Defending The Libraries At the Brooklyn Book Festival: Don’t Let Eric Klinenberg Neuter The Narrative

Eric Klinenberg headed in to tell librarians how to

Our Library Defense team was out at this year Brooklyn Book Festival collecting many pages of new petition signatures.  It also where we spotted our favorite ringer, author Eric Klinenberg delivering a deceptive message, an address to New York City Librarians telling them how to defend NYC libraries and what is at stake in terms of their survival.

We were outside as people, including Mr. Klinenberg, entered handing out this flyer with critical information and our point of view:

The flyer read:

DEFEND OUR LIBRARIES! . . . YES, THE RIGHT WAY
    Don’t Let Eric Klinenberg Neuter The Narrative

  Eric Klinenberg was solicited to write about libraries (a nice `official’ story?) and the “defense” that libraries need, by the library-sale-promoting Revson Foundation. That’s the same Revson Foundation that has promoted the so-called “re-envisioning” of libraries, which has been accompanying a substantial dismantlement of NYC libraries with elimination and off-siting of books, and a  deprofessionalization of librarians.    

Mr. Klinenberg says that although he spent a year doing extensive research in New York about libraries to write his book he never heard of Citizens Defending Libraries, never heard of The Committee to Save The New York Public Library, or our actions to oppose and defeat the NYPL Central Library Plan, and apparently he never heard about selling libraries to turn them into real estate deals, the elimination of books or the commercialization of the libraries.  Nonetheless, he adopted a host of our major op-ed talking points retreading them as his own, but with key points about defending our NYC libraries oddly and conspicuously omitted.

The difference between Mr. Klinenberg’s narrative and ours?  We talk about:

•    Shrink-and-sink library sale deals like the sale of the Donnell Library and the sale of the second biggest library in Brooklyn, the downtown Heights Business, Career, Education and Federal Depository Library.
•    Sale and elimination of SIBL, NYC’s central science library (This still new library is being turned into a comic book museum).
•    The shrinkage and elimination of books at the 42nd Street Central Reference Library and the Mid-Manhattan library (renamed “SNFL”).
•    The hand off of library space as “underutilized” to the political “Spaceworks” real estate entity.
•    The huge expense to the public of such plunderings.
•    Commercialization of the libraries, including with privatizing “partnerships,” including the NYPL and Brooklyn central libraries, including shorter hours for users that facilitate society weddings–*
•    The pretextual underfunding of libraries to facilitate the above
•    Why pushing the library using public to less preferred digital books the internet for their information is problematic.

(*This week our community protests caused the NYPL to stop its “reputational laundering” grant of 42nd Street public library space to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (“MBS”), responsible for the Yemen War and reputedly also for the dismemberment killing of Jamal Khashoggi.  MBS was going to teach young people about “reputation management.”)

Sign our petition on the web: Citizens Defending Libraries 

Here is more about the Book Festival and press freedom

Look Who’s All On The Same Brooklyn Book Festival Panel This Week Discussing U.S. Press Freedom!: Jim Acosta, Suzanne Nossel, and Joy Reid– All of Whom Have Very Astute Critics As To Whether They Actually Support Press Freedom

Real library defenders were there to great Klinenberg

Kanopy, The Internet Movie Streaming Service That Was Being Used By NYC Libraries To Help Make Up For Elimination Of DVDs Is Now Being Abandoned!- The internet giveth! And The internet taketh away!

When Citizens Defending Libraries was handing out leaflets at the Climate Strike March on September 20th in New York City, one woman told us of her upset that along with the elimination of books from her local library, the DVDs were disappearing as well.  She was a woman of action: She told us that she was so upset that she wrote the NYPL.  The NYPL wrote back to her with a letter that said, yes they were getting rid of the DVDs, but they were making up for it in other ways.  One of the main replacements for the DVDs was a movie streaming service they made available to library patrons.— The internet giveth!

And now we read that the New York City libraries, all three systems at he same time, are abandoning Kanopy. The internet taketh away!  We hardly knew yee.

