Revolting librarians
The pun in the title is intended, of course, for here is a collection of 30-odd poems, stories, and articles on revolting librarians--those who revolt against the system and those who are revolting because they are the system.
Georgia Mulligan, College & research libraries

This book is one of the lasting monuments of the library underground, though the contributors surely never imagined this kind of respectful archiving. Thirty years on, its mixture of wild-eyed idealism and bleary-eyed realism is still a testament of solidarity with the enthusiastic, disgruntled or just plain bolshy librarian, the sort of thing that the Association of Assistant Librarians did so well before putting on a tie and becoming the Career Development Group.

The introduction by one of the editors gives the best insight into its utopian aims and get-your-hands-dirty production. For context, try Toni Samek's Intellectual Freedom Within the Profession: A Look Back at Freedom of Expression and the Alternative Library Press. As much as possible will be reproduced here, respecting the copyright of those contributors who chose to retain it, and the "D© Copy. Do Something." exhortation for the rest.

The sequel Revolting Librarians Redux has just been published (June 2003). Jessamyn West's A Short and Inexact History of Progressive Librarianship provides the background to her co-editing it with typical pith.

Contents

INTRODUCTION by Celeste West

the image
THE PASSING OF THE UNICORN, A FABLE by Marilyn Gell
"a library pome" by richard moses
THE LIBERATION OF SWEET LIBRARY LIPS by Art Plotnik
THE UNSINKABLE MISS PHILPOTT by Geoffrey Dunbar
"what is the afternoon for" by Tod Hawks
THE SENSUOUS LIBRARIAN by Kathleen Glab

the officious orthodoxy
THE RECRUITER SPEAKS by Shirley Olofson
LIBRARY SCHOOL LUNACY by Harleigh Kyson
PHDFFT! anonymous
HOMOPHOBIA IN LIBRARY SCHOOL by Bianca Guttag
SEX AND THE SINGLE CATALOGER by Steve Wolf
LC LABELING: AN INDICTMENT by Joan Marshall
heads by Bill Hinchliff

outreach?
LIBRARIES TO THE PEOPLE! by Sanford Berman
HOW TO ANNIHILATE SERVICES TO TEENAGERS by Anne Osborn
DOING IT: MIGRANT WORKERS LIBRARY by Martha Williams
CONTINUING IT? by Jana Varlejs
THE TURKEY TROT IN DALLAS by Don Roberts
"a dewey decimal mind" by Tod Hawks

restructuring
DEAR SUPERVISORS by Shannon Patterson
TRIALS OF A PARAPROFESSIONAL by Judy Hadley
"sanfranciscopubliclibrarypoem #1" by Elinor Martin
UNITE! by Joan Dillon
"Tribal Letter ONE" by Tim Moffatt
TRIBAL PROCESSES by Jim Holly
"bibliotherapy" by Tod Hawks
WE LOST IT AT THE LIBRARY by Mary McKenney/Edith Ericson

in transit
REFLECTIONS OF A 'HEAD' LIBRARIAN by Reva Landy
3 poems by Elinor Martin
I NEVER WANTED TO BE A LIBRARIAN by Melinda Schroeder
ALTERNATIVE LIBRARIES FOR ALTERNATIVE SCHOOLS by Sonia XX

lib lit
THE LIBERATED LIBRARIAN'S NEWSLETTER by Linda Katz & Julie Babcock
SIPAPU by Noel Peattie
"rights and permissions" by Elinor Martin

onward
FREE LIBRARIES AND OTHER WAYS TO FLY by Elizabeth Katz
NOTES ON A UTOPIAN INFORMATION SYSTEM by Paul Axel
IDENTITY CRISIS by Karen Jemison
GOOD READS
COLLABORATEURS

Some contemporary reviews from the library literature:

Copies appear to be plentiful in American libraries and second-hand. After all, the introduction claims a print-run of four thousand copies, distributed by the upstart Booklegger Press and those revolutionaries at the American Library Association; there were at least three printings taking the total to 15,000 copies. The bibliographic details are:

Revolting librarians / by Celeste West, Elizabeth Katz et al. -- San Francisco : Booklegger Press, 1972. -- 158 p. : ill. ; 23 cm. -- ISBN 0-912932-01-5