CALC 2025

Keynote: Monsters in the Closet: Why Queer Folk Love Folklore.

Sacha is obsessed with the way mythical creatures, magic and legends have been connected with the LGBTQ+ lives experience arguable since the dawn of humanity itself. In this talk he will be sharing some of his findings on how and why people throughout history who have lived and loved 'differently', have found themselves so embroiled in tales of faeries, vampires, aliens and witches.

Biography: Sacha Coward (he/him) is a freelance museum and heritage professional. His work centres on creating social change and justice through innovative and inclusive programming in regional, national and international GLAM settings. His latest book Queer as Folklore, a Sunday Times bestseller, is out now. You can find out more about Sacha's work on his website: https://www.sachacoward.com/.

This paper reflects upon the value, and challenge, of working with a vulnerable group whose information needs have been almost entirely left out of library and information research. To date, there is no published UK library and information studies (LIS) research conducted directly with survivors of sexual assault. Yet this is a group with a complex set of context-specific information needs. Looking for help after assault comes hand-in-hand with the need for new information and information sources. This paper argues that LIS professionals are uniquely positioned to support this underserved group in looking for and accessing help. 

The paper discusses a research collaboration between a LIS professional and a local charity supporting sexual assault survivors. Through interviews with five of the charity’s users, the project explored how survivors identified and sought to meet their help and information needs. This provided the charity with valuable insight to inform the expansion and improvement of their services. 

The paper presents a case study of how LIS professionals can partner with specialist organisations to better understand and provide for groups in need. It highlights how the expert knowledge of these organisations can support LIS professionals in reaching and working with understudied groups, such as by ensuring a trauma-informed approach to research. In turn, it stresses the real-world application of the insight LIS professionals can offer, by exploring three significant themes which emerged from this study: the relationship between the need for help and the need for information; the difficulty of defining and predicting the help needed; and the role of survivors themselves as experts. 

This project demonstrates that by seeking out and including previously excluded groups, the insight of LIS researchers and practitioners can further develop and improve services.

The topic under investigation is workplace safety and experiences of women who are employed or volunteer in academic and research libraries in the UK; the focus is on gender-specific safety in academic and research libraries which is an underrepresented area of research. Preliminary research suggests that women experience and perceive both personal and physical safety working in academic libraries differently to men, in part due to the historic absence of women’s input and collaboration when designing libraries and library spaces: research into library building design and the ensuing detrimental relationship between women’s personal and physical safety has been neglected, and this study aims to somewhat fill this gap.

A survey was disseminated to UK academic and research library workers asking participants to reply to a series of questions concerning their experiences of personal and physical safety in the workplace; 252 responses were received. Additionally, qualitative content analysis (QCA) was conducted on 83 Health and Safety (H&S) policy documents received from UK universities to establish whether such documents are written at a generic, university-wide level or at a library-specific level and the resultant implications of such. 

The study found that women’s perceptions and experiences of being, and feeling, safe in academic and research libraries is different to their male counterparts, particularly when lone working. Men felt safe; women did not. In part this is due to the physical environment of the library and the poor use of space and design. In relation to university H&S policy documents, the study found that there was a deficiency of library-specific policies resulting in a lack of tailored guidance and risk assessments for named library buildings and spaces which address the idiosyncratic nature of library work within such spaces. 

The implication of this study implies that women do not feel safe within their workspace, but that tailored H&S policies can assist in their safety as they can be developed to address the specific quirks and hazards working in specific places and spaces of the academic library. In addition, this study provides some recommendations for LIS professions and areas for future research.

Conference attendees will learn about the history of library spaces and the subsequent lack of design input from a woman's perspective and the ensuing safety implications resulting from poorly designed library spaces.

Research libraries across the world have been striving to become more inclusive and diverse places where scholarship and learning can thrive. In many institutions, efforts have focused on developing and presenting library collections in more engaging and inclusive ways, but also on creating a diverse workforce which is representative of the multicultural communities that libraries serve today. This paper is based on the results of a piece of research conducted recently by Research Libraries UK (RLUK), which aim to showcase how RLUK institutions work towards developing more inclusive practices in workforce recruitment and retention. 

