Miami University Librarians Unionize for Equity and Dignity: An Interview from the Frontlines of a First Contract Negotiation

Librarians describe their path to unionization at Miami University. After losing a hearing and being removed from a faculty union's bargaining unit during a union certification drive, librarians used their signed union authorization cards to file for and win a union authorization vote. The new Faculty Alliance of Miami - Librarians (FAM - L) group was formed and are currently bargaining for their first contract. This interview with four librarians deeply involved with the union drive and bargaining details the conditions at Miami they hope to improve and their challenges and hopes looking towards the future.

From Gatekeepers to Facilitators: Transforming Metadata for Equitable Knowledge Access

Metadata is necessary for intellectual control of materials, providing context, and facilitating findability. In the creation of metadata, information professionals may inadvertently act as gatekeepers, perpetuating the marginalization of people and identities through the use of complicated and outdated descriptive practices. The People’s Archive, the local history department of the DC Public Library set out to revise our metadata practices for digital collections to prioritize inclusivity and findability in our collections. Addressing the role our profession has played in perpetuating harmful social structures is hard and uncomfortable, but it is also overdue and necessary if we truly want to provide the best access to our users. In this article, the authors review the methodology and outcomes of a yearlong effort to update our metadata practices

Review of Co-Intelligence: Living and Working With AI

Review of Mollick, E. (2024). Co-intelligence: Living and working with AI. Penguin Portfolio

Uncontrollable Vocabularies: : Queer Theory, Sexual Identity, and the Catalog

This article brings together critical librarianship and queer theory to intervene in ongoing discourse about subject headings related to sexual identity. While many librarians favor a corrective cataloging approach that updates language with more current and ostensibly community-preferred terms, I draw on work by Emily Drabinski, Melissa Adler, Eve Sedgwick, and Kadji Amin to argue against corrective approaches—and against a mindset that seeks affirmation in the catalog to begin with, rather than understanding any taxonomic project to be intrinsically fraught and reductive. The purpose of this article is threefold: 1) to elucidate and challenge what I call a “paradigm of exposure”—a form of “outing” texts—around Library of Congress Subject Headings that are related to sexual identity, 2) to illustrate the fundamental irreconcilability of queerness with the cataloging principle of “aboutness,” and 3) to argue for a dispositional shift that embraces an ambivalent relationship to the catalog even while permitting for good surprises. As a case study, I examine the application of the LCSH “Lesbians” and “Female friendships” to films and challenge the paradigm of exposurethat characterizes prevalent approaches to cataloging LGBTQ-related materials. Keywords: cataloging, critical librarianship, queer theory, academic libraries, Library of Congress Subject Headings, sexual identit

David's Paradox: The Limitations of Textual Analysis of Gender Representation in Picture Books

Various authors have counted gender representation in picture books using textual analysis, notably Crisp and Hiller in 2011. However, text-only analyses such as theirs are problematic because they do not adequately address inequalities in visual representation of gender, nor consider the focalization that informs a book’s text. Ultimately, these text-only studies serve to reinforce rather than challenge lopsided gender representation in picture books

Critical Cataloguing and Contradiction Analysis: Using Mao Zedong’s Dialectical Materialism to Address Classificatory Antagonisms

This article pioneers the application of Marxist theory in the field of critical cataloguing. I take the recent Library of Congress ‘Illegal aliens’ controversy as a case study to demonstrate how dialectical materialism—specifically Mao Zedong’s contradiction analysis—can serve as a useful approach for addressing ruptures in classificatory language. I identify three advantages to using contradiction analysis in critical cataloguing research. First, by giving equal attention to all aspects of a phenomenon, contradiction analysis accounts for the inherently biased nature of library classification systems. Second, by insisting that all phenomena are in motion from one state towards another, contradiction analysis accommodates the fluid and contextual nature of language. Third, contradiction analysis is not limited to a single discipline—it can be effectively applied alongside a range of other approaches, such as feminist theory, queer theory, and critical race theory. My analysis reveals how dialectical materialism can be applied both retrospectively and in future critiques of classificatory antagonisms. I also call for an extension of the challenge to the language of undocumented migration beyond the realm of library classification and into the field of legal discourse

Information Hegemony, Transcending Positivism, and Applying Critical Legal Information Literacy Concepts in the Legal Research Classroom and Beyond

This paper provides an overview of critical information literacy, critical information theory, critical legal research as well as how information hegemony impacts the legal information industry. To prepare law students for the practice of law, a discussion of ways to embed critical information literacy and critical legal research in a legal research course is provided

What a Recent Ta-Nehisi Coates Lecture Offers the “Intellectual Freedom vs. Social Responsibility” Debate

Author Ta-Nehisi Coates's 2023 Arthur Miller Lecture at the PEN America World Voices Festival has been little remarked-upon since he delivered it. This oversight is particularly noteworthy in the field of library and information science, as his comments have much to offer the perennial debate between intellectual freedom absolutists and social responsibility advocates

Review of On Censorship: A Public Librarian Examines Cancel Culture in the US

ABSTRACT: Review of LaRue, James. On Censorship: A Public Librarian Examines Cancel Culture in the US. Wheat Ridge, CO: Fulcrum Publishing. 2023. Ebook version, 81 pages. ISBN 9781682754580

Beyond a Land Acknowledgement: : Taking a First Step Towards Reparative Action

The Logistics Committee of the Conference on Academic Library Management (CALM)’s 2023 conference posed a question early on in conference planning: what if we rejected the traditional model of land acknowledgements? In answering that question, the committee embarked on a year-long process to radically revise the statement to one focused on reparative action. This article covers the revision process, including what inspired it and how the committee structured their work