Article

We Will Not Be Erased: A Militant Manifesto for Libraries

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Abstract

This essay expands on the Jean E. Coleman Library Outreach Lecture, delivered by the author at the 2025 American Library Association (ALA) Conference. It is a declaration of survival, resistance, and liberation for library and information science professionals. Born of historical and ongoing assaults on archives, knowledge, and marginalized communities, this manifesto argues that neutrality is complicity, survival is sacred, abolition is necessary, imagination is a weapon, information is power, care is not optional, strategy is essential, and erasure is intolerable. Drawing on the works of Octavia Butler, Robin D. G. Kelley, Ruha Benjamin, adrienne maree brown, bell hooks, Audre Lorde, and Ella Baker, this essay situates the manifesto within a broader lineage of Black, queer, feminist, and abolitionist traditions. It outlines the implications for library and information science (LIS), offering pathways for librarians, archivists, educators, and cultural workers to resist erasure and reclaim their role as agents of liberation.

Keywords: librarianship, social justice, liberation, manifesto

How to Cite:

Cooke, N. A., (2025) “We Will Not Be Erased: A Militant Manifesto for Libraries”, The Political Librarian 8(2), 207-213.