The project explored how issues around equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) were represented in the job descriptions of RLUK member institutions (Kamposiori, 2022). For this purpose, 319 job descriptions submitted by RLUK members to the Research Libraries Position Description Bank (RL PD Bank) were analysed. This analysis was complemented by semi-structured interviews with representatives from six RLUK institutions which helped build a broader picture of the EDI initiatives that are being led by members. The results of the analysis from both the RL PD Bank job descriptions research and the interviews were placed within an international context. This was achieved through examining relevant job descriptions submitted by research libraries in the US and Canada to the RL PD Bank.

The results of this research enabled us to develop a better understanding of the steps that RLUK research libraries currently take to establish new processes or review existing practices with the aim of becoming more inclusive and diverse places. They also uncovered examples of best practice around workforce development and retention that can be of interest to the wider community.  

References:

Kamposiori, C. (2022). Equality, diversity, and inclusion in the research library. An analysis of RLUK institutions’ job descriptions. RLUK report. Available at: https://www.rluk.ac.uk/portfolio-items/edi-in-the-research-library-an-analysis-of-rluk-institutions-job-descriptions/. 

Research Libraries Position Description Bank (RL PD Bank), https://rlpdbank.domains.uflib.ufl.edu/.

The incessant commodification of HE is pressuring the academic library’s role into flux. Librarians don’t know if they are to be managers, curators, counsellors, teachers, technicians, AI engineers, or sales assistants.  When once we were disseminators of knowledge, librarians must now diversify their offer. Some of us got angry at this situation, and critical of the system. In reaction to the demands of commodification, ‘Critical Librarianship ‘evolved as a practice that strives to destabilize discourses and authoritarian pedagogies. This progressive movement, however, has become an ‘epistemological structure’ of the profession, an expression to drop into meetings.  I have recently argued that the tenet of critical theory which critical librarianship adopted has become divorced from the praxis.  The concepts of class, commodification, and economics, are no longer in the conversation, replaced by ‘social purpose’, as a more marketable slogan.  By reflecting on the commodification of HE, and the origins of critical theory that arose out of the Frankfurt School, this brief presentation hopes to recover the class consciousness of critical theory. This is vital if we want to educate our students to critically reflect on the contradictions that exist within the system in which we all work. Just as the reproduction of an artwork becomes stripped of its essence we should be asking; how critical can we be? And yet we do have a privileged position; by working with our colleagues at all levels and students we can use our voice to highlight these contractions. In the spirit of 68, students', workers and librarians unite, we have only our fees to lose.... 

This session discusses my MA dissertation that focussed on healthy literacy initiatives in a London borough.

My research investigated the barriers to good levels of health literacy from the perspectives of four individuals that worked with the community of the London Borough of Newham: a community with a very low level of literacy and a high level of poverty. The individuals I interviewed worked as health professionals, library professionals, and members of the local council.

I identified five barriers to health literacy in the borough which I feel are prevalent across the UK based upon the 50 research papers I read for my literature review. These barriers are English as a second language, education, deprivation, information access, and policy in practice.

My presentation would discuss the health literacy initiatives piloted within the borough that are meeting the needs of individuals based on the barriers identified. For example, pharmacy’s providing medication information in additional languages, discussions of health information social hubs in local community areas, and free sim cards from the public library to provide information access.

I feel this could be a good fit for the conference theme of challenges and opportunities, because the dissertation speaks of the challenges to deliver health literacy initiatives to people with varying needs, whilst considering the opportunities available to help. For example, my recommendations consider the opportunity to provide health literacy training to healthcare professionals as they join new trusts and hospitals and the opportunity for health librarians to become larger stakeholders.

The research was recently presented this as a 20-minute presentation to the Newham Council and librarians of the local NHS Trust.

The dissertation received a distinction overall, with great feedback on the currency of the research and the opportunity for further expansion of the work.

This paper considers the implications of cross-cultural exchange between higher education libraries in France and Burundi, specifically the colonialism inherent in the unequal nature of the exchange.

In 2023, I was asked to join in on a project called Amagara Yacu (Our Health) undertaken at the INSP (National institute for public health) in Bujumbura, Burundi.  My mission as a (white European) librarian was to help ‘modernise’ the institute’s library, making it fit for purpose for the students undertaking training in nursing, midwifery and physiotherapy.  In March 2024, I went to Bujumbura for a week to work with the local librarians, using User Experience, to move forward with a capital project funded by France to expand the library.  In October 2024, one of the librarians from Bujumbura came to France to see how we do things in our libraries.  

