agree on laying out our expectations of each other and what acceptable behavior in our working group looks like. Below is a copy of the agreement that recently passed Spokes Council. I think it's a good template for us to work with. As Scales recommended awhile ago, I'm posting this on the blog so that we can discuss and hammer it out transparently, not just behind the veil of email.
-Betsy
STATEMENT OF INTENTION UPON ENTERING THE SPACE
(in multiple languages)
I enter this space with an open mind, heart, and attitude.
I ask for and respect the consent, boundaries, and needs of those around me.
I support the empowerment of each person in order to subvert the histories and structures of oppression that marginalize and divide us.
I hold myself accountable to community decisions and will work for, care for, and defend our community.
If I violate community agreements, or act in a way that harms the community, I will remove myself from this physical space.
(a living document)
We amplify each other's voices.
We commit to making spaces physically accessible to all.
We do not use drugs or alcohol inside this space.
We do not bring weapons inside this space.
We use all tents communally on a rotating schedule.
We accept only in-kind donations.
We get explicit consent before interacting physically or using others' belongings.
We affirm that consent is not just the absence of a "no," but the presence of a "yes."
We will call the police or an ambulance in a serious situation only after careful consideration in discussion with any person harmed as it can put individuals and the community at risk.
We respect everyone's names, preferred gender pronouns, and expressed identities. We make no assumptions about someone's race, gender or class identity based on their appearance. We also understand that no one is required to share information about their identities.
We speak only for ourselves and commit to hearing each other and creating opportunities for all voices to be heard, especially those that have historically been marginalized or silenced.
We commit to ongoing awareness of our prejudices, privileges, and the structures of oppression that affect our personal experiences.
COMMITMENT TO CONFLICT RESOLUTION AND ACCOUNTABILITY
We accept a shared responsibility in holding one another accountable to these agreements. If we feel that an agreement is not being respected we will express that concern without violence, judgment or assumption of intent by others. As a community, we commit to developing creative and transformative ways to address harm. In all cases where someone is harmed, we affirm the experience and decisions of the person harmed in guiding our responses and next steps, while allowing all parties involved to transform the cycles of abuse and violence.
If an individual disrespects community agreements we will collectively implement the 6-step de-escalation process, which may result in an individual being removed from the space. We will work to coordinate with organizations that assist individuals who are overcoming addiction or who have committed abuse or violence.
Those who have committed harm in this space or who have been called out for harm in the past and whose presence limits the participation of others in this movement may need to leave until the harm has been addressed.
Filed under Betsy, Process, Spokes Council, Working Group Meeting
by Betsy | January 24, 2012 · 20:30
People's Library presentation at ALA Midwinter
Following is the text presented at the American Library Association's Midwinter Conference Saturday January 21, 8:30 am at the Dallas Convention Center Theater by Occupy Wall Street Librarians Daniel Norton, Mandy Henk, Betsy Fagin, Jaime Taylor and Zachary Loeb.
[Danny]
Good Morning ALA Midwinter 2012 Dallas! My name is Daniel Norton, I am a student of Library Science, and I am both proud and honored to introduce to you a group of professionals who have not only impacted me in very meaningful ways as a future professional, but who have an inspiring and interesting story to share with you today…
[Mandy]
On September 17th of last year a group of committed activists, activists diverse in age, race, and social class, taking their inspiration from the Arab Spring, "occupied" a public space in New York City's financial district. They rejected the legitimacy of the existing authorities and engaged in direct action to build a new and better world. A world based on old principles. Principles embedded deep in the American psyche, but lately forgotten. Solidarity. Mutual aid. Equality. Autonomy. Democracy—real democracy based on consensual, non-hierarchical self-governance. The activists of Occupy Wall Street built a People's Kitchen so that no one need know hunger. They built a Comfort station so that no one need suffer the cold. Medical care, Arts and Culture, a Spirituality Space, even a phone charging station . . . .all of the necessities of life—including a library. Occupy Wall Street is about creating a new and better world ourselves. As a free people united for justice.
Occupiers have faced repeated police brutality—peaceful Occupiers have been arrested, maced, gassed, attacked with police scooters and sound canons. On November 15th, our occupation and our library were destroyed in a brutal early morning raid. Our colleagues and comrades were arrested, our collection tossed into a dumpster, our tent cut apart with a chainsaw. But we are here, we are strong, and we are committed to the fight for justice. We are the Librarians of Occupy Wall Street and we are committed to using the tools of our profession–books, literacy, bibliographic control, reference and readers advisory in that fight. As librarians we understand the vital role libraries play in society and in a healthy democracy and our library stands as our living commitment to that fulfilling that role.
We're each going to give a brief reflection and then we'll have a presentation on our library and time for questions.
[Betsy]
One of the unique characteristics of Occupy is how it is a very local expression of a group of people in any particular place, but the impulse to build a library, to share knowledge and resources is universal.
In November there was a brief article in the Guardian with a slide show of other Occupy Libraries in Washington DC, Vancouver, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, Toronto and London that gave us one of our first glimpses of how Occupy libraries were multiplying.
The Biblioteca Acampada Sol in Madrid that grew out of the M15 movement has been a particular inspiration to us & I want to read some of a letter they sent to us in early October as it mirrors our own experience at Occupy Wall Street and expresses some of how we are bound together whether we know it or not:
Hi Peoples Library!
Cheers from the public library of the Spanish revolution occupation at Madrid!
We are the Acampada Sol Library, The library that was formed during the occupation of the Puerta del Sol Square here in Madrid- Spain last May. We have been following OWS from the very first day and let's say we are glad to see that you found the way out to organise you up almost in the same way we did while we were camping at the city hall square in Madrid at Puerta del Sol.
What we saw [in] the pics of OWS was quite impressive, but you couldn't imagine how surprised we were when we realized that OWS has also a library. It may sound stupid but when we knew that, we celebrated it as the born of a new one in the family.
Why? well, it´s difficult to explain but during the nearly seven weeks we lived there hearing the rain fall over the piece of plastic that barely covered our books (not us) we had a lot of time to think about what we were going trough. The media described us as bums, the government as the most dangerous kind of terrorists (the pacifist's kind) and we slept always waiting for the final police riot that would throw everything down. We had time for joy and also for despair. We never knew what we were doing, we only knew that it was right. People said it was useless to demand a U-turn in local politics in a country with a globalized economy. We replied if so, that we expected to make our demands go global then, they said it was a childish dream and they laughed…
We only want to thank all of you to be there, because maybe you don't realize it, but you're making our dream come true… Obviously to do the right thing, far from being a utopia or related to culture is a matter of common sense.
We should say that none of us decided to open up a library during our occupation, it appeared by itself. People who came to support us wanted us to have some of their books, they wanted us to read and to take care of them. We started out only with forty titles. People came up to rest from the everyday routines, trying to find a shelter in the written words under our blue tent, poets showed up to read them their works and free thinkers their essays…The manager of one major corporate library in town gave us book-carts and everything we needed. "Just don't tell anyone" he asked. One donation come after another and in a few weeks we reached nearly four thousands titles at our outdoor library. A funny heritage to save considering that we were waiting to be bludgeoned and evicted from one minute to other…
We love to hear from you to know how all of you guys are going and we hope you'll find inspiration in our little story to realise that you are not alone in this.
Pd[sic]: Sorry for our lousy English.
