Alison Macrina
Macrina in 2016
Known forlibraryfreedom.org

Alison Macrina is a librarian, internet activist, founder and executive director of the Library Freedom Project.[1][2]

Biography

Macrina grew up in Collingswood, New Jersey. She was an undergraduate at Temple University.[3] She received an Master of Library and Information Science from Drexel University in 2009.[4]

Macrina was a librarian at the Watertown Free Public Library in Watertown, Massachusetts and a member of Boston's Radical Reference Collective.[5] While at the public library, Macrina made a zine for librarians titled We Are All Suspects offering a "quick and dirty introduction to basic privacy and security tools."[5]

She founded the Library Freedom Project in 2015 in order to help non-techie people learn to protect their privacy online.[6] As a victim of online harassment for her work on racial and gender justice, Macrina teaches other professionals, especially librarians, to use available tools to manage and deal with inappropriate behavior, saying "The thing about privilege isn’t just that it shields you ... It also gives you a platform."[7]

Macrina is vocal in her opposition to digital surveillance, and was a core contributor and Community Team Lead on the Tor Project.[8] She is the co-author of Anonymity, the first book in the American Library Association's Library Futures Series.[9] She was also one of the librarians protesting the CIA's recruitment attempts at the American Library Association's annual conference in 2019, co-publishing a letter with librarian Dustin Fife entitled "No Legitimization Through Association: the CIA should not be exhibiting at ALA."[10]

References

  1. ^ "Alison Macrina – Library Freedom". Library Freedom. Retrieved 2020-02-06.
  2. ^ "Librarians Versus the NSA". The Nation. 2015-05-06. Retrieved 2020-02-06.
  3. ^ Marcom (2004-10-19). "Veteran earns dissenters' respect at 'teach-in'". Department of History. Archived from the original on 2018-03-07. Retrieved 2020-02-06.
  4. ^ "Two CCI Library and Information Science Alumnae Recognized as "Movers & Shakers" by Library Journal". College of Computing & Informatics. 2015-04-02. Retrieved 2020-02-06.
  5. ^ a b Macrina, Alison; Glaser, April (2014-09-13). "Radical Librarianship: how ninja librarians are ensuring patrons' electronic privacy". Boing Boing. Retrieved 2020-02-06.
  6. ^ "TOR - This is What a Tor Supporter Looks Like: Alison Macrina". Survival Monkey Forums. 2015-12-28. Retrieved 2020-02-06.
  7. ^ "Target: Librarians". American Libraries Magazine. 2019-06-03. Retrieved 2020-02-06.
  8. ^ Project, Enigma (2019-01-22). "Decentralize This! - Episode 11: Alison Macrina". Medium. Retrieved 2020-02-06.[permanent dead link]
  9. ^ Cooper, Alison MacrinaTalya. "Anonymity (Library Futures Series, Book 1)". ALA Store. Retrieved 2020-02-06.
  10. ^ "Citing CIA's Dark History, Librarians Protest Agency's Recruiting at Their Conference". Common Dreams. 2019-06-24. Retrieved 2020-02-06.
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