This project has raised numerous questions for me, as a white person, on my place in the reproduction of white supremacy in the relationship between Europe and a formerly colonised nation in the global south.  There was little decolonial about the encounter, rather there is an implicit recolonization as white European ways of doing things are reified.  This is the case even before considering the position of the library as institution of coloniality in its own right.  Arguably, the library has never been decolonised; “libraries are white spaces organised by white classification systems, and their contents described by white subject headings.” (Clarke, 2021, p.239) Further, “library and information science/studies programs were designed to protect white knowledge, and defend and support the needs of white power and all of its privileges.” (Sierpe, 2019, p. 93) What is more, the library must serve the institution, and it is well known that international aid in higher education is part of an ‘intellectual recolonisation’ (Federici, 2000) of African countries.   This project is at the nexus of colonializing forces however much I might wish otherwise.

In this paper I examine my actions in relation to my Burundian colleagues and consider what might be done to mitigate against the irresistible force of white supremacy in an African library.

There is an increasing focus within the scholarly communications sector on Open Access Book publishing. This is in part driven by new funder policies, such as UKRIs Open Access Policy for longform outputs, and the news that the REF post-2029 will include an Open Monographs mandate. Whilst the introduction of these policies will mean in scope researchers must publish their monograph outputs Open Access to be compliant, this focus represents an opportunity to facilitate a culture change in which Open Access Monograph publishing is the norm, rather than enacted to comply with funder mandates.  

However, there are several barriers preventing this culture change, including financial barriers, concerns and misconceptions relating to the prestige and academic quality of Open Access Book publishers, and a lack of awareness of open access book publishing routes within the researcher community.  

This talk will explore how XYZ University Library has moved beyond just being a service provider to work in partnership with our communities to facilitate a culture in which publishing Open Access Monographs is part of normal, everyday practice, rather than a box ticking exercise for compliance. The talk will provide an overview of how the library has approached this, including working in partnership with academic colleagues and external organisations to make Open Access Book publishing possible and easy, as well as sharing concrete steps to facilitating a culture change.

This session will examine academic librarians' distinctive position within the academy through Bhabha's (1994) concept of 'third space' (where different cultures meet and create something new that challenges old ways of thinking about cultural identity). While Whitchurch's (2006, 2008) application of third space in HE has gained popularity, it misappropriates Bhabha's original postcolonial theory by framing third space as territory to be ‘colonised’ rather than as a location for resistance to dominant power structures. Instead, this session will argue for leveraging this position to advance knowledge equity.

Academic librarians inhabit a genuine third space between traditional academic and professional service roles. This creates both challenges and opportunities. Drawing on Bhabha's original radical concept, this session argues that librarians have an ethical responsibility to use their third space positioning to challenge existing hierarchies of knowledge production and dissemination. This presentation will explore approaches that librarians could pursue to move beyond comfortable professional categories to question power imbalances in scholarly communication and advocate for more equitable access to knowledge.

The session invites attendees to reconsider third space not as territory to claim or professional identity to negotiate, but as an opportunity to engage in work that advances knowledge equity and challenges whose knowledge is valued in academic contexts.

Begun, M. (2025) “Truly emergent? A critique of ‘third space’ in cross-cultural context”, Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education, (33). Available at: https://doi.org/10.47408/jldhe.vi33.1236.

Bhabha, H.K. (1994) The Location of Culture. London: Routledge.

Whitchurch, C. (2006) ‘Who do they think they are? The changing identities of professional administrators and managers in UK higher education’, Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 28(2), pp. 159–171. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13600800600751002

Whitchurch, C. (2008) ‘Shifting Identities and Blurring Boundaries: the Emergence of Third Space Professionals in UK Higher Education’, Higher Education Quarterly, 62(4), pp. 377–396. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2273.2008.00387.x

Speakers:

• Nenna Orie Chuku (UCL, PhD Candidate & PGTA in Department of Information Studies)

• Marilyn Clarke (Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Librarian)

• Sae Matsuno (King’s College London, Senior Library Assistant)

• Alice Corble (UCL, Lecturer in LIS and Leverhulme Early Career Fellow)

• Alison Hicks (UCL, Associate Professor: Library and Information Studies)

This 60 minute panel discussion brings together library and information scholars, educators, practitioners who are connected both by teaching, learning and research at UCL Department of Information Studies, as well as via autonomous anti-racist and anti-colonial commitments and collaborations beyond and across disciplinary, institutional and geographic borders. Together they will reflect on theoretical and practical considerations on what it can mean to engage in racial and social justice work in critical librarianship and information studies, from both within and against enduring structures and cultures of coloniality. 