Bibliosol – Biblioteca de Acampada Sol
During the time we held the park, we were so busy organizing and running the library, arranging events, talking to people & trying to evade arrest that we didn't have much opportunity to reach out beyond Zuccotti Park. Since the raid, connecting Occupy libraries together has become one of our primary aims.
We are still in the early stages of forming a consortium of Occupy libraries (& if anyone would like to get involved, please get in touch with me), but have already been in touch with libraries that are still active despite many of the camps being shut down. As of today, we've had enthusiastic response from about a dozen libraries and we are beginning to share our experiences and resources to strategize future steps and clarify the roles of libraries within the Occupy Movement. One particularly exciting development has been the role our library can play assisting educators. Many college professors have begun teaching courses on Occupy and who better to help them find accurate, timely information than the libraries and librarians who have been there.
[Jaime]
I want to make it very clear that the People's Library is not like most other libraries. Most libraries, at least those in places like the United States, have walls and roofs and doors and shelves. They have regular electricity, bathrooms, call numbers, hours of operation. They don't have, for the most part, rain and snow inside them, or giant papier mâché bulls on Sunday afternoons, or constant police presence and the threat of arrest or violence that comes with it. Your library has probably never had anything to do with a tent, nor is anyone living in it, and while some of you have had the occasional visit from the authorities, your disaster plans don't stipulate what to do when hundreds of cops come calling, tear down the whole thing, and arrest anyone inside. Let me also be clear that none of this is hyperbole.
One aspect I particularly want to touch on is the decision-making process we use. The Library Working Group works on consensus. When I was in library school, we talked about horizontal structures and consensus as a cutting edge way of organizing library work and staff. Please throw that all out the window. Please. The meaning of 'consensus' used in my library school classroom and the meaning of it at the Occupation and in radical politics generally are not the same. For us, consensus requires that nearly everyone support a decision. If there are people with serious concerns about a proposal, what we call a 'block,' we need at least 90% those present to be in support of it. Degreed librarians have no more weight in making decisions than an 18-year-old college student, an underemployed actress, or a crusty traveling kid. At the same time, individual librarians are empowered to act autonomously to a large extent; if a librarian had a good idea, and an action wouldn't greatly affect the library as a whole, that person was welcome to make it happen, barring serious concerns from others, without seeking permission as such. The flip side of that autonomy is that an individual librarian need not involve themself with a library project they don't like or agree with, that in Occupation terms they 'stand aside' from. This is in severe contrast to even the flatter organizational structures in normal libraries, which are remain hierarchies and for which we might say about consensus, 'you keep using that word; I do not think it means what you think it means.'
When formulating policies and procedures for the Library, we considered not only library best practices, but also the ideological nature of our existence, and the unique practical realities of our operations.
There are some aspects of the Occupy Wall Street Library that are easily recognizable: we have an OPAC of sorts on LibraryThing; we have master's degree holding librarians doing library work, as well as what could be termed paraprofessionals, techies, and friends of the library; we have books and -had- computers.
Our OPAC, as I've said, is on LibraryThing. We already had several hundred books when the catalog began, and so we retroactively cataloged everything in the collection at that point, and then cataloged new arrivals as they came in. Some books were added through barcode scanning, but most were done by searching the ISBN. Chapbooks, older books, and other items without ISBNs were cataloged by hand. We'd then mark the books as having been received and cataloged. At times when we didn't have available internet–which is often– we'd write down ISBNs and enter them into LibraryThing when internet was again available.
For most of the library's existence, we didn't have actual shelves. The first volumes were placed on a stone bench at the northeast corner of the park. Then they were put is cardboard boxes. Which melted in the rain. Then they were covered by tarps and put in plastic bins. Sometimes the bins could be on the bench and the ledge above it, sometimes the cops told us they couldn't be. Very often– especially when it was raining– we were told we couldn't cover them with tarps. You know, because we might be hiding bombs under there. Or something. So we got clear plastic sheeting instead. Which was acceptable slightly more often than the opaque tarps. But, back to shelving…
Our books don't have call numbers, and therefore don't have exact locations. They were broadly sorted in to categories and topics — fiction and non-fiction, non-print, history, economics, poetry, education, women, queer, people of color, non-English, etc. We performed what I liked to call "directly democratic shelving." That is, whoever was sorting books was empowered to put items where they thought they best belonged. And then if someone found a book in a certain place, but they thought it might be better elsewhere, they were welcome to move it. Personally, and as I would suggest to anyone who asked for advice on shelving, I tried to keep the principle of use in mind. If I was of more than one mind about where a book might belong, I'd consider where our readers might think to look for it, if they wanted that particular book. Or, I'd think about what section they'd be delighted to find it under. Use says that it goes where it will be most and most happily read.
The LibraryThing catalog is a record of the books that have ever been a part of the collection. It does not reflect what might be actually available in the library at any given moment. Circulation is one of the places where ideology and practically met harmoniously. Given that our library in Zuccotti Park had no building, no call numbers, and no library cards, we did not track circulation. Like maintaining a strict shelving order, it would have been nearly impossible to do, and certainly beyond the person-power at our disposal. There was never a formal method of borrowing and returning books. The only method was to find a book you wanted to read, pick it up, and walk off with it. We asked only that the reference collection, which included traditional reference materials such as dictionaries as well as copies of our most popular books– Howard Zinn's People's History, for example, not leave the library. Returns are most welcome, but not required. Readers are welcome to pass books along to friends, take them to other Occupations, or hold on to them. We suggest that somehow, though, the book continue to be used.
This method, aside from being practical, given our resources, was ideologically sound. First in mind is that we are the People's Library. The librarians are caretakers and facilitators. Also, the library was created in a climate of surveillance and a growing police state. Many libraries are very careful about how they keep records and who has access to those records; we circumvented the point by never keeping any. The only way anyone might ever know who read what book would be to see them doing it.
Lastly, there is no collecting policy. Or, rather, there is, and it only has two points: everything we have was donated to us, and we accept everything. We buy supplies, but we never buy books. Every single volume is in the library because some person thought it should be. And we though many of us have disdain for some authors or viewpoints, or the quality of some literature– and being readers as well as librarians, it's our movement, too, after all, are welcome to say so– we never recycled a book on account of its content. This means that not only was the Library for the people, but, as they are responsible for its creation, that it is of the people.
[Zachary]
The People's Library represents a collection of thousands upon thousands of books, it ranges across all genres, publication dates, and target audiences. To date over 9,000 books have been cataloged in our group's LibraryThing – and this is a number which is probably several thousand books lower than the true number of books that have come through the library. While the number of books is impressive in terms of quantity and variety, what makes it truly remarkable is that it is a collection built almost entirely by the library's patrons (we received some generous donations from publishers).
Books would get placed in the donation box and we would process them: mark them OWSL (or stamp them, back when we had the stamp), write down the ISBN number, sticker them so we knew the volume was "processed," and shelve them. When we were asked "how does this work?" (Which we were asked constantly), we replied: "it's a library. Take a book, read it, bring it back, or lend it to a friend, so that the library keeps spreading."
