There is a typical perception among the non-library-worker public that libraries are loci of knowledge, and therefore, of resistance and power. That libraries and by extension, library workers, are somehow on the frontlines of an epistemological battle for owning territories of information. Battle lines are now prepared, trenches are dug in, and salvos are fired. Of course, the most recent skirmish in this war of attrition is in the realm of queer stories and knowledge. It is my opinion, then, that libraries and librarians are extremely ill-prepared for such attacks. Multiple economic, political, and social trends converge to make libraries weak and vulnerable to attack. Fewer young students entering the profession, perpetual austerity, the outright obliteration of the Institute for Museum and Library Services all converge with increased attacks on libraries and librarians for holding resources for queer and non-white people. The only way out of this predicament is guerrilla (kyber)warfare.
Librarians and Knowledge workers must immediately cease working within the confines of the government-approved lines of information distribution. If castrated bureaucrats continue to stand idly by as libraries are gutted and stripped for parts in retribution for daring to offend the so-called “sensibility” of suburban cretins, we must take the distribution of free information outside of the pre-determined confines of libraries. We must distribute books in guerrilla-style—it must be done with precision and the locations determined to make maximum effect.
So, what must to be done? If governments will not allow us inside the libraries, then we shall be on the streets. We should distribute literature appropriate for all ages that forcibly challenge and confront those who seek to destroy our history, our knowledge, our very epistemological basis of existence. On the streets, on the internet, in every state and in every school, people must, at the very least, learn of the past.