Based on their reflexive positionalities and experiences, each speaker will respond in dialogue to a series of prompts drawn from Ndlovu-Gatsheni and Chambati's (2013) theorisation of how coloniality operates through three intersecting dimensions: power, being, and knowledge. Jimenez et al’s (2022) application of this holistic framework to the LIS field will further frame and inform their dialogue, which Alice Corble will introduce and briefly summarise as well as moderating the discussion on how this theory can be developed in practice, starting with examples and reflections drawn from Nenna Orie Chuku’s and Marilyn Clarke’s respective engagement with these themes in their work. 

This roundtable builds upon Sae Matsuno and Alison Hicks’s 2021 CALC workshop Open Aspirations: Enriching EDI learning at a library school through a student-led project and subsequent related research paper on this (Drewry et al., 2024). It also builds on previous collaborations between Orie Chuku and Corble (via co-teaching at UCL) and Matsuno, Hicks and Clarke via the 2022 critical LIS event Unlocking Narratives: The Roots of Decolonising Work in UK Libraries and Archives (UCL Information Studies, 2022). Reflecting on developments and experiences since these events, panellists will together consider future directions, aspirations and imperatives for anti-racist and anti-colonial praxis in LIS, before opening the floor to audience questions and reflections. 

References

Drewry, C. et al. (2024) ‘How could the Library and Information Studies curriculum better prepare graduates to address equity, diversity and inclusion issues in their workplace?’, Journal of Information Science, p. 01655515241245960. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/01655515241245960.

Jimenez, A., Vannini, S. and Cox, A. (2022) ‘A holistic decolonial lens for library and information studies’, Journal of Documentation, 79(1), pp. 224–244. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-10-2021-0205.

Ndlovu-Gatsheni, S.J. and Chambati, W. (2013) Coloniality of Power in Postcolonial Africa: Myths of Decolonization. CODESRIA. Available at: http://muse-jhu-edu/pub/359/monograph/book/25053 (Accessed: 27 November 2024).

UCL Information Studies (2022) Unlocking Narratives: The Roots of Decolonising Work in UK Libraries and Archives. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrvrinQ724s (Accessed: 27 November 2024).

In recent years, academic librarianship has seen increased interest in equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) initiatives. Interest in EDI surged in 2020 in response to increased media attention on the Black Lives Matter movement, the increase in anti-Asian hate crimes, and how COVID-19 highlighted inequities broadly across Canadian and American society. However, interest in EDI initiatives — such as diversifying the racial makeup of librarianship — goes back much further. Programs with the aim of supporting racialized individuals in librarianship have existed for decades, yet there has not been a significant change in the racial makeup of librarianship. This is, in part, a consequence of neoliberalism in academia, which we understand as the manipulation of individual and organizational behaviours to emphasize quantitative achievements as a measure of success and efficiency. One approach to addressing these ongoing issues is slow librarianship, defined by Meredith Farkas as an “antiracist, responsive, and values-driven practice.” 

Our presentation will discuss how neoliberalism shapes our conceptualization of a “successful” EDI initiative, explore the strengths and weaknesses of current approaches to diversifying the field, and provide approaches for how slow librarianship can be utilized to improve retention and encourage racialized library workers to remain in the field. To do this, we will first discuss how the racial “body count” emerged as a means of measuring the success of EDI initiatives due to neoliberal policies in academic libraries. We will then discuss the results of a discourse analysis conducted on the language used in institutional documents such as strategic plans and policies. Finally, we will explore how slow librarianship can better support the diversification of academic librarianship by shifting the focus of EDI. Beyond measuring the number of racialized workers in a library, slow librarianship encourages us to value and critically reflect on the experiences of racialized library workers.

This session will explore the ways in which fatness informs the professional identities of librarians who do public-facing work based on interviews with an intentionally diverse sample of thirty-one fat librarians from a range of institution types in the United States. While some findings from this study have been reported in other venues, this will be the first in-depth exploration of the extent to which fatness affects how these interviewees think about and perform their professional identities. We will discuss how fatness influences librarians’ entry to and promotion within the field, as well as how our bodies may complicate or enhance relationships with library users and communities. A particular focus of this discussion will be the intersectional complexities of identity formation and performance for fat librarians who embody multiple marginalized identities.

