Libraries and the Right to the City: Insights from Democratic Theory Prepared for the 2013 LACUNY Institute: Libraries, Information, and the Right to the City

David Harvey\u27s right to the city is a productive point to discuss the role of urban libraries and democracy. Harvey\u27s ideas, however, can be further deepened by engaging them with democratic theory. Within Harvey\u27s broader challenge to neoliberalism, democratic theory helps to tie the work of librarianship to a meaningful instantiation of a right to the city through a review of: the concepts (and brief history) of rights the founding theories of rights themselves, the public sphere (a LACUNY Institute framing concept), community, and democratic voice

Transgression or Stasis? Challenging Foucault in LIS Theory

Michel Foucault (1926–84) is a primary thinker informing the construction of a critical theory of library and information science (LIS), or librarianship. He is widely cited and is adapted in various ways that focus on LIS forms of power, discourse, and so on. Others have addressed Foucault’s topics, but he remains central. Li- brarianship has taken up a prior challenge to more fully explore his work, and it is now time to carefully review the implications of Foucault’s thinking as a foun- dation for a critical-theoretical LIS. Foucault has undergone extensive analysis and critique, and this article is a similar step within LIS. While not comprehensive, a review of Foucauldian ideas within LIS literature from a core group of authors is undertaken. Critiques and problems in Foucault’s thinking are reviewed since, by relying on Foucault’s insights for a line of analysis and research, this LIS theoretical work will reflect some of those same problems

On the Political Nature of Library Leadership

This paper examines the political nature of library leadership and acknowledges consistent problems within the management and leadership literature. The political nature of leadership is offered as an insight versus the usual imitation of business management discourse. A critical theory of library leadership is offered. The paper proceeds by examining what we mean by “leadership” and “political” and how those concepts relate before analyzing what has changed to call forth a critical interpretation and framework for library leadership. It moves on to examine insights from political theor

Information Literacy, “New” Literacies, and Literacy

Literacy was once thought to be well-understood and well-defined. However, it has been argued that the digital world has disrupted any notions of literacy, supplanted with “new” forms of literacies in various new literacy studies and now, in the library and information science (LIS) scholarship as they apply to information literacy (IL). But, do the old forms of literacy in fact hold LIS back, and, do the critiques of conceptions of literacy fully represent that foundational scholarship? Are the “new” literacies really that different from traditional notions of literacy? A review of: concepts of literacy and IL that have been critiqued; core ideas of foundational scholarship on the shift from orality to literacy that stand at the center of the scholarly debate over literacy in general; and identifying conceptual foundations of critical reflexivity which underwrite “new” literacies is undertaken to inform the scholarly assumptions and claims of LIS and IL

On Not Revising The ALA Code of Ethics: an Alternate Proposal

The American Library Association (ALA) is undertaking a revision of its code of ethics. The author propo ses and discusses three reasons not to revise the code. The reasons are that there is already a set of interlocking policies on ethics and related issues; that ALA leadership has taken the most conservative possible approach to ethics policy - and especially the connection between librarians\u27 professional responsibilities and rights; and that when policies are amended, they are not always improved, and those on the books are often ignored. The author considers and discusses likely objections to his proposal

Democratic Theory in LIS: Toward an Emendation

Despite quantities of popular rhetoric, democratic theory holds an aposiopetic place within library and information science (LIS) in both senses of that word: It is both in a stasis holding to basic ideas outlined 200 years ago and also a silence largely maintained. A review of a number of state-of-the-literature reviews make the case that it has not been systematically explored or applied, and most LIS work elides the questions democratic theory raises. It is time to emend this and account for a relevant intellectual source which can more firmly ground LIS practice and research in normative terms. Toward that end, three productive wellsprings of democratic theory are reviewed: Jürgen Habermas, Sheldon Wolin, and those working on democratic education (Amy Gutmann, Richard Brosio, Maxine Greene). The article concludes with an outline of some possible LIS questions and approaches drawn from these democratic theorists

Do Community Food Security Assessments Contribute to a Reduction in Food Insecurity at the County Level?

Food insecurity (FI) is a significant risk factor in malnutrition which can lead to obesity and type 2 diabetes. The association of FI to undernutrition can additionally lead to impaired cognitive development in children. Nearly $100 billion is spent annually on federal nutrition programs yet FI still affects 1 in 8 American households pointing to the urgent need for the further refinement of our national/regional anti-hunger models. One notable and underutilized tool is the community food security assessment (CFA) which seeks to eliminate FI at the local level by improving food access throughout the community. A major limitation in knowledge about CFAs is the dearth of empirical studies of their effectiveness. The principal aim of this dissertation research was to statistically examine secondary data on U.S. counties where CFAs have been conducted and to determine whether they helped reduce individual FI over a two-year, post-test period. Repeated measures of ANOVA across the longitudinal time frame for n=66 counties revealed the main effect of FI was not statistically significant. A majority (56.9%) of 37 counties experienced a decrease in FI over the period. Linear regression found that unemployment was a significant influence in communities that experienced decreases in individual FI at the county level during the pre-test/post-test interval (β = .387 [.067], p\u3c.01). This dissertation found that CFAs can be more effective in areas of higher unemployment as well as geographically where FI is initially higher, however further research is clearly needed in more communities over a longer time period. Also, the study suggests that proper development and structure of state and local-level food policy councils (FPCs) may lead CFAs to find better structure, funding and best practices to become more effective. Overlays prepared with ArcGIS mapping demonstrate that, in general, CFAs are not being performed in areas of highest FI when measured at the county level. The most important take-away from the visual mapping is the dearth of studies performed in the southeastern and southwestern regions of the country where county-level FI is higher, on average, than the rest of the country. These regions coincide with much of the Southern Black Belt and areas where Hispanic or Latino populations are most prevalent suggesting that communities in these regions may be able to benefit from the intervention