In the library we were commonly asked "what books do you need?" To which we typically responded: "what do you think we need?" or "what book changed your life?" or "Whatever you want to give." Although, at a certain point we added to the third response, "but we don't really need more fiction." True, the library was built by a steady flow of fiction (popular and classics), but the library sections most heavily perused and borrowed from were: politics, history, biographies, philosophy, ecology, and spirituality. It is a, shall we say, diverse collection. Our collection was as varied as the library's patrons, who – after all – built the collection. We have Milton Friedman and John Maynard Keynes. We have Ayn Rand and George Orwell. We have Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Michael Savage, and Ann Coulter. We have Howard Zinn, Frances Fox Piven, Naomi Klein, and Noam Chomsky. We also have Stephen King, William Shakespeare, Dr. Seuss, and a book by the library's star patron Michael Bloomberg. We built a reference collection of books that were highly demanded (based largely on request) and F.A. Hayek was in there right next to Karl Marx…though we probably should have known better than to ask people not to remove the reference copy of "Steal this book."
Due to the ever changing nature of the collection, it could be quite the challenge to help patrons find books, but in the process it provided a real look into what brought people to the occupation. Working in the library involved: searching for books to fit a lot of bizarre requests, listening to a lot of life stories, getting to know the regulars and their book tastes, being yelled at for random things, tidying, processing a ton of books, doing data entry, it was a lot like…working in a library.
Disregarding personal opinion on the matter, Occupy Wall Street, as well as other occupations worldwide, are happening, and they're inspiring discourse, debate, interest in political spheres and a renewed sense of the power that knowledge holds. The unifying theme of the occupy movement is dissatisfaction, and the result of people gathering to take part in the democratic process of their nation is a rekindling of interest in the early ideas and protections afforded us by our forefathers. This is America, and we The People are our own government. With the ubiquity of information access via the Internet, and the perception that people have the power to access knowledge that suits their needs, what is it that a library affords a populace? A place of community, sharing, conversation and insight. Libraries unite through educational outreach and conservation of those aspects of ourselves and society that represent our culture. What the People's Library has afforded her patrons is a place to engage with what's happening in our country, a means to contribute their own sentiments through the donation of materials, and the literacy to see other view points, perhaps form one of their own, and to express criticisms in an effective way. I've heard vicious and unapologetically ignorant statements made about the work being done here, even from members of this professional community, and it needs to be recognized that not everyone has the luxury of camping out in Liberty Plaza in order to take a stand, not everyone agrees with the tactics of the Occupy movement, but far more people than is represented are dissatisfied, feeling victimized or are otherwise feeling unfulfilled by the present state of our world, and they've chosen the library as a place of solace, and as a means of joining the conversation. The People moved to create a central place of collaboration and equal representation, and (of all things) they built a library as a symbol of such legitimacy.
What does this mean for librarianship? I believe that there is much to be learned from an organizational structure that eschews traditional approaches to educating and informing. I believe that there is insight to partnership in information-seeking in a scenario where there is no circulation desk creating a physical barrier between "librarians" and information seekers. There is an obvious wisdom to be gleaned from the concept of bringing the information to the field as opposed to idly standing by and waiting for the opportunity to field queries from a position far removed from the place in which information is most needed. Our archival team is archiving history in real-time, instead of trying to piece it back together in preservation of retrospect. The precedence here is that librarianship is now this dynamic and engaging vocation that is changing even faster than current professionals believe. The people we serve are redefining us and demanding that we assume our roles as beacons of intellectual freedom and the physical embodiment of American democracy that our education tells us we are. Pertinent to the people in this room, something proven to be most confronting, and a prime example of the ways in which The People's Library is challenging present structures, is that their resident pre-professional, who is the designated student outreach appointee speaking as a guest at library schools nation wide, is not enrolled in a Master's program at all, he's an undergraduate obtaining his bachelor of science in information and library services through a degree offering at the University of Maine at Augusta; a statement whose reception I've had run the gamut from an unanticipated hug, to even further unanticipated outright hostility.
What I'm trying to say is that this is such an exciting time to be involved in librarianship. We are existing in a generational instance laden with economic turmoil, burdened with recession and depression, yet people have risen to say that they love their books, they love their right to know, they love their librarians and (most importantly), they love their libraries and that's on us.. The moral of the story is that we shouldn't –we can't– let them down.
It was Jesse Shera, one of the foremost American library theoreticians of his or any generation, writing almost 50 years ago, who said, "The aim of librarianship, at whatever intellectual level it may operate, is to maximize the social utility of the graphic records, whether the patron served is an unlettered child absorbed in his first picture book or the most advanced scholar engaged in some esoteric inquiry." He goes on to say, "The storage and retrieval of information, of facts, however expertly done, are valueless if those facts are not used for the betterment of mankind."
At Occupy Wall Street, the People's Library evolved, as did the Biblioteca Acampada Sol in Madrid and the other Occupy libraries, because libraries are necessary to the betterment of humankind. As a profession, librarianship has had a long history as a liberating force in society. Going at least as far back as the working class Chartist movement in England, people seeking their own freedom have built libraries. Libraries offer universal access to recorded knowledge, they offer access to truth, they offer the intellectual means to liberation. That a library should sit at the center of a movement for American liberation, for a revolution in American politics and values is perfectly natural. Libraries, after all, are one of the few sites in American society where that uneasy, yet revolutionary, alliance between the working class and the intellectual class finds common ground.
Still though, why today, why now? Why has a collection of some 7,000 books managed to create such a stir. How have we come to a place where the sharing of books, the gathering and disseminating of knowledge, has come to be such a revolutionary act? One that brought the full force of the militarized New York police department down upon it. I think the reason is that today we see an all out assault on exactly what libraries stand for and what they do. Libraries are struggling today, not because our services and collections are no longer relevant, are no longer needed, (there is more than ample evidence proving the opposite) but because the very thing we stand for, the very thing we represent, is itself under assault. The idea of a common, of shared resources, of equal access–access not mediated by a market, but granted as a fundamental right, a right that all human beings share by the virtue of being a member of the human family– is under assault.
Libraries are valuable to society and promote the betterment of humankind because they serve as an intellectual and physical common, a shared collection and shared space that allows people to gather and educate themselves–to debate, discuss, and through the joint exercises of reading and conversation devise for themselves the kind of world they want to build and the way they want to build it.
In times like these, times when economics has been converted to a religion and leaders promote the doctrine of the free market as a panacea, librarianship is a radical profession. Unavoidably, our, profession is political, is radical. It's political because we stand at the juncture of people and knowledge, and knowledge is power. It is radical because people with access to knowledge and the means to understand it are a powerful people, they are a people who have the means to liberate themselves and to fight for their own freedom.
photo: Frances Mercanti-Anthony
I see librarianship at a crossroads, we face a choice: do we continue down the road of unfettered markets constructing our relationships and communities or do we step back from that false vision and its unfulfilled promises of a golden future and fight for a different future, one based on our fundamental principles, on the idea that all people have value–that all people have inherent worth and dignity? Our country is facing multiple existential challenges–income inequality, climate change, economic catastrophe. We are living in a time when the future looks bleaker everyday.
But we have a choice. We can decide to shun cynicism and hopelessness. We can choose instead to look to our roots, to our radical role as supporters of equality and democracy, and work together within our institutions and cities and profession to carry our libraries into the future, not the techno-utopia often held out as the future, but a real future where we tackle our social problems through the provision of knowledge to all and by fiercely defending the common that we and those who came before us have worked so hard to build.
I joined the People's Library, I slept out at Zuccotti, in a fort built of boxes of books–of ideas, of stories, of hope, watched over by police wielding clubs and guns, to defend that common and for the opportunity to build a collection and a library based on the principles that I hold dear. I joined because building a library in times like these is an act of resistance and protest and hope and love.