Beyond sharing study results, this session aims to center the voices and experiences of fat people working in libraries so that we may see ourselves represented in library scholarship, examine the extent to which the profession engages in hegemonic anti-fatness, and advocate for more inclusive libraries.

The voices of scholars from the Global South (and poorly resourced institutions in the North) are marginalized. Their peripheral position is the outcome of business-as-usual: a neoliberal scholarly communications system that enriches traditional, mainstream Global North corporate publishers who capture and monetize the scholarly lifecycle. Bibliometric scores from these companies create prestige for journals and universities who compete for international rankings. Open access has been co-opted by these same publishers who charge exorbitant article processing charges to authors. This system perpetuates epistemic injustice, a silencing of scholars who are less privileged. Many scholars from the Global South have great difficulty publishing in well-known journals. Their work may languish in obscurity in predatory journals or small, local journals.

How can we as librarians address epistemic injustice through the lens of critical librarianship? Library and scholar-led publishing provide solutions. Before we move to praxis, the inspiring ethos of bibliodiversity helps us understand that we, authors, librarians, and other stakeholders, are free agents and not passive victims of neoliberalism. Bibliodiversity, the Latin American anti-colonial ethos, rejects Northern commercial publishing, arguing for resistance via self-determination. One size does not fit all regarding choice of language and subject matter. Latin American diamond open access (free to author), large scale non-profit publishing collectives were created by stakeholders as cooperatives. Diamond open access has gained considerable traction in Europe and internationally and leaders of key initiatives are librarians. Whether through library publishing or by supporting scholar-led publishing, we can play a critical role in promoting publishing best practices. All librarians also have a role in educating our users about the politics of knowledge production as we seek a more humane and just scholarly ecosystem.

This paper examines how library workers develop a critical mindset, engage in critical reflection, and center critical practice in their field. To bring about such change, there is an irrefutable need to intentionally move from awareness to critique of how library workers’ identities, power, and privileges affect practice, research, and service.

The questions are the framework for this paper. 

How does one develop and maintain a critical mindset?

How does a person's identities (self-ascribed or ascribed to them) impact their librarianship practice and service?

Who gets to belong in libraries (patrons and library workers)? 

How has the profession othered library workers? 

What does critical reflection entail, and how does one engage in critical reflection?

What characteristics of white supremacy culture does librarianship uphold? 

How do we re-distribute spaces and resources equitably?  

How does one develop and maintain a critical practice in the field? 

How do the systemic oppressions below affect librarianship and library workers?

Librarianship in the US is rooted in and unintentionally (or intentionally) upholds many of these through systems, structures, and institutions, such as racism, sexism, classism, sizeism, ableism, ethnocentrism, anti-Semitism, ageism, colorism, homophobia, islamophobia, xenophobia, transphobia, queerphobia, anti-Indigeneity, misogyny, anti-Blackness, anti-Asian, anti-Immigration, (settler) colonialism, anti-Intellectualism, eurocentrism, and imperialism.  The trauma-informed approach and critical race theory are the frameworks used in this paper. 

In the last 20 years, Human Library events have become a common element of programming in first public then academic libraries. At Human Library events, people from marginalised and/or underrepresented communities are made available to ‘lend’ to discuss their lived experiences in an attempt to address societal prejudice, exclusion or stigmatisation.

The inherent power dynamics at play in Human Library have received little critical evaluation, reflection or debate. This session will aim to address this absence, arguing that Human Library events in higher education:

1. Place the burden of labour and vulnerability on marginalised people, often without compensation.

2. Predominantly benefit those who are not marginalised.

3. Lack programming *for* those from marginalised backgrounds that benefit them without centring cishet, middle class and white experiences.

4. Can represent ‘edutainment’ without the responsibility or requirement to engage meaningfully, reflect or learn. This protects the ‘learner’ from discomfort whilst placing the ‘book’ in a vulnerable position.

More widely, this session will critically explore identity, power and the objectification of marginalised people in libraries. 

While libraries are increasingly implementing practices and services designed to serve neurodivergent patrons, such efforts have not yet extended to neurodivergent librarians. Did you know that at least 20% of library workers are neurodivergent? Did you know that most library workplaces are not yet neuroinclusive, even though librarianship is a field that appeals to neurodivergent people? Come learn more about neurodiversity employment in libraries, informed by findings from an IMLS-funded research project that aims to improve the capacity of U.S. libraries to recruit, onboard, retain, and advance neurodivergent librarians.

