Just Asking Questions
On Being "That Guy"
Matt Taibbi published a Substack post yesterday on new projects Racket is undertaking in order to prevent information from being “memory holed” and to help people “do their own research” in this age of citizen journalism. He is calling these endeavors Project 451.
Some questions that naturally arise for the library profession:
Are these types of endeavors an opportunity for a renewed sense of purpose for the library profession? What does it mean that libraries did not lead the charge?
Should libraries have rejected the fear mongering around the concept of “do your own research” and instead embraced it as a marketing strategy, encouraging the use of libraries as the natural starting place? Did we miss an opportunity for renewed relevance?
Did libraries lose their fighting spirit to go against the government grain as they once did with the Patriot Act?
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Top Image: Matt Taibbi on ReasonTV.jpg/ Wikimedia Commons
Matt Taibbi also held a live stream on X yesterday explaining his reason for Project 451 :
https://x.com/mtaibbi/status/1898116505201787233
I've been volunteering on Project 451 as there has been little librarian interest in coverage of digital censorship. Matt Taibbi's RACKET LIBRARY should be known to librarians who are constrained by databases and won't edit Wikipedia.
Some librarians are in fact leading such a charge to prevent date being lost down the "memory hole", as is the case at my own University of Winnipe, with our US Data Rescue 2025 LibGuide (https://libguides.uwinnipeg.ca/c.php?g=743662&p=5376522). Also, the rhetoric around "do your own research" has been tackled from the perspective of librarianship (e.g. https://www.denverlibrary.org/blog/research/ross/do-your-own-research-reference-librarians-recommendations) and would warrant further discussion.