Review of Land in Libraries: Toward a Materialist Conception of Education

Review of Zyagintseva, L, & Greenshields, M. (Eds). (2023). Land in libraries: Toward a materialist conception of education. Library Juice Press

Cause for Concern: : Copycat Gender Identity Based Book Protests in Public Libraries in Ireland

This commentary briefly explores the rise of book bans in the US before giving an overview of similar protests emerging in Irish libraries. From being a very traditional and largely Catholic confessional State Ireland has been propelled into hyper-modernity over the last 50 years. The review briefly examines religious tensions in the Republic of Ireland and outlines ongoing conservatism, despite liberal social policies. The commentary concludes with a call for greater action and international solidarity to promote both inclusion and intellectual freedom

Please Scream Inside Your Heart:: How a Global Pandemic Affected Burnout in an Academic Library

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the authors’ experiences of the academic library workplace. Despite additional challenges introduced by working primarily remotely, the authors also witnessed their organization take steps toward making academic library work more human-centered. Using narrative inquiry, the authors interrogate their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and elements of workplace organization and treatment of library workers that offered brief glimpses of a workplace that is kinder and more concerned with employee well-being. However, over time, a renewed emphasis on pre-pandemic organization workplace values has been witnessed by the authors. The authors discuss what pre-COVID workplace practices are harmful and oppressive elements of white supremacy culture and capitalistic culture and should be abandoned, and what a human-centered workplace post-COVID might look like. Keywords: burnout, COVID-19, overwork, library workers, capitalism, white supremacy culture, vocational awe, role conflic

Renewing the Labor Union and Library Partnership

Library and information science (LIS) and labor unions have a long history of partnership in the United States of America (U.S.A.).  Since the early days of libraries, they have supported labor unions through providing access to computers, Internet access, labor-focused displays and programming, and materials that support workers. Labor unions have played a large role in supporting library workers through unionized staff, increasing library wages, worker safety and protection, and protecting against unsafe labor practices. Both groups shared similar goals until a shift was seen in the late twentieth century. In recent years, the partnership between libraries and unions has weakened through legislation. With law changes that effectively made every state in the U.S.A. a right-to-work state, there is a greater importance on libraries and labor unions renewing their partnership and focus to ensure workers inside and outside of libraries have their best interests protected. Labor education in LIS programs is lacking and could be better integrated into the LIS graduate program curriculum. This article looks at the historical work between libraries and labor unions with a turn toward how these two groups can work together going forward to restrengthen the partnership in today’s economic and political landscape.  &nbsp

Perpetuating Whiteness: : Disrupting the Dominant Narrative in Academic Library Collections

This exploratory study addresses both the lack of collection diversity and inclusion in a large, state university, and the need for more awareness of whiteness within library collections. The initial study found that 78% of recently acquired monographs were grounded in a eurocentric perspective and that the represented authors were predominantly white and/or male. Even though professional library organizations recognize the critical need and responsibility to foster a culture of diversity and inclusion, academic libraries reproduce the inequities and hegemonic states of their parent institutions in their acquisitions, perpetuating a white-embedded structure of knowledge. When viewed through a lens of critical race theory (CRT), it is apparent that although academic libraries tout missions to ensure diversity and inclusive practices, there is lack of oversight in assuring collections are capturing under-represented and culturally appreciative works of thought, ideologies, and perspectives that are not based in white epistemological “truths".&nbsp

Policy Matters: : EDI Evaluation of an Academic Library's Policies

Why does policy matter, and how can libraries reform their policies to create a more equitable library for library workers and library users? The authors discuss their experience in reviewing the policies of their library with an EDI (Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) lens. The authors describe how they initiated and developed this project, the factors that they considered in forming their evaluation rubric, and what they learned from the process

Evaluating the Placement of Little Free Libraries in Bloomington, IN Using Socioeconomic Indicators Determined by Geospatial Analysis

The purpose of this research is to investigate the influence of socioeconomic indicators on the distribution of Little Free Libraries in Bloomington, IN. A Little Free Library is a book storing box that provides free books to a community. Comparing the locations with demographic data shows that Little Free Libraries are concentrated in white, affluent areas with high levels of education attainment which fails to reduce the book deserts in Bloomington, IN. Income was the most likely indicator of placement, with only 23% of LFLs located in areas with annual median incomes below $30,000

"Comfortable" Terms:: Diversity Discourse and Institutional White Supremacy in UK Libraries

Utilising a theoretical approach from Critical Race Theory and applying a method of Critical Discourse Analysis, this article aims to explore diversity discourse within EDI documents published by the UK library profession. It is vital that the profession have a shared vocabulary about what is meant by "diversity", "inclusion", and "equality" and that there is critical reflection on the professional culture to seriously interrogate the language and processes used to go about achieving any goals of social justice. As this article will show, the language used in EDI documents often prevents the library profession from unlearning white supremacy and only perpetuates it within the profession and its institutions. Quite contrary to their stated intentions, EDI documents can be used in institutions to validate an already deeply entrenched institutional culture and stall substantial change. KEYWORDS: Equality, Diversity, Inclusion, Institutional White Supremacy, Policy, Critical Discourse Analysi

The Hambleton Project Library: : An Organization Searching for Empowerment and Answers

This paper describes the books selected for inclusion in the Hambleton Project Library, a group that strived to help lesbians dealing with cancer. Analysis focuses on how creating the library was one part of the group’s narrative and community focused activities. Volunteers brought passion, energy, and belief in the importance of improving the patient experience to everything they did, all of the many activities. In the end, community run groups should fully consider the sustainability of the resources they create

Existing on Erasure’s Edge: BIPOC Treatment in Peer Review

The authors of this research are Black women employed in higher education academic libraries with expectations to actively participate in the scholarly community as researchers, writers, presenters, reviewers, and editors. After multiple personal and observed experiences receiving thinly veiled and outright biased feedback from reviewers and editors in supposedly anonymous review processes, the authors decided to channel our frustration into an exploratory study that queries if our experiences are shared amongst the BIPOC library and information studies (LIS) scholarly community. This study explores how implicit and explicit bias impacts BIPOC scholars in LIS from both the writers’ and reviewers perspectives. While this study purposefully centers BIPOC experiences, the participant pool includes people of White and/or European descent to infer how bias impacts decision making (e.g, accept, reject, revise and resubmit) and the feedback BIPOC writers experience throughout navigating the LIS peer review process. We found that the peer review process was clearly marked with unnecessary hassles including: time constraints, transactional reviews, and bias.  Although the time constraints and transactional reviews didn’t stop scholars from resubmitting to other journals, those experiences have made them reflect on the processes that journals take prior to submission. Alternatively, negative interactions that were rooted in racial and gender bias made those scholars question submission to another peer-review publication in perpetuity