Information Provision and the Carceral State: Race and Reference beyond the Idea of the Underserved

This article addresses an approach to library services for people who are incarcerated that meets the situated information needs and desires of people within jails and prisons. By creating a flow of information between LIS students and individuals who are incarcerated through a Reference by Mail program, resources available to incarcerated people are increased while students engage in a humanizing and self-reflexive project, with the understanding that the regulation of information within jails and prisons has lasting effects for the life chances of incarcerated people

Psychiatric disorders in individuals born very preterm / very low-birth weight : An individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis

Background: Data on psychiatric disorders in survivors born very preterm (VP; Methods: This individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis pooled data from eligible groups in the Adults born Preterm International Collaboration (APIC). Inclusion criteria included: 1) VP/VLBW group (birth weight 2499 g and/or gestational age >= 37 weeks), and 3) structured measure of psychiatric diagnoses using DSM or ICD criteria. Diagnoses of interest were Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Anxiety Disorder, Mood Disorder, Disruptive Behaviour Disorder (DBD), Eating Disorder, and Psychotic Disorder. A systematic search for eligible studies was conducted (PROSPERO Registration Number 47555). Findings: Data were obtained from 10 studies (1385 VP/VLBW participants, 1780 controls), using a range of instruments and approaches to assigning diagnoses. Those born VP/VLBW had ten times higher odds of meeting criteria for ASD (odds ratio [OR] 10.6, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.50, 44.7), five times higher odds of meeting criteria for ADHD (OR 5.42, 95% CI 3.10, 9.46), twice the odds of meeting criteria for Anxiety Disorder (OR 1.91, 95% CI 1.36, 2.69), and 1.5 times the odds of meeting criteria for Mood Disorder (OR 1.51, 95% CI 1.08, 2.12) than controls. This pattern of findings was consistent within age (= 18 years) and sex subgroups. Interpretation: Our data suggests that individuals born VP/VLBW might have higher odds of meeting criteria for certain psychiatric disorders through childhood and into adulthood than term/NBW controls. Further research is needed to corroborate our results and identify factors associated with psychiatric disorders in individuals born VP/VLBW. (C) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.Peer reviewe

Who wants a slimmer body? The relationship between body weight status, education level and body shape dissatisfaction among young adults in Hong Kong

Background: Body shape dissatisfaction has been thought to have an indispensable impact on weight control behaviors. We investigated the prevalence of body shape dissatisfaction (BSD) and explored its association with weight status, education level and other determinants among young adults in Hong Kong. Methods. Information on anthropometry, BSD, and socio-demographics was collected from a random sample of 1205 young adults (611 men and 594 women) aged 18-27 in a community-based household survey. BSD was defined as a discrepancy between current and ideal body shape based on a figure rating scale. Cross-tabulations, homogeneity tests and logistic regression models were applied. Results: The percentages of underweight men and women were 16.5% and 34.9% respectively, and the corresponding percentages of being overweight or obese were 26.7% and 13.2% for men and women respectively. Three-quarters of young adults had BSD. Among women, 30.9% of those underweight and 75.5% of those with normal weight desired a slimmer body shape. Overweight men and underweight women with lower education level were more likely to have a mismatch between weight status and BSD than those with higher education level. After controlling for other determinants, underweight women were found to have a higher likelihood to maintain their current body shapes than other women. Men were found to be less likely to have a mismatch between weight status and BSD than women. Conclusions: Overweight and obesity in men and underweight in women were prevalent among Hong Kong young adults. Inappropriate body shape desire might predispose individuals to unhealthy weight loss or gain behaviors. Careful consideration of actual weight status in body shape desire is needed in health promotion and education, especially for underweight and normal weight women and those with a low education level. © 2011 Cheung et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.published_or_final_versio

Representative Library Collections as a Response to the Institutional Oppression of LGBTQ Youth of Color

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth of color are frequently subject to forms of institutional oppression that shape their lives. Institutional forces are rarely mentioned in research on library services to youth. This project examines one possibility for creating more meaningful library services that acknowledge how state power and publishing trends limit access to meaningful representation for LGBTQ and gender non-conforming youth of color. It begins with the synthesis of ongoing campaigns for greater diversity in young adult literature; critical theoretical approaches to race, gender, and sexuality; and the needs identified by adults working for a critically situated community drop-in youth center for LGBTQ youth. Using a case study set in Oakland, California, the research focuses on how representative library materials might be positioned in culturally sensitive community spaces as one way to address the histories of exclusion and invisibility that have informed public library practice in the U.S

Mechanisms of communicative control (and resistance): Carceral incorporations of ICT and communication policies for physical mail

The communication practices of people inside of United States carceral institutions has long been of interest to individuals with the power to police, surveil, and punish. Communications policies in jails and prisons reflect this impetus. Previous research on communications policies in carceral institutions approached the topic from an ideology that embraced the supposed normative functioning of the carceral institution and did not incorporate the role of ICTs as surveillance technologies implanted in carceral settings. Using the Wayback Machine as a means to review changes in formal and informal publicly available policies related to communication, this research examines three carceral sites to illustrate how increasing use of ICTs may shape policies for physical communications. The research reveals that the increasing use of ICTs is shared across the local, state, and federal levels, that physical correspondence may be more limited in high ICT carceral environments, that ICTs for communication often market themselves as an extension of surveillance, and that the incorporation of ICTs into communication policies blurs the line between private and public carceral practices