On Monday, November 14, I went to Zuccotti after work to spend a few hours in the library, as I'd been doing almost every day since October 2– it was, basically, a second full-time job. That day I was there until 9 or 10 at night, and then went home to Brooklyn. At 11:30 I went to bed, looking forward to be getting almost enough sleep that night. Sleep is in chronic short supply at the Occupation.
At 12:53 am on the 15th, an hour and a half later, I got a text message from one of the half dozen live-in librarians, just saying, "Police are here." Unable to get back in touch with him or any other librarians on site, I called a friend from the jail support team who works overnights and I therefore knew would be awake. By ten after 1 he'd confirmed that it was for real this time. I rolled out of bed, put on my boots, and started calling and texting the other librarians while grabbing the day's necessities. I got on a train, and got to the financial district at 2 am.
Even making it in that quickly, I couldn't get within two or three blocks of the park. There were barricades and cops– whom Mayor Bloomberg has since called his "own army"– on every street. As we quickly learned, there was a general media blackout. Reporters were not allowed within sight or hearing of the park, supposedly for their 'safety,' which is belied by the fact that news helicopters were also grounded.
It hardly mattered what our emergency plan had been. Of the five librarians who were inside the park that night, two elected to stay, and the three others were only able to remove what they could carry in one trip; once they left the park they could not return to retrieve either personal possessions or library materials. Given that restriction, they carried out our emergency plan, which we'd devised after the city's previous attempt to remove us, admirably.
The two librarians who stayed ended up being beaten, pepper sprayed, and arrested with more than 150 other Occupiers. Those who were by computers at the time could see them retreat to the Kitchen, which was at the center of the park, as the livestreams and other social media stayed up as long as they could. Within a couple hours, the library, along with the rest of the camp, and been torn down, loaded into city Sanitation dump trucks, and carted away. In video from that night you can see tents being taken down with chainsaws.
As the sun came up, those of us still free gathered in Foley Square. Breakfast appeared from somewhere, the medics continued to clean people up, and working groups and friends tried to figure out who was missing. Around 8 am we heard that the park was cleared and we could go in. A couple of us walked back down, where we met up with a handful of other librarians. We put the books we had on our person back on the bench where the library been just a few hours earlier and declared the People's Library open once again. We were there only a half hour or so before the cops completely barricaded the place off and kicked us all out. For the rest of the day, the park was closed off like that, the mayor and the police department directly ignoring a court order to allow the people access to the park.
When we finally were allowed back, under heavy security, we set up the library over and over. Those actions have resulted in additional confiscation of books and threats of further arrests. The rules under which police and security have allowed us to operate shift constantly. Aside from the library as place, we've taken it mobile, for our own actions as well as in support of other groups' actions.
During the days after the Occupation's eviction, Library recovered what we could from the city. That amounted to very little, as Zachary will tell you. We demanded restitution and apologies from the city, which were not forthcoming. We are now pursuing legal action, which will take time, and we will certainly keep the library community up to date with as things happen. Our librarians who were arrested that night have just had their first court appearances, but this, too, will take time. In the meantime, we are doing our best to continue providing library services in support of the movement.
Shortly after the raid the Mayor's office sent out a picture via twitter of some books on a table, saying that the People's library was safe, and that we would be able to go recover it. It was a small picture, hardly panoramic, but it was obvious that the books in the picture were far less than what was taken. Still, we were hopeful that there were just more books off camera. When they finally let out information about recovering materials members of the work group rushed to get back the books. Librarians went to the specified sanitation garage with a print out of the catalog, ready to recover everything that was lost. What was lost? Our tent, our shelves, tables, chairs, bins, archival materials, laptops, miscellaneous office supplies, oh, and around 4,000 books.
What was waiting at sanitation was…a few broken bins filled with books, a severely broken chair, and a folding table. The materials were taken back to a safe storage location, and then I began to sort them. I'm a librarian, but my focus in library school was actually archiving. I've done preservation assessments before, and before I went to storage I looked over my notes on conducting such assessments. I went in ready to triage 4,000 books. There weren't 4,000 books.
There were 1,275 books. I divided these into three categories. Fine, the books that were not damaged, or just lightly so – these were books that could easily be circulated. Damaged but reusable, for books that had taken a beating but which could still be re-read, this was the qualifier for books that had ripped covers, heavy spine damage, light water damage, or some other malady that nevertheless did not keep them from being readable. And then there were the destroyed, books ripped in half, books that had been warped beyond readability, and books that were more mud than book. The break down of this was 579 were fine, 389 were damaged but reusable, and 308 were destroyed. But that's not where this story ends. Earlier, when I discussed the collection I mentioned that we would mark all of the books so that we knew they were ours…and I was coming across a lot of books that weren't marked. I also found a lot of journals…and a broken kindle. Sanitation, it seems, didn't just give us the library books. They gave us every book they found. And thus I re-sorted and re-ran the numbers. It turned out that 272 of the books we got back were not actually library books. Meaning we got back 1,003 library books – about a fourth of what was taken the break down of those books was that 504 were fine, 298 were damaged but reusable, and 201 are destroyed.
Personally, I hope that Mayor Bloomberg just wanted to do a lot of reading– as all but two books from the reference collection vanished– he certainly got an interesting selection. But, I kind of doubt that's the case.
One of the primary characteristics of our library is its fluidity. Every day we re-invent ourselves. What we're doing right now at the People's Library is streamlining our mobile library project and finding interim physical space for the collection. We are building alliances across the Occupy movement, with educational institutions, and strengthening our ties with allies in public and academic libraries. Books are being published about the Occupy movement, professors are teaching courses on it, and students are studying what we have already done. We mean to be an integral part of these conversations.
What I see in the future is another physical occupation, re-establishing the commons. Over the winter we're strengthening our roots. We are empowering the decentralized network of people and institutions who are committed to realizing social and economic justice, addressing climate reality and confronting the host of other issues we've gathered to address. Together we are willing and able to take our power and insist on necessary, revolutionary change. Join us.
Despite "the protester" being named the person of the year by Time Magazine (and the article containing a reference to the people's library), the People's Library found itself ranked quite differently by another publication. The Village Voice put together a list of the 100 most powerless New Yorkers – yes, powerless. "The Librarians of the Occupy Wall Street "People's Library"" came in 34th. Here's what the voice had to say about us "One of the most fun aspects of Zuccotti Park this fall was the "People's Library" a wide selection of books that sparked free-wheeling discussions. Volunteer librarians (like Bill Scott [who was on the cover]) guarded it with professional care. Although they protected it from Mayor Bloomberg's first threatened raid on the park (by taking the books away via Zipcar to an "undisclosed location"), the librarians were rendered utterly powerless after the city launched its surprise raid and returned the collection looking like shit."
