science

Radical Reference

Radical Reference is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Radical Reference rather than just read about it. In short: Radical Reference is a distributed collective of library workers, students and information activists who work on social justice issues. They provide professional research support, education and access to information to activist communities, progressive organizations, and independent journalists who they describe as their "patron base".

Key takeaways

Radical Reference belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Radical Reference to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Radical Reference from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Radical Reference is a distributed collective of library workers, students and information activists who work on social justice issues. They provide professional research support, education and access to information to activist communities, progressive organizations, and independent journalists who they describe as their "patron base". The organization was formed in 2004 by Jenna Freedman, Chuck Munson, Ellen Knutson, Kris Kasianovitz, James R. Jacobs, and Shinjoung Yeo in order to coordinate a team of volunteer library workers in assisting demonstrators and activists with their activities surrounding the Republican National Convention in New York City. The group used a combination of pre-made "ready reference kits" which contained "maps, legal information, lists of events". The reference volunteers who were working at the event wearing "Info Here" shirts were also connected to home support volunteers who could answer more complex questions using their home computers. Librarians Melissa Morrone & Lia Friedman say the group is "a traditional and technological mashup of activism, outreach, and teaching for a new socially conscious user." Michael Hughes comments that the group "eschew[s] neutral practice, recognizing that information access is always political." Radical Reference has spawned over fifteen local Radical Reference Collectives which have worked on activist issues in their communities. As one example, the North Texas Radical Reference Collective created an Alternative Guide to Dallas in advance of the American Library Association's 2012 conference which highlighted restaurants with vegan offerings and bike and public transportation options. Other members of the group have worked on other information projects including:

Signing up as a partner organization of the NYC Grassroots Media Conference organizing committee in 2007 Creating a lending library of books and resources at Bitch Magazine in Portland Oregon in 2009 Hosting an unconference as an unofficial preconference to the Association of College and Research Libraries meeting in Seattle in 2009 Organizing a Critical Library Symposium, "Practical Choices for Powerful Impacts: Realizing the Activist Potential of Librarians," in Boston in 2012 Setting up Radical Reference "stations" at existing activist events such as the Really Really Free Market in Manhattan and the Mid Atlantic Radical Bookfair Publishing a zine We Are All Suspects : a Guide for People Navigating the Expanded Powers of Surveillance in the 21st century in 2014 The group is decentralized and international, communicating mostly via email and a drupal-based website which also serves as a knowledge base of archived reference questions. They answered reference questions through their website from 2006 through 2013.

References

External links Official website

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Radical Reference

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Radical Reference claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Radical Reference before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Radical Reference ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Radical Reference

In research: Radical Reference appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Radical Reference in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Radical Reference is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2004 establishments in the United States, Access to Knowledge movement, Library-related organizations, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Radical Reference outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Radical Reference in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Radical Reference means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Radical Reference out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Radical Reference in simple terms?

Why does Radical Reference matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Radical Reference?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Radical Reference.