But we’re neutral!& other fictions confronted by #critlib

Emily Drabinski | Fobazi Ettarh | Kelly McElroyNicole Pagowsky | Annie Pho

#alaac15 | #critlib

ALA Annual Conference, June 28, 2015

ACRL session evaluation: surveymonkey.com/r/ALA15ACRLeval

Info about how this panel will go

● Fobazi, Annie, Nicole, and Kelly will each talk for about ten minutes about four ‘myths’ #critlib challenges

(Spoiler: inclusivity, unanimity, theory, individuality)

● We’ll have 20 minutes to chat together in this room, with hopes that conversation will spill out into the hallways.

● Our hashtag is #critlib and we welcome your backchannel!

#Critlib? What’s that?

● From the #critlib cheat sheet! To engage in discussion about critical perspectives on library practice. Recognizing that we all work under regimes of white supremacy, capitalism, and a range of structural inequalities, how can our work as librarians intervene in and disrupt those systems?

A loose affiliation! We don’t all agree!

Myth #1LIS is Inclusive

“Diversity”

Chart comparing percentage of librarians by race (2010, based on ALA Diversity Counts data), with percentage of US population by race in 2013, and projected percentage of US population by race in 2060

Diversity is only the first step!

Microaggressions, “colorblindness,” and many other factors serve to drive librarians from underrepresented groups far, far, away.

Myth #2

We share the same politics

We don’t agree on everything

“No single conception or practice of justice is adequate for all points in history or for all forms of society. Rather, as

societies develop and change through historical processes, so too does justice.”

Capeheart, Loretta, and Milovanovic, Dragan. Critical Issues in Crime and Society : Social Justice : Theories, Issues, and Movements. New Brunswick, NJ, USA: Rutgers University Press, 2007. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 12 June 2015.

Photo Credit to Flickr User: Dennis Wilkinsonhttps://www.flickr.com/photos/djwtwo/16641187750/

Myth #3Theory… ¯\_(ツ )_/¯

#critlib

THEORYPRACTICE

Myth #4If you speak up, you’ll be on your own.

“One pees, one tells,” http://www.dogshaming.com/2015/04/one-pees-one-tells/

“Silence” by K. Kendall, https://www.flickr.com/photos/kkendall/4051688416

“But for every real word spoken, for every attempt I had ever made to speak those truths for which I am still speaking, I had made contact with other women while we examined the words to fit a world in which we all believed, bridging our differences.” Audre Lorde, “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action,” 1977

“hipster graffiti” by hobvias sudogneighm https://www.flickr.com/photos/striatic/133146861

“a little butt sniffing” by Tony Alter,https://www.flickr.com/photos/78428166@N00/5903207392/

#critlib

“Grijns” by mjk23, https://www.flickr.com/photos/mjk23/5401527804/

Do you have a comment or a question?

● Step to the mic!

● Be mindful of the time--we’d like to hear from lots of you!

● Join us after at #critlib on Twitter!

Thank you! Emily @edrabinski

Nicole @pumpedlibrarianAnnie @catladylibKelly @kellymce

Fobazi @Fobettarh

www.zotero.org/groups/critlibsurveymonkey.com/r/ALA15ACRLeval