This chapter describes the various ways that Learning Resources Division at the University of the District of Columbia (LRD) provides various services to the community it operates (i.e., Washington, DC). UDC is the only public university in the District of Columbia. Serving the greater community, therefore, has been a major part of the university mission and a central part of LRD's service mission. Specifically, the chapter considers the service LRD provides to community users through reference, RAIL, information literacy, collection development, the jazz archives, the foundation center, and the university archives.
Organized labor in the United States strongly supported pre-New Deal proposals for state pensions for the elderly. The idea that American labor, unlike its European counterparts, did not contribute to the rise of the welfare state is based on evidence from national organizations and their leaders. Review of the activities of the highly political state federations, and of the campaign for old age pensions in Massachusetts, indicates that labor, rather than middle-class reformers, was responsible for the promotion of new public welfare programs.
Pursuing an archival perspective, this study emphasizes documenting the experiences of activists involved in contemporary social justice movements (such as Black Lives Matter) to develop the historical record more fully, especially the need to include the voices of those from underrepresented groups. This study analyzes how archival practices can help develop and preserve a fuller record of the social justice movements and the ideas of those who fought covert racism both within academic settings and the greater society. To answer our research issues, the study used a literature review and a survey of activists and archival institutions. Our findings establish the value of archival research in academic institutions for students and the community in developing a fuller understanding of historically underrepresented and marginalized groups. Therefore, we conclude archives can play a major contribution to the understanding of contemporary social justice movements and to the issues of concern to these movements.
Mindful of history’s value in providing context for contemporary issues, this essay compares selected issues surrounding the effectiveness of government messaging during COVID-19 with previous pandemics and epidemics on selected public policy choices, specifically addressing the role of disinformation, misinformation, and information suppression in contending with disease outbreaks. During the Spanish Flu of 1918, governments worldwide ignored the crisis and suppressed information on the pandemic, because they were concerned that it would interfere with the ongoing war effort. Similar to the impacts of COVID-19, leaders dismissed science in favor of ideology which occurred in the cold war era for several reasons, and with profound impacts. In the case of the Cold War, anti-Communist hysteria led Dr. Albert Sabin to test his anti-polio vaccine in the Soviet Union as opposed to the United States. In exploring various historical parallels to COVID-19, this essay also explores racism, ethnocentrism, and various forms of othering that have historically characterized the response to pandemics, often assigning blame to various “outside” groups. The essay concludes by arguing for science-based solutions to pandemic emergencies (as opposed to ideological-oriented objectives) and argues for a fair, prudent, and judicious balancing of cherished individual rights and individual autonomy, a collective science-based response to public health emergencies, and with the intent to protect the public health of all Americans in a fair, inclusive and equitable manner.
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