Not Unreasonable: Librarians are Still Modernizing Reading
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When I was in college, the library was used as a warm place to plug in your laptop. When we needed to plump up our bibliographies, we simply Googled it. Dictionary.com, people! It was the future. The only time we really ventured into the stacks themselves was to either make out, or…um…make out.
But something new is brewing in Connecticut. Fairfield University has recently shattered the brick ceiling of the library world. The University’s librarians have taken it upon themselves to reinvent the book club, the college freshman’s summer reading, and the academic listserv, in the name of generating conversation. They combined the three into a blog about An Unreasonable Woman: A True Story of Shrimpers, Politicos, Polluters, and the Fight for Seadrift, Texas by Diane Wilson, and basically modernized the library. No loud whispering necessary.
From the Fairfield University’s “Your Voice Counts: A Blog About the Book An Unreasonable Woman“:
To say I am excited that Fairfield has chosen Diane Wilson’s An Unreasonable Woman is an under-statement. Diane’s book has been the centerpiece book for 1 year now in my Environmental Justice course and my EcoFeminism course…..and when I say my students - from all academic levels, interests and disciplines LOVE her book, I am not exaggerating!
Aside from being a fun and not-able-to-be-put-down book, Diane embodies and lives the example of the tangible and real activist for all of us. She lives the life of example without riches, privileged education or social position…….she is the real person from next door, who simply decided enough was enough, and the community - HER community - needed someone to stand up and bear witness to the actions and behaviors of the powerful over the powerless. Her story brings home the fact that the shrimp you eat today could be coming from polluted bays in the USA, where our elected officials have willingly looked away in the name of economic development (spelled $$s for election campaigns and taxes) as major international corporations dump their toxic materials into the waters in which the shrimp swim and live.