It's always an odd feeling to see yourself called one of the 100 most powerless people, just as it's odd to see a magazine like Time declare the protestor to be the person of the year. But what's really odd, isn't that the People's Library came in 34th (though it's worth noting that "The Occupy Wall Street Crust Punks" came in 40th [and if you've ever listened to crust punk music you know that calling a crust punk powerless is like calling a chainsaw a feather duster, but I digress]), it's who came in 13th. Any guesses? The 13th most powerless person/institution in NYC: "The NYPL's Librarians," of whom the Voice said:
Perhaps the only people less powerful in the library system than the homeless patrons are the librarians themselves. Gone are the days when a master's degree in library science and a job in the nations largest public-library system meant that you would spend your days helping writers to research and mesmerizing people with your encyclopedic knowledge of the Dewey decimal system. Today's NYPL librarian needs to be a social worker, a specialist at dealing with the homeless and the severely mentally ill, a computer tech wiz at solving people's Wi-Fi problems and a job (and suicide-prevention) counselor helping people look for jobs that simply don't exist.Even those librarians at the flagship Fifth Avenue main branch (who have been inoculated to some degree form the shit storm of the branch libraries) are preparing for it. As a recent article in the Nation reported, the 3 millions books beneath the Rose Reading Room will soon be shipped off to a storage facility in New Jersey and replaced by seven floors of computer terminals. As a former NYPL librarian said of the branch across the street and the main branch's future: "That place is utter chaos. And it will all come here – the noise, the teenage problems, the circulating DVDs.
Zounds.
It seems like the Village Voice wants to give the impression that being a librarian in NYC is to consign yourself to being powerless.
Luckily this is only relevant to NYC. Right? Surely, nobody could say this of librarians in Chicago? Or, California? What about in Michigan? How about Missouri? It's getting tough out there for librarians. Powerless? It certainly seems that way. But even as librarians have fought, and rallied, they have still seen library hours reduced, budgets cut, and so forth. And it doesn't look like those attacks are stopping, no matter how many hours our read-ins last, or no matter how many people we get to hug the library. Heck, the "library" section on The Huffington Post is actually called "Libraries in Crisis."
After the raid on the park, we heard from many people who were horrified by what had happened. And, honestly, it was pretty horrifying. But let's be honest, libraries were under attack by Mayors before the People's Library, and they will be after. Bloomberg was cutting the New York library budget's before, and he'll probably do it again in his coming budget. Rahm Emanuel in Chicago…the same. The discussion around libraries these days seems to be about cuts, and about whether or not libraries are relevant in today's world. Librarians – who frequently find themselves in the ranks of those evil "public service workers" – are regularly under assault, and thus it is understandable if a feeling of powerlessness can begin to sink in.
I don't agree with the Village Voice's placement of the people's library at 34. Were we technically powerless to stop Bloomberg's "private army" from tossing the books in the dumpster; yes. But the library is much more than that, the movement is much more than that, and in the end they're the ones powerless to stop it.
Powerlessness is what happens when you sit behind your desk and do nothing. Powerlessness is signing an online petition, or commenting on an article, or forwarding an e-mail. Powerlessness is doing nothing. And I can honestly say that the moment's in my professional life when I feel the least powerless, occur when I'm doing OWS library work.
Filed under 11/15 Eviction, Betsy, Danny, Jaime, Mandy, NYPL, OccupyLibraries, Scholarship, Zach
Tagged as #ALA, #ALAMW, #ALAMW2012, #bibliosol, #LibraryThing, #Occupy, #owslibrary, #PLG, OWS
People's Library at American Library Association conference
A few of us will be doing a panel presentation about our library, radical librarianship, the commons, what democracy looks like, what a police state looks like etc. in the ALA Masters Series at the Midwinter Conference in Dallas this weekend. We've got a lot to say.
We're very excited to be able to connect with so many librarians about our shared passions & about meeting up with our comrades at Occupy Dallas.
If you're in the Dallas area this weekend, please join us.
Saturday January, 21 at 8:30 am in the Dallas Convention Center Theater.
ALA Press release here.
Filed under Announcements, Betsy, Danny, Direct Action, Jaime, Mandy, OccupyLibraries, Radical Reference, Solidarity
Tagged as #ALA, #ALAMW, #ALAMW2012, #OccupyDallas, #owslibrary, #radical librarianship, #radical reference
Tonight's meeting is cancelled–January 15, 2012
The working group has agreed that rather than huddle up in a meeting tonight we're going to hit the streets to attend the MLK vigil. Please join us.
» 6:30pm – Assemble at Cathedral St. John the Divine, 1047 Amsterdam Ave
» 7:00pm – Candlelight march to Riverside Church, 490 Riverside Drive (followed by vigil)
» 8:00pm – Speakers & performances at Riverside Church
Speakouts & Performances By
Patti Smith, Russell Simmons, Steve Earle, Allison Moorer, Stephan Said, Kozza Olantunji, Dr. Benjamin Chavis, Reverend Stephen H. Phelps, Daisey Kahn, Norman Siegel, Sumumba Sobukwe, Malik Rhasaan & many more.
Dr. King said, "A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas… and say: 'This is not just.'"
This candlelight vigil kicks off more than 24 hours of Occupy Wall Street-organized events and actions including a march on Mon., Jan. 16th at 9am from the African Burial Ground to the Federal Reserve Bank for a rally for economic justice. For more information about the January 15th action visit http://j15global.org
Filed under Announcements, Betsy, Direct Action, Working Group Meeting
Tagged as #Dr. Benjamin Chavis, #J15, #meeting, #owslibrary, #revolution, #Russell Simmons, #solidarity, #Steve Earle, Patti Smith
by Michael | November 17, 2011 · 10:05
N17 Day of Direct Action
(This post will be updated as resources and news become available)
7:50 The People's Library is OPEN on the Brooklyn Bridge. Chanting, "Banks got bailed out, books got thrown out."
6:51 "Hey this is James (super tall corduroy man!) From the library and I wanted some to post on the blog that at WBAI 99.5 NYC from 9 to 10 I will be on air with Jim (the barrel guy) and I will be taking calls with him and discussing ows and the library and that people should tune in!"
4:58 The advocacy group Common Cause has released a statement calling on the Mayor and City to replace our books. Our post here.
3:34 A People's Librarian reports on police violence at Liberty Plaza.
3:00 Reports from onsite are that the police have dekettled and reopened the park. For now.
2:01: Liberty Plaza is under siege by NYPD. Occupiers are kettled in the park.
1:43 A People's Librarian in action. Handing out Bartleby at the action.
1:38: The ALA has released a statement decrying the seizure of the People's Library and expressing support for the Working Group. Our response here.
2:21: Police deny People's Mobile Library entry into Liberty, even though Brookfield staff ok'd it.
11:29: Barricades are down on at least one side of Liberty!
11:05: NYPD announce 60 arrests so far this morning (via WNYC).
10:47: Video of Douglass Rushkoff's Speech from November 9th is up.
10:40: Transcript of Jonathan Lethem's Speech from November 7th is up.
10: 30am: The People's Library is mobile today, find us on the streets!
(photo: Stephen Boyer)
9:30am: The hashtag #OccupyMap is tracking locations of NYPD. #N17 is the tag of the day. Join and share the N17 event on Facebook. CUNY Students, Staff and Faculty are walking out today at campuses across the city, see Occupy CUNY on Facebook, the Occupy Hunter web site. The following livestreams are covering direct actions in New York: OccupyNYC & Occupy Wall Street Independent Media Team & The Other 99
Schedule for Today
7am: Shut Down Wall Street
All Day: Strike & Walk-Out
Students from universities across the city walk out of class. Walkouts will be occurring all day on different campuses, but will converge on Union Square at 3PM and then will march down to Foley Square to meet the rest of the protesters.