Historically, neurodiversity research has been conducted on neurodivergent people from a medicalized perspective, focusing on diagnosis and characteristics of individuals and proposing some form of intervention or change to the individual person or their behavior. This study instead centers neurodivergence by adopting a neurodiversity paradigm and critical disability theory approach to conducting research with and by neurodivergent people themselves, and in accordance with their priorities and values. Thus, this session will highlight the voices of neurodivergent librarians and their journey of negotiating identity and deploying embodied knowledge to navigate the barriers and opportunities they encounter in their workplace and profession.

Session participants will learn how libraries can alter their workplace environment, practices, and professional norms to respond to the marginalization of neurodivergent librarians.

Countless articles, essays, studies, and conference presentations have been devoted to library anxiety and defining, analyzing, and reviewing behaviors of our users that are seen as “abnormal” or “counterintuitive” to using our services. However, in a profession founded on concepts of gatekeeping and white niceness, how much of the discussion around library anxiety is actually an attempt to prioritize the comfort of librarians instead of acknowledging the uncomfortable work of overhauling entire systems of pedagogy and service? 

The presenters will problematize the concept of library anxiety by dispelling how library anxiety looks at the symptoms, rather than the causes and systems that perpetuate a lack of confidence for users within library spaces. The presenters will suggest that the way library anxiety is generally framed by the profession is faulty, as it often assumes that libraries are separate from the rest of the academic experience, neutral, and welcoming instead of regular sites of discrimination and stress. Concepts like anti-deficit thinking, vocational awe, and the recognition that libraries are not neutral will be explored, while highlighting their connections to white niceness/politeness and systems of white supremacy within and throughout our profession. The presenters will show why we as a profession need to reconsider our use of this term and instead think holistically when finding solutions to assist our users and take care of ourselves within this service work.

Starting with trying to understand how a formative piece of culture and information would be categorized in the US Library of Congress sent Teresa Helena Moreno as a Chicana librarian and information worker on a journey to understand better the role of our classification systems such as subject headings, which led her to understanding much more about the formation of information, information imperialism, and attempts at epistemicide/knowledge murder. This keynote will begin to uncover the many layers and interconnected workings of how each it is or is not to find your people in the library. 

Biography: Teresa Helena Morero (she/her/ella) is an assistant professor and librarian for Black studies and the College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). Her scholarship critically interrogates library practices and the role of libraries as cultural institutions. Through applying methodologies and theories found in feminist studies and ethnic studies, her interdisciplinary research critically examines the impact of libraries and information on the knowledge and intellectual traditions of the global majority. Her recent publications connect abolitionist praxis to librarianship by evaluating the criminalization of information through critical information literacy as well as how libraries can enact carceral care. Currently she is writing a monograph that seeks to understand how Library of Congress subject headings impact information about diasporic and minoritized communities. Prior to her mid-career shift to librarianship, she co-ran the administration of the Black studies department and taught in the gender studies program at UIC. While not researching libraries and information, you can catch her around Chicago enjoying musical theater and opera. 

This long paper discusses the historical research methodology used in a recently submitted MA Library and Information Studies dissertation – Aspirations and Resistance: Community Librarians of Colour Contributing to the First Five Years of Anti-Racist Magazine Dragons Teeth (1979-1984). By examining Dragons Teeth – a British magazine that advocated for anti-racism and multiculturalism in children’s books, this study has excavated the history of anti-racist activism within British librarianship, highlighting the work of public librarians of colour who contributed to the magazine: Ann Thompson, Jaswinder Gundara and Ziggi Alexander.

Originally, my dissertation project started to take shape in 2020 through reading US critical librarianship publications, where authors seemed to share a broad historical understanding, in which the roots and development of library anti-racist activism is traced back to key events of the 20th century within both libraries and wider society. This was particularly intriguing in contrast with situations in the UK, where no such collective narrative appeared to exist across different types of libraries. The primary sources found in my research have provided rich materials to foreground eloquent voices of marginalized librarians, as well as evidence of intersectional racism within the library sector during the 1970s and 1980s.

There will be two parts to this session. Firstly, I will deliver a presentation summarizing the dissertation, as well as explaining the key methodological steps taken during the research process, including my archival research at Institute of Education, University College London and George Padmore Institute. The presentation will be followed by Q&A guided by Alice Corble (Lecturer, UCL).