Feeling fixes: Mess and emotion in algorithmic audits

Efforts to address algorithmic harms have gathered particular steam over the last few years. One area of proposed opportunity is the notion of an “algorithmic audit,” specifically an “internal audit,” a process in which a system’s developers evaluate its construction and likely consequences. These processes are broadly endorsed in theory—but how do they work in practice? In this paper, we conduct not only an audit but an autoethnography of our experiences doing so. Exploring the history and legacy of a facial recognition dataset, we find paradigmatic examples of algorithmic injustices. But we also find that the process of discovery is interwoven with questions of affect and infrastructural brittleness that internal audit processes fail to articulate. For auditing to not only address existing harms but avoid producing new ones in turn, we argue that these processes must attend to the “mess” of engaging with algorithmic systems in practice. Doing so not only reduces the risks of audit processes but—through a more nuanced consideration of the emotive parts of that mess—may enhance the benefits of a form of governance premised entirely on altering future practices

Libraries for social change: centering youth of color and/or LGBTQ youth in library practice

Critically aware libraries are capable of providing meaningful services to youth made most vulnerable to the state through surveillance, policing, and incarceration. This research traces how past policies and processes that established white, middle-class, and hetero-normative conduct and knowledge as central to library services worked - and continue to work - against youth of color and/or LGBTQ and gender non-conforming youth. It pulls from queer, feminist, poststructural, and critical theory to provide a model for how libraries can center youth made vulnerable to the state. This involves an interrogation of what representation does or can do in the current moment alongside the recognition that cultures within librarianship inhibit library access for youth of color and/or LGBTQ and gender non-conforming youth. Through four iterative case studies set in Oakland, CA, this research draws lines of inquiry from perspectives of youth located in juvenile detention to community and public library services. These cases are directed by participatory action research and situated forms of grounded theory. Together, the cases incorporate youth voice into actionable outcomes in library practice and challenge narratives of literacy as simply ameliorative while recognizing the limitations publishing practices place on encounters with complexly diverse library materials. Guided by statements from incarcerated youth and youth contributions to The Beat Within alongside activist and academic understandings of social change, this research contains models for library collections and services that challenge static notions of identity categories, answer youth requests for materials, and provide frames for confronting institutional racism and other forms of oppression in library services to youth.U of I OnlyAuthor requested U of I only extension which was approved by the thesis office. Changes made by [email protected] on 2019-07-31

Whose Safety is the Priority? Attending to LIS Grassroots Movements and Patron Concerns Around Policing and Public Libraries

Police and policing have tacitly, and at times explicitly, been normalized as aspects of library service in the U.S. As American forms of policing are exported at an international scale, this has international implications. Justification for embedded policing inside library walls has turned upon librarian and library staff conceptions of safety. This essay posits that a lack of critical engagement with the topics of policing and safety reflects the deficit of substantive discourse around antiracist pedagogy within library and information science (LIS) education and practice. The paper pairs critical research on safety and criminalization with patrons’ comments on policing and grassroots activism by LIS professionals to rethink safety as something shared between librarians, staff, patrons, and potential patrons (the community). Ongoing, organized campaigns around policing and security within libraries are documented so that their efforts, trials, and successes will engender further research and set a marked precedent of how LIS education and professions can reevaluate the role of policing and police in library settings everywhere

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN AUDIT: TRACING THE ROOTS AND REPERCUSSIONS OF THE HRT-TRANSGENDER DATABASE

Focus on the harms in data collection, distribution, and use in sociotechnical systems tends to reify the idea that research conducted by universities and other public-sector parties is both more ethical and more easily lends itself to auditing. This falsely positions data collection and distribution undertaken by public institutions as more available to review and scrutiny. Documenting our attempts to audit the HRT-Transgender Database - a database collected by a public university in the United States - we engage in a critical examination of not only the gaps in IRB coverage of “big data” research, but also the practical limitations and troubles involved in attempting to audit data practices that, on paper, should be highly documented. Drawing from feminist and trans studies critical approaches to information practice, our work brings into frame vital issues that researchers seeking to design oversight mechanisms should address, and begins a conversation about the visceral and often painful work of providing that oversight. This research extends from a review of the limits of IRB oversight to incorporate an interrogation of how technological interventions increase the likelihood of actual and symbolic violence in the lives of transgender people, including those not present in the actual HRT-Transgender Database

Systemic Oppression and the Contested Ground of Information Access for Incarcerated People

Library and information science (LIS), as a whole, has not prioritized the information access of people inside of jails and prisons as a central tenet of library practice At the moment, there is growing attention given to states’ attempts to curtail book access for people inside of jails and prisons. Groups that provide free books to incarcerated people -- such as the numerous Books to Prisoners programs across the United States -- have been central to the discussions around access to information and resistance to censorship. These groups have drawn particular attention to the ways that Black, Indigenous, and people of color, as well as LGBTQ people, in prison experience ongoing oppression during incarceration because of limited access to materials relevant to their experiences. By identifying the types of information that are banned or limited, the difficulties people who are incarcerated face in seeking to access information, and the impact that access to information has in the lives of people who are incarcerated, this article explains prison censorship as a form of state-sponsored oppression, which is largely being combated by Books to Prisoners rather than LIS. The article ends by explaining LIS’ lack of attention to information access for people who are incarcerated