Review of Digital Degrowth: Technology in the Age of Survival

Review of Kwet, M. (2024). Digital Degrowth: Technology in the Age of Survival. Pluto House

Will We Ever Learn?: : The Un-Enlightenment of Selector Librarians

This critical case study aims to explore the influences on the collection development procedures and practices of selector librarians to incorporate authentic voices and representation. At the time of this publication, there was limited literature on the role academic librarians play in the attainment of authentic representations of culturally diverse and inclusive materials. Incorporating results from a national-level survey and 19 follow-up interviews, this study focuses on the major theme found: academic librarians are not being adequately trained in collection development during the pursuit of their accredited degrees. When viewed through a lens of critical whiteness studies (CWS), an argument can be made that academia and librarianship are entrenched in whiteness, which perpetuates the silencing of “others.

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.

Building the Path for the Last Mile: : Developing Critical AI Literacy for Library Workers

This article examines the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) technology and libraries by looking at the evolving research process through the framework of critical librarianship. Through a review of relevant literature and case studies, we discuss how AI tools are reshaping higher education amid a backdrop of budgetary cuts and an increasingly siloed academy. In this environment, library workers are increasingly anxious to defend their role in the research process and illuminate harms perpetuated by algorithmic tools. By engaging with the concept of the “last mile,” an analogy for AI in the research space, we consider the intersections of labor, pedagogy, and professional practice. We argue that librarians enhance and facilitate deeper learning as researchers and students strive to reach milestones in their research journey. Further, we emphasize the importance of being proactive with advocacy in our academic communities by highlighting this unique role. Through exploring these critical perspectives, we advocate that librarians actively challenge algorithmic biases, advocate for users to engage with AI ethically, and increase focus on relational labor in the research process. This article contributes to the ongoing dialogue of AI use in libraries, but offers a critical lens and a path forward for actionable insights for librarians and library workers

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

Review of Slow Down: The Degrowth Manifesto

Review of Saito, K. (2024). Slow Down: The Degrowth Manifesto. Astra House

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