3pm: Occupy the Subway
We will gather at 3:00pm at 16 central subway hubs and take our own
stories to the trains, using the "People's Mic"
5pm: Mass rally at Foley Square
Take the Square, Festival of Lights on Brooklyn Bridge
Filed under #N17, Betsy, Direct Action, Mandy, Rob, Solidarity, Stephen, Steve S.
by Betsy | November 16, 2011 · 00:09
Earlier this morning (around 7am?) the police very briefly opened the barricades in one section at the north of the park.
A few of us made our way back and began to settle in. We only had a few minutes before they announced that they were re-sealing the barricades.
Filed under Betsy, Brookfield, Ephemera, Public/Private Parks
by Michael | November 8, 2011 · 11:06
11/6/11 Meeting Minutes
November 6, 2011, 6 pm, People's Library
Jaime=facilitator, Charlie=stack tacker, Betsy=minutes
present: Jaime, Bill, Charlie, Michelle, Stephen B., Megan, Betsy, Hristo, Frances, Hamaz (sorry if I missed anybody)
Setting the Agenda
ALA conference in January
Jaime & Betsy: Who's going and who wants to go, details. Betsy was invited by the ALA Conference Planning Manager to present at this year's Midwinter conference. Betsy negotiated w/ALA to pay airfare & hotel for more of us to attend & present collaboratively. Betsy, Mandy and Zach are all scheduled to attend. We want to talk about who else wants to go, how to pay for it and to co-ordinate flight & hotel information so we can go together if possible. The conference is in Dallas from Jan 20-24, 2012. Our panel is scheduled for 8:30-9:30 am on Saturday Jan. 21st. I'll email the group my flight details & hope Mandy & Zach can do the same. We decided to table this issue to discuss later because a lot of people were missing from the meeting.
library-specific safety training
spokes council orientation report-back
Frances: Monday night's spokes council meeting at Murry Bergtraum High School 411 PEARL STREET (Just East of City Hall) at 7:30PM will determine whether groups are operational groups or movement groups. We discussed the differences between the two and worked on filling out the form we need to submit tomorrow at spokes council. Basically, operational groups handle day-to-day operations within the park and are different from movement groups which address/represent concerns that are movement-wide. We consensed (is that really a word?) that we are an operational group. It is essential that our space exists within the park, we serve a vital function & take up space in a way that is very similar to comfort or kitchen. We provide a safe, welcoming open space within the park. Being a caucus with other groups (like info or media) doesn't mean that we lose power, it's just a change in position within the spokes council. We agreed that becoming an operational group is the way to go & if that's not possible for some reason, we would like to be an independent caucus. We occupy a lot of park real estate & have a lot of stuff. The library serves as a support to other caucuses.
Hristo proposed we all get matching tattoos. Tabled for later discussion.
Bill reports that he was approached recently by someone offering the library office space. That person should be contacting us soon via email. We discussed and agreed that it would be nice to have a place to get some work done out of the cold as long as it's within walking distance. SIS doesn't really want us in their space anymore, even for cataloging.
Michelle: the Melville marathon reading is coming up Thursday at 3 pm at 60 Wall street. Let's promote it. She's going to make fliers.
Hamaz: there's a Jazz club in Brooklyn at the Senior Citizens center that's got a lot of civil rights activists involved. 966 Fulton Friday night. He proposes a field trip. C train to Clinton-Washington
Stephen B: the poetry anthology is now being printed, bound and sold at cost. It will be $10 plus shipping & handling and will be printed as ordered. It will be available in the library in the next couple of days. He would like help with setting up a link to a paypal account on the website. Also, he's been invited to speak/read on Sirius satellite radio the night before Thanksgiving and would like people to send him 1 line of gratitude: what you're thankful for to his email address so he can read it out on the show. stephenjboyer AT gmail DOT com
Frances: is making a library guide in google docs and would like everyone's input. It will be a basic guide for people who are new to the library for our practices and ways they can help when they arrive. Please add ideas. Also, Frances will be occupying the Magic Kingdom for the next week.
Filed under Betsy, Meeting Minutes, Process, Rob, Working Group Meeting
by Betsy | October 25, 2011 · 16:46
Somebody loves us & wrote us a note on Craigslist in the missed connections section. We're all such hotties I can't guess who it's meant for,
but thanks for posting!
We (probably) love you too & we're (almost) all shameless flirts–
come on back down to the library, join us!
Librarian at Occupy Wall Street
You seem pretty great.
It seemed like a bad idea
to even attempt to flirt
when you're trying to do
something substantive like that,
so I thought I'd just post here.
Just in case you might see it.
It was written up in an article in the New York Times.
Filed under Betsy, Solidarity
Tagged as #owslibrary, librarians, love, occupy wall street library
Allen Ginsberg collection at the People's Library
We now have an Allen Ginsberg collection in the People's Library.
Thanks so much, Simon & Peter for the generous donations!
Filed under Betsy, Donations, Poetry
Tagged as allen ginsberg, beats, poetry, poets, reference
NYPD Distributing the Following Leaflets
NOTICE OF CLEANING AND UPKEEP OPERATIONS TO COMMENCE FRIDAY OCTOBER 14, 2011
Please be advised that we will be conducting deferred cleaning and maintenance in Zuccotti Park on Friday, October 14th. In the past three weeks we have been unable to perform our normal daily upkeep operations. As a result, and particularly because of the heavy and continuous park usage during this time, conditions in the Park have deteriorated presenting health and cleanliness issues which must be addressed.
We intend to proceed to clean the Park in sections so that one-third of the Park will be cleaned at a time while the remaining portions of the Park can continue to be used. Cleaning operations will commence on the western portion (Church Street) of the Park at 7:00 AM, and Brookfield representatives will be in the Park to delineate each of the areas being cleaned. It will be necessary for the public to leave the portion of the Park being cleaned while cleaning operations are underway, and to remove any possessions from the area being cleaned. Any possessions left in an area when it is ready to be cleaned will be considered to have been left there because they have been abandoned and they will be disposed of accordingly.
We anticipate that it will take approximately 4 hours to clean each section of the Park. Once a section has been cleaned, it will be re-opened to the public for lawful use consistent with our regulations. For your information, a copy of Brookfield's regulations governing the use of the Park is attached to this Notice.
ZUCCOTTI PARK IS A PRIVATELY-OWNED SPACE THAT IS DESIGNED AND INTENDED FOR USE AND ENJOYMENT BY THE GENERAL PUBLIC FOR PASSIVE RECREATION.
FOR THE SAFETY AND ENJOYMENT OF EVERYONE, THE FOLLOWING TYPES OF BEHAVIOR ARE PROHIBITED IN ZUCCOTTI PARK:
CAMPING AND/OR THE ERECTION OF TENTS OR OTHER STRUCTURES.
LYING DOWN ON THE GROUND, OR LYING DOWN ON BENCHES, SITTING AREAS OR WALKWAYS WHICH UNREASONABLY INTERFERES WITH THE USE OF BENCHES, SITTING AREAS OR WALKWAYS BY OTHERS.
THE PLACEMENT OF TARPS OR SLEEPING BAGS OR OTHER COVERING ON THE PROPERTY.
STORAGE OR PLACEMENT OF PERSONAL PROPERTY ON THE GROUND, BENCHES, SITTING AREAS OR WALKWAYS WHICH UNREASONABLY INTERFERES WITH THE USE OF SUCH AREAS BY OTHERS.
THE USE OF BICYCLES, SKATEBOARDS AND ROLLER BLADES.
