Occupy Wall Street Library Removed as NYPD Evicts Protesters [Updated 11/17]
By David Rapp Nov 15, 2011The volunteer-run Occupy Wall Street Library, also known as The People's Library, containing more than 5500 books at the Zuccotti Park protest site in lower Manhattan, has been removed as part of the overall eviction of protesters from the park by police early this morning, according to reports on Twitter and the Occupy Wall Street Library website.
All of the library's books were initially reported to have been "thrown in the trash," according to a Twitter post from Occupy Wall Street as the police moved in.
Fliers were handed out during the protester removal, according to several reports, with a message from Brookfield Properties (the owner of Zuccotti Park) and the City of New York telling protesters to remove all property immediately or it would be taken and stored in a Department of Sanitation facility at 650 West 57th Street in Manhattan. Property could be picked up by owners with proper identification as of noon today, according to the notice.
It is unknown if the library books were taken to that site. [See update below.] A post on the Occupy Wall Street Library website said that "it was clear from the livestream and witnesses inside the park that the property was destroyed by police and DSNY workers before it was thrown in dumpsters."
Protesters have occupied the park since September 17. The library was created soon after and staffed with volunteers, with a "call for librarians" going out on the library website on October 5, as LJ reported, and with a "library ground practices" sheet created for volunteer staff. Patrons were allowed to sign out books to borrow or keep, but were encouraged to return all books. The library's full catalog is still available on the LibraryThing website.
"The collection is fairly permeable, as people bring things, borrow things, and return them or don't return them," Jaime Taylor, an art librarian from Brooklyn and an Occupy Wall Street Library volunteer, told LJ last month.
According to the latest report in the New York Times, nearly 200 people have been arrested so far during the removal, including New York City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez.
[Update 11/15:] The status of the Occupy Wall Street Library's books remains unclear [see update below], but a post on the Occupy Wall Street Library website today invited people to gather at Zuccotti Park (formerly called Liberty Plaza Park) at 6 p.m. ET this evening in a bid to begin to rebuild the collection. It reads, in part:
"Tonight at 6:00 writers and readers from across New York City will gather in Liberty Plaza to reoccupy the space and rebuild the People's Library. Authors will bring their books, readers will bring their favorite books to donate and together we will rebuild to create the revolution this country needs."
Legal wrangling continues between attorneys for the Occupy Wall Street protesters and the City of New York over a court order allowing protesters to re-enter the park, according to multiple news reports.
[Update 11/15:] A Twitter post from the New York City Mayor's office (including a photo) says that the Occupy Wall Street Library materials are "safely stored" at the New York Department of Sanitation garage at West 57th Street in Manhattan:
[Update 11/15:]
Volunteers of the Occupy Wall Street Library react
Mandy Henk, an access services librarian at DePauw University, Greencastle, IN, who has repeatedly volunteered for the Occupy Wall Street Library, told LJ that other volunteers that she spoke with intend to retrieve the library materials at 8 a.m. ET tomorrow and return to Zuccotti Park to recreate the library.
"We will rebuild," she said. "They can't destroy us."
(Protesters may be barred, however, from bringing the materials back into the park. Late today, the New York Times reported that State Supreme Court Justice Michael Stallman had upheld the right of the city to ban "tents, structures, generators and other installations" from the site.)
Henk was in Indiana when the police removed the materials last night, she said, but she has been in contact with other protesters who reported that some library volunteers had been arrested.
She also told LJ that she was concerned about the condition of the more delicate materials in the library collection, including zines, that "we have every reason to believe have been damaged beyond being usable objects" during the removal.
In a post today on the library's website, Henk responded to the New York City Mayor's Office's Twitter post (see update above): "We're glad to see some books are OK," she wrote. "Now, where are the rest of the books and our shelter and our boxes? Nice try guys, but we won't be convinced until we actually have all our undamaged property returned to us."
Michael Oman-Reagan, another library volunteer who built the Occupy Wall Street website and is a CUNY employee and anthropology graduate student, told LJ that protesters were told that they could remove personal belongings from the site during the removal and then return. Those who left were prevented from re-entering by police, he said. Two library staffers who stayed "were tear gassed/pepper sprayed and arrested," he said.
Like Henk, he wanted to know more about the photo in the Mayor's Office's Twitter post: "What's the condition of all the other books that were thrown into dumpsters along with food and trash?" he said. "What about the zines, the archives boxes, the laptops, the ISBN notebooks?"
"In my view, the fact that the Mayor's Office set aside some books for a photo op shows how much pressure they're getting from the public for destroying a library," he added. The library had "already received pledges of help from across the country," he said.
"The city, acting on behalf of corporate interests, didn't 'clear the park of protesters'—they destroyed a library with 5000+ volumes, they destroyed a kitchen that was feeding thousands of people a day, they destroyed green power bicycle generators and a gray water system, a medical tent, a peaceful assembly," he told LJ. "But as with every democratic movement in history, they can crush the things, but never the idea."
[Update 11/16:] Volunteers went to the New York City Department of Sanitation garage at 650 West 57th Street in Manhattan this morning to retrieve the removed library materials. The Occupy Wall Street Library, in a Twitter post this morning, claims that not all the materials are at the facility, and that books and equipment have been "destroyed": "@NYCMayorsOffice lied about #OWSLibrary 'There are only 25 boxes of books; many of the books are destroyed. Laptops here but destroyed.'"
[Update 11/16:] Photos of the recovered Occupy Wall Street Library materials are appearing in a continually updated post on the library's website. "[I]t's looking like only a few boxes of books and our (destroyed) laptops and one chair were at Sanitation," the post reads.
"So, we've had folks go out and check out our materials and everything is not OK....I think the raid did a real number on our collection [and] I expect we've had serious losses," DePauw University librarian and Occupy Wall Street Library volunteer Mandy Henk told LJ via email.
[Update 11/17:] American Library Association president Molly Raphael today released a statement regarding the Occupy Wall Street Library:
"The dissolution of a library is unacceptable. Libraries serve as the cornerstone of our democracy and must be safeguarded. An informed public constitutes the very foundation of a democracy, and libraries ensure that everyone has free access to information.
"The very existence of the People's Library demonstrates that libraries are an organic part of all communities. Libraries serve the needs of community members and preserve the record of community history. In the case of the People's Library, this included irreplaceable records and material related to the occupation movement and the temporary community that it represented.
"We support the librarians and volunteers of the Library Working Group as they re-establish the People's Library."
[This report will be updated as more information becomes available.]
(Photo of the Occupy Wall Street Library in October courtesy of Josh Hadro.)
