How do information workers resist the creation of archival “deathworlds”? With rising eugenicist rhetoric in the United States, sites of cultural memory face devastating impacts. This article draws on Disability Justice principles and necropolitical framings to investigate how processes of erasure can be interrupted through active collaboration and critical reevaluation of power-sharing.
By Kathryn Oxborrow Vambe In Brief: This article presents some findings from a study of non-Māori librarian engagement with Māori knowledge. I asked non-Māori librarians, who predominantly identified as New Zealand European, a local synonym for White, about their journeys of learning and engagement, and Māori librarians about their experiences with their non-Māori colleagues' engagement...
By Sarah Morris In Brief: Artificial intelligence AI literacy frameworks emphasize the importance of understanding Generative AI GenAI technologies. But our collective and individual understanding of GenAI is heavily shaped and mediated by the hype narratives that surround it, where GenAI is depicted as powerful, magical, and inevitable. Amidst such compelling narratives, we can face challenges...
This article explores how minimal computing principles guided the parallel web development of two related but distinct publishing platforms, DigitalArc and Opaque Publisher. DigitalArc, a community-driven digital archive and exhibit platform, was developed in response to principles governing post-custodial archiving, taking it one step further to ensure communities maintain ownership of their materials.
This study investigates neuroinclusive hiring practices in academic libraries, focusing on best practices for designing hiring experiences that are inclusive to autistic and ADHD job seekers. Our research team conducted a survey of 51 academic libraries in the United States, examining job advertisements, interview formats and practices, and general human resources (HR) practices.
This essay examines the extractive practices employed in biomedical research to reconsider how librarians, archivists, and knowledge professionals engage with the unethical materials found in their collections. We anchor this work in refusal, refusing to see human remains as research objects. This essay creates frameworks for scholars working with archival or historical materials obtained through violent, deceitful, or otherwise unethical means.
Despite diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) rhetoric in librarianship, library workers who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) are still underrepresented and marginalized. Critical race theory (CRT) offers interest convergence, intersectionality, and counter-storytelling as tools to improve work with users and collegial relationships.
The practice placing one’s anxieties into circles of concern, influence, and control can be found in philosophy, psychology, and self-help literature. It is a means of cultivating agency and preventing needless rumination. For librarians, however, it is often at odds with a profession that expects continuous expansion of responsibilities.
Since the public debut of ChatGPT, the calls for librarians to adopt and promote generative AI technologies and to teach "AI literacy" have become part of everyday work life. For instruction librarians with reservations about GenAI, these calls have become harder to sidestep. Examining discourse on GenAI and AI literacy, I pay attention to messages we hear about the appropriate ways to think and feel about GenAI.
This paper explores an ethics of care framework in academic libraries, specifically with the implementation of a professional development initiative for student employees. Using the Architecture Library at Texas Tech University as a case study, we examine how formal professional development opportunities align with care ethics principles by responding to students individual needs.
This paper explores the relationship between EBP as a system of knowledge governance, its implementation in library work, and the means by which librarians’ value-neutral commitments to EBP consequently serve the interests of oppressive regimes. I expand on this contention by first exploring the origination and early adoption of EBP first in medical research domains and then in policy-based decision making — not because EBP is especially constitutive of quality knowledge production, but rather because EBP is reflective of a hegemonic commitment to an ideologically positivist presumption that empirical evidence grounded in neutral, unbiased research will lead to beneficial outcomes. To the contrary, these commitments create conditions wherein EBP can be wielded by capitalist and state violence workers as a means of controlling and subjugating at-risk groups. To solidify this claim, I present two case studies. First, I focus on the use of EBP as a force for centering the “needs” of capital — especially over the needs of people with disabilities — during the COVID pandemic. Second, I analyze the means by which the Cass Review makes use of EBP in order to drive transphobic policy goals. I conclude with a call for library workers to reject the notion of neutrality entailed in EBP while instead aiming for a more robust perspective on librarianship through the lens of class liberation and solidarity.
Access services policies at academic archives in the United States are, in many ways, informed by carceral logics. This essay explores the ethical implications of upholding such policies for academic archives engaged in the growing realm of carceral collecting. Drawing from sources in trauma theory, abolitionist and Black feminism, and critical race theory... goal of making archives documenting the history of incarceration and abolitionist thought and action accessible to the individuals for whom the material is most urgently needed to expedite their liberation.
Free menstrual products at libraries are no longer a new phenomenon, thanks to the work of global menstrual equity advocates such as Period.org and Global Menstrual Collective. However, more often than not, these initiatives center around disposable period products. We argue that the work should not stop there. Libraries should explore the distribution of reusable menstrual products, such as menstrual cups and discs, cloth pads, and period underwear. These options are substantially better for the environment, safe to use, and can provide a form of long-term economic support by removing the need to continually buy disposable products. With $10,000 of grant funding, our academic library succeeded in distributing 701 menstrual cups for low cost on campus. Through our first vendor’s buy-one, donate-one policy, an additional 437 cups were donated to the vendor’s global charity partners (resulting in a total 1,138 cups distributed). This initiative not only addresses menstrual equity, with an average saving of $250 a year (and possible $2,500 savings over the ten-year lifespan of a menstrual cup) compared to disposable products, but also highlights the need for sustainable practices within institutional settings, providing a replicable model for others.
This paper employs autoethnography to expose the conference experiences of disabled scholars within the academic and library fields, highlighting the systemic barriers found in these professional settings. In integrating personal narratives with theoretical insights, this study highlights how rigid conference spaces and norms do not accommodate disabled bodyminds, which hinders professional development.
In Brief Over the course of a year, I conducted a diversity audit of part of the general nonfiction collection, specifically the psychology section (BFs) at the Charles C. Myers Library at the University of Dubuque in Dubuque, Iowa. In total I audited 1,075 books using questionnaires I developed to collect data on the science collections...
In Brief It is inevitable that public librarians interact with mentally ill patrons daily. We do our best to help find information and connect patrons to resources, where appropriate. What is missing from these conversations is that mentally ill librarians exist too. We often mask our own mental health struggles for the sake of helping or stigma.
While a MLIS degree is typically necessary to become an academic librarian, practical experiences such as internships, practicums, and apprenticeships are essential in gaining. This article demonstrates how including student employees as active participants in the hiring process is not only a valuable experiential learning opportunity, but also shifts power dynamics.
Library guides can help librarians provide information to their patrons regarding their library resources, services, and tools. Despite their perceived usefulness, there is little discussion in designing library guides pedagogically by following a set of assessment standards for a quality-checked review.
This comprehensive review illuminates the current state of scholarly literature on trans and gender diverse inclusion in libraries…Covering 50 works published between 2002 and 2023 in the areas of general inclusion, public libraries, academic libraries, experiences of library workers, archives, information behavior, and cataloging