REMOVAL OF OBJECTS FROM TRASH RECEPTACLES.
Filed under Announcements, Betsy, Brookfield, Rob
Occupy L.A. has a library!
Filed under #OccupyLA, Announcements, Betsy


text:
Q: Android - FileNotFoundException error:
E/BitmapFactory﹕ Unable to decode stream: java.io.FileNotFoundException: /file:/storage/sdcard0/Pictures/JPEG_20140728_190726_1641148246.jpg: open failed: ENOENT (No such file or directory)

But I can see file in F:\Pictures\JPEG_20140728_190726_1641148246.jpg (mobile storage)
Im using methods from Taking Photos Simply | Android Developers, but if u need see code, I can copy here
I also added permsissions:
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />

All what I want is take picture using camera intent, save image, save path to database and then show it on map ...
Im testing on android 4.4.2 (CM)

A: From the example you had:
mCurrentPhotoPath = "file:" + image.getAbsolutePath();

just try to use:
mCurrentPhotoPath = image.getAbsolutePath();

A: Have you tried
new File(Environment.getExternalStoragePublicDirectory(Environment.DIRECTORY_PICTURES) + "/JPEG_20140728_190726_1641148246.jpg");

instead?

A: I don't know why this problem exists but I figured how to avoid it. Try changing:
Bitmap bitmap = BitmapFactory.decodeFile(file.getAbsolutePath());

To
try {
    InputStream is = new FileInputStream(file);
    Bitmap bitmap = BitmapFactory.decodeStream(is);
} catch (FileNotFoundException e) { }

And it will work with no problem.
PS. I was fallowing the same android developer guide and faced the same problem as you.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
AsiaStoryPulikali – a folk art of Kerala by Rishi Devarajan
It is also called 'Kaduvakali', the folk art form of Kerala which is performed by a trained artist. The origin of pulikali dates back to over 200 years
Kerala is one of the most culturally diverse states in the country. More than 2000 festivals are celebrated in the state every year. Onam is one of the major festivals for Malayali people, to entertain people on the occasion they perform a dance called pulikali (Tiger dance).
It is also called 'Kaduvakali', the folk art form of Kerala which is performed by a trained artist. The origin of pulikali dates back to over 200 years, The Maharaja of Kochi Rama Varma 'Sakthan thampuran' introduced this folk dance to celebrate Onam with a dance that reflects wild. Early morning the body of the performers is being waxed to put the paints and they start painting the tiger face on their body. The entire procedure takes at least six to seven hours. They paint with a particular combination of tempera powder and varnish which would require kerosene to remove after the procession.
Pulikali – a folk art of Kerala | Rishi Devarajan
This dance is performed in many parts of Kerala but performance in Thrissur is quite old and traditional. This attracts thousands of people to the Thrissur city. There are five groups, each group is having 30 to 40 dancers, evening all the groups assembled at Naduvali to offer a coconut to the deity of the Ganapathi in front of the Vadakkunnathan temple. They dance through Swaraj round along with the traditional percussion instruments such as thakil, udukku, and chenda. The committee also announces the best performing team at the end of the event and award them with prize money. They formed a unified council of Pulikali groups in 2004 to preserve and propagate the art.
The art of pulikali, unfortunately, is losing the popularity that it had because of the lack of funds from the government and other philanthropic institutions. Even though the municipality of Thrissur is allocating funds to the performing teams, it does not suffice to meet the increased costs of the processions and the painting. Pulikali lives on the funds and recognition that the people of Thrissur providers who find it to be a valuable representation of their culture.
About Rishi Devarajan
Rishi Devarajan, a final year Photography student in ICAT DESIGN & MEDIA College, Chennai, is keenly interested in Human interest and Documentary Photography. Having a photography background from family level as his father is a professional photographer, he got huge inspiration in photography from the school days. In one word, 'Photography' was in his vein. After completing basic academic education, he was about to join engineering but destiny has its path. All of a sudden, Rishi decided to pursue his career in Photography as he loves to document human life and activities.
Rishi has documented many short stories and festivals like Pulikali, Kulasekarapattinam Dussehra, etc. In his short introduction with Photography, he got a big accomplishment by winning the Bronze prize in world-famous NIKON PHOTO CONTEST 2019 in the Next Generation category. Now he is investigating and trying to make photo stories on the extinct tribes in India.
Rishi Devarajan
Magazine Worthy Shot
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Meg Wachter is a photographer and retoucher who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York (by way of Ohio). She attended Ohio University's School of Visual Communication and received a BA in Commercial Photography and a Minor in Women's Studies.
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Chicago is, famously, America's "Second City", a reference to the inescapable hegemony of New York in our national imagination: the greatest urban achievement of the 20th century.
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On May 21 every year, in some villages in northern Greece, takes place a spectacular traditional fire-walking ritual, called Anastenaria.
OceaniaStoryYo No Hablo Español by Christopher Morris
In 2011, photographer Christopher Morris returned to Central North Mexico, capturing the banality of the everyday and giving it a sense of dignity. In his forthcoming exhibition, Yo No Hablo Español (I Don't Speak Spanish), he reveals the resolute pride of landscapes and life in a parched Mexico rarely glimpsed.
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The Unwrapped series touches on aspects of the human psyche, individualism, perfectionism, escapism, overall a sense of self-obsession self-destructing.
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/phobia/ feminine noun/ Old ghosts posing next to the windows and family reunions between the dead. The feeling is that of fear and disgust, a parallel normality, visible from behind the stage, from inside a film.
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The project shown here, Mother Earth, was conceived as a kind of tribute to that world that has been giving me so much.
AsiaB&WShotAlternative Universe by Aritra Chatterjee
Perhaps more startling fully one third of Americans say they would rather give up sex than lose their cell phones.
B&WConceptEuropeBetween earth and air by Markus Kaesler
Between earth and air is a photographic-philosophic debate about the liquid room that divides the solide underground from the air. A silent space where the vertical growths of the plants crosses the horizontal flow of the water.
CityEuropeSurreal Line by Yusuf Ozkizil
The Surreal Line came about during another project to document my trips on the London Underground. At the time, I'd only recently developed an interest in photography, and always had my camera with me, ready for opportunities to take photos during my tube commutes.
EuropeStoryKolkata Taxi by Steven Kruit
The moment you get outside of the airport in Kolkata, in the south eastern side of India, you are overwhelmed with never ending lines of the "Calcutta Yellow Cab". Hundreds of cars are on the outside parking lot.
AmericaB&WStoryIndian Land For Sale by Donna Garcia
President Jackson declared that Indian removal would "…Incalculably strengthen the southwestern frontier. Clearing Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi of their Indian populations would enable those states to advance rapidly in population, wealth, and power."
DodhersPhotography and the space for male mental health
In the U.K., as in other countries around the world, society was very abruptly forced into a period of lockdown where all public buildings, businesses, offices, universities and schools were forced to close.