See: Variety-  New York City Public Libraries Drop Kanopy Free Movie-Streaming Service, by Todd Spangler, June 25, 2019.

Oh well, you can always stream movies over the internet expansively through the Amazon monopoly, and don’t worry about. . . . 

Citizens Defending Libraries Was At the Climate Strike March on September 20th In New York City.

Citizens Defending Libraries Was At the Climate Strike March on September 20th In New York City.

Here are some pictures.

And we were handing out small (non-paper-intensive) leaflets with links of interest o the subject of climate change and libraries.

Stopped!! NYPL's Plan To Turn Over Its 42nd Street Central Reference Library Grand Celeste Bartos Ballroom For Event Honoring The Infamous Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (Good Friend of Stephen Schwarzman?)

If you were following our Twitter or Facebook feeds you already know-

On Wednesday, September 18th, the NYPL trustees had their meeting.  We were there.  Some of us were outside demonstrating with Code Pink.  The NYPL trustees went into executive session.  The NYPL then cancelled the event that it was allowing to be held in its grand Celeste Bartos room at the 42nd Street Central Reference Library.  The event was to honor the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (“MBS”).   Crown Prince MBS is the character one running Saudi Arabia now who is responsible for the Yemen War and siege and many attendant war crimes (helped by the U.S. and endorsed by Israel), plus he has been identified as responsible for the dismemberment killing of Jamal Khashoggi, lured to his fate into the Saudi embassy in Turkey to get marriage license documents.

See the scathing Guardian op-ed that our library defending team had up at the same time that the NYPL trustees were meeting:

Why is New York's most famous library getting into bed with the Saudi crown prince?– Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is going to be sponsoring an event at the iconic New York Public Library. This reputation-laundering shouldn’t be allowed to happen

In that excellently juicy op-ed, read about Stephen Schwarzman and MBS:

Schwarzman gushed about his relationship with the crown prince in a 2017 interview: “He’s a very smart, very energetic, very visionary person, and being involved with someone like that on a personal basis as well as institutionally is really fascinating.”

Unbelievably, the MBS event was to involve the Crown Prince MBS teaching about “reputation management.”

We have previously put up more about Mr. Schwarzman,* his use of the NYPL for his own personal reputation laundering and his relationship whereby he got $20 billion from the Saudis as seed money for the privatizing of American public assets and public infrastructure. . .   (in other words, when it came to NYC libraries, Mr. Schwarzman was just getting started.)

This gets you to the many pages we have put up at CDL about Mr. SAS.

(* From that link, you can scroll down for older pages for more.)

Here is one recent article we have up about Mr. Schwarzman:

NYPL Trustee Stephen A. Schwarzman, With His $1 Billion Salary, Claims Success `NOT Because We’re Smarter’, But Because `We Just See Things Others Can’t See,’ Have Data Others Don’t, And Get Advance Warnings.

Other unsavory people Schwarzman hobnobs with?: We have this tweet up about Schwarzman hangig out with Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein's accomplice in his pedophiliac sexual and political blackmail operation- New York Magazine also wrote about their hobnobbing.  

Another recent tweet about Shwarzman we have up is this one linking to an article in the Intercept about how NYPL trustee Schwarzman's Blackstone is involved in the destruction of the Amazon.

Here are tweeted pictures of us with Code Pink outside the Trustees meeting.

After the NYPL trustees meeting when it was announced that the MBS event was cancelled, NYPL COO Iris Weinshall (Sen. Schumer's wife) came out and encountered us, we held up one of our signs and she said, "We did the right thing."  But we think that Ms. Weinshall had to have been involved in making the wrong decision in the first place, and we know that her husband is one of the biggest recipients of campaign contributions from Mr. Schwarzman.  

Here is a video of Senator Schumer's wife, NYPL Chief Operating Officer Iris Weinshall at another NYPL trustees meeting  patting Blackstone's Schwarzman on back about approval after the public was told about a plan to replace central library space with fancy café.