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"Rebirth" is a philosophical story of human desire for transcendence and a Faustian dream of achieving immortality through creation at a symbolic level. It is a story of the cycle of life
AsiaConceptFeaturedThe departed by Zhou Yulong
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CityEuropeHakim Boulouiz ; Street Photography
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Around me furnishings in the style of "Rustic German" dating from the 1970s. Hunting trophies, a skeleton, a treasure chest, swords and books. I am not alone. With me is Captain Flint.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


A wonderful location in the city centre plus stylish non-smoking rooms make the Hotel Cass - A Holiday Inn Express at Magnificent Mile an outstanding value for our guests. The historic hotel featuring 1920s Beaux Arts architecture has 177 non-smoking rooms on 16 floors. Rooms feature large flat-screen TVs with premium channels mini-fridges and comfortable work desks with dual-line phones and voicemail. Wi-Fi is available in the hotel's public spaces. Corporate-friendly amenities include a business center dry-cleaning services and valet parking (for an additional fee). Approximately 18 miles from O'Hare International Airport and 11 miles from Midway the hotel is centrally located to many of Chicago's famed attractions. Guests who are ready for sightseeing are within two miles of Millennium Park the Lincoln Park Zoo Shedd Aquarium and Navy Pier. The hotel is also convenient to major companies including Deloitte Boeing and Sun Microsystems.
Liked: Room was clean; breakfast was great; great location for hotel.
Disliked: Room was small, no chair. Parking charges were expensive.
Liked: We liked the location a lot!! It is very closed to all the attractions by walking distance. We walked almost everywhere. The price is right for a great location!
Disliked: We didn?t like the room size, it was very small. Our room was a handicap access! But I don?t think there was a room for a wheelchair!! It was one of the smallest room I have ever stayed.
Liked: We use this hotel every four months while we are there for doctor appointments. We really like the convenience to Northwestern. We also love the quaintness. It is perfect for our needs. The breakfast is also perfect for us. Thank you so much for always being so kind and welcoming.
Disliked: Truly I can't think of anything. Keep up the great work.
Disliked: Mini fridge for leftover food would have been nice, no tissues in room and more counter space in bathroom is needed.
Liked: The breakfast and location is the only thing this place has going for it!
Disliked: The beds were DIRTY- hair and flakes of skin on the sheets. We went down to the front desk, they called house cleaning to our room. Housekeeping lady came up to look and could see what was on the bedding and changed the one bed then my husband told her she was changing the other one as well. She kept calling the front office, telling someone to get up there to our room to help but no one ever came.


Today is two weeks till Thanksgiving, and two days after that I have a book signing at the Littleton (CO) Mardel. I'll be there with five new books: • A Little Girl—a parable, • Love Is a Verb daily devotional—I have six pieces in it, • Life Lessons from Grandparents—a story about Granny and my piano, • Chicken Soup for the Soul Answered Prayers—Lucille's adoption story, and • Christmas in My Heart—Joe Wheeler's 20th, which includes my "Give Him My Heart." In addition, I'll be accompanied by Sharon Routt, author of Simple Forgiveness, a concise presentation of both the why and the how of forgiving. We'll be at Mardel from 9 a.m. till 2 p.m.—hope to see you there!


Happy Face Entertainment has just released the highlight medley for Dreamcatcher's fourth mini album 'The End Of Nightmare' on their social media platforms. The countdown is on for its release on the album on the 13th of February. They also released more teaser group and individual images on their Instagram and other social media platforms.
Dreamcatcher's last album 'Alone In The City' was released on the 20th of September last year that featured eight songs in total. Following, they debuted in Japan in November 2018 and went on to release their first Japanese single "What" which was released on Nov 21st. Watch Dreamcatcher's 'The End Of Nightmare' highlight medley below!
What do you think of Dreamcatcher's highlight medley? Are you looking forward to their new mini album release? Let us know in the comments below!
(G)I-DLE set to release second mini album 'I Made' this month!
2PM's Nichkhun releases his first solo album's track list and teaser images!


text:
Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/tpr/restat/v97y2015i2p364-386.html
Incentive Strength and Teacher Productivity: Evidence from a Group-Based Teacher Incentive Pay System
Scott A. Imberman
() (Michigan State University and NBER)
Michael F. Lovenheim
() (Cornell University and NBER)
Scott Andrew Imberman
We estimate the impact of incentive strength on achievement under a group-based teacher incentive pay program. The system provides variation in the share of students in a subject-grade that a teacher instructs, which proxies for incentive strength. We find that achievement on incentivized exams, but not nonincentivized exams, improves when incentives strengthen. For the incentivized exams, we find that effects fade out monotonically as a teacher's portion of the group increases to between 20 and 30 percentage and are larger for teachers with low-achieving students. Calculations based off these estimates show modest positive effects of the program overall. © 2015 The President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Scott A. Imberman & Michael F. Lovenheim, 2015. "Incentive Strength and Teacher Productivity: Evidence from a Group-Based Teacher Incentive Pay System," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 97(2), pages 364-386, May.
Handle: RePEc:tpr:restat:v:97:y:2015:i:2:p:364-386
File URL: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/REST_a_00486
Scott A. Imberman & Michael F. Lovenheim, 2012. "Incentive Strength and Teacher Productivity: Evidence from a Group-Based Teacher Incentive Pay System," NBER Working Papers 18439, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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repec:oup:jeurec:v:15:y:2017:i:4:p:746-783. is not listed on IDEAS
incentive strength; achievement; teacher; pay program; incentivized exams; nonincentivized exams; monotonically;
I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
H00 - Public Economics - - General - - - General
J00 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - General
J45 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Public Sector Labor Markets
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The Smithsonian, along with nine other organizations, is a founding partner of the Future of Information Alliance. FIA, hosted by the University of Maryland, is described by co-director Ira Chinoy as a "thinktank without walls", interested in fostering interdisciplinary discussions of the role of information in our lives.
FIA stickers from Launch Week.
From November 14th-18th, the University of Maryland held a weeklong launch for the FIA, with five brainstorming discussion sessions. I was happy to be able to attend two of these sessions, "Visiting Future-ists" and "Creativity and Culture". Both sessions featured "future-ists" Dan Russel, director of user happiness for Google, Mary Czerwinski, from Microsoft's VIBE group, and Abdur Chowdhury, former chief scientist at Twitter. In the first session, the future-ists described their own work and the opportunities and challenges they saw in information. In the second session, the future-ists were joined by several University of Maryland faculty members to discuss the role that creativity could play in innovation and information. Other sessions over the week were "Transparency and Boundaries" and "Science in Our Lives".
Dan Russell, Mary Czerwinski, Abdur Chowdhury. Photo by Evan Golub.
Courtesy of FIAumd on Flickr.
Both of the sessions that I attended included lively discussion. In the "Visiting Future-ists" meeting, Dan Russell noted that only 10% of English-speaking web users were aware of the Ctrl+F feature used to search a document or web page. This worried many people in the audience. When someone asked the panel how to bridge a tech divide like this, Mary Czerwinski posited that the problem isn't teaching people, the problem is that Ctrl + F is a poor user interface and isn't intuitive. Another interesting quote came from Abdur Chowdhury, when an audience member asked what one should do if he or she realizes the academic institution wasn't a good fit for him or her. Chowdhury responded, "It's called a 'library'".
Besides creating interesting discussion on the future of information, FIA hopes to announce a seed grant program in the next few months. Winning projects will be characterized by an interdisciplinary approach to solving real information problems. I look forward to seeing what these innovative projects may be!
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The Hario Hand Coffee Mill uses burrs made of ceramic. The ceramic burrs do not transfer heat and shave the coffee bean versus cracking the bean like blade grinders. This process provides a more consistent grind that can easily be adjusted and set for repeat use. For this hand grinder's price point, it is one of our favorites!