Libraries frequently serve as anchor sites for programmes aimed at reducing injustice, particularly in terms of access to knowledge. For instance, Open Educational Resources and Practices gain traction through calls for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility. As librarians emerge as heroines and heroes of the Information Age, library-based initiatives receive well-deserved praise, even in critical perspectives.

However, there can be a mismatch between different incentives. What may seem like a worthwhile endeavour to institutional leaders might contradict the very justice-oriented work being done externally. Conversely, personal goals can sometimes hinder collective objectives. What should practitioners, scholars, administrators, and stakeholders do when their best-laid schemes go awry?

This interactive workshop aims to encourage participants to work through the underlying values that drive our involvement in library-led initiatives. What roles do we play in such projects? How might we ensure that our efforts contribute to meaningful change in the most appropriate direction?

Through diverse modes of engagement, workshop facilitation will focus on participants’ contributions to shared understandings. Silent or not, varied voices will be heard.

This session will also draw from experiences set in diverse contexts, from postsecondary education to nonprofits and from the public service to freelancing.

The academic library environment serves as a microcosm of the broader university community, offering spaces for learning, inclusion, and personal growth. As discussions around pronouns and gender identity in academic settings become increasingly divisive, libraries are uniquely positioned to considerately champion inclusive language practices through programs and outreach. At Georgia Southern University, the Libraries have taken significant steps to promote diversity and inclusivity through events such as International Pronouns Day pop-up libraries and the "Yours, Mine, and Ours: An Exploration of Personal Pronouns and Idioms" workshops. These initiatives offer opportunities not only for education but also for community engagement, making them ideal opportunities for evaluating the role of libraries in advancing inclusivity and cultivating diversity in their communities.

This presentation recaps the experiences of the presenters in delivering these programs, and explores attendee experiences and interactions. It also provides recommendations about how attendees can implement and assess similar programs that foster an inclusive campus environment while addressing the nuanced challenges of promoting gender-diverse language use in the academic environment. By exploring how outreach events and educational workshops influence perceptions and practices around gender-diverse language in potentially divisive academic environments, this presentation will offer valuable insights into the potential for academic libraries to lead cultural change on campus. 

Book Alchemy is an activity open to staff and students at King’s College London that aims to instill new life into old books through book art. It began as an initiative to support students with dyslexia or those who, for whatever reason, struggle with reading, by introducing the idea of text as image, using withdrawn books as raw material. As is commonly understood, dyslexia is a learning difficulty affecting reading and writing skills, which can detrimentally affect learning and literacy. What is less well-known is that people with dyslexia can also exhibit visual and creative strengths (The British Dyslexia Association). Finding the imaginative potential in text rather than seeing it as a barrier to learning is a positive way to acknowledge the difficulties faced by these students while celebrating their creative capacities. Supplementing the critical approach to dyslexia, for some students the workshops also offer an opportunity to take a break from their studies and to engage in a creative activity that contributes to their sense of wellbeing, by providing a space for experimentation, imagination and self-expression. 

In a series of 2-3 hour workshops spread over the Autumn and Spring terms, students and staff come together to work creatively with withdrawn books, incorporating text and image in 2D works or turning books into objects, combined with painted or collaged images. Book Alchemy includes guided demonstrations of book art techniques and an introduction to the use of different media, in a shared creative environment. Finally, at the end of each season of workshops we hold an exhibition of works in the library. 

In this session you will learn about the thinking and process involved in setting up the workshops, see a selection of the works produced and gain an insight into the positive reception from participants. 

References:

The British Dyslexia Association: https://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/dyslexia/about-dyslexia/what-is-dyslexia [accessed 25 November 2024)

Maintaining an authentically critical perspective in library teaching is challenging. There are multiple, often competing calls on librarians’ time and energy; this content must be covered, this aspect of assessment is required, students will need this ‘takeaway’ from the session. ‘One-shot’ teaching models exacerbate this further by severely limiting the time and scope to explore complexity. Further, the alignment of library teaching to assessment criteria, so often the goal of information literacy strategy, can further limit the scope of critical content covered; how do discuss and disrupt the notion of scholarly sources and the hegemonic values they often represent, while also advocating for their use within academic work? How might we explore the exclusionary practices embedded within academic writing conventions, but also ensure that students can cite and reference within an accepted style?

This session will discuss this dichotomy through the concept of ‘lies to children’; the notion in education of teaching, unteaching and re-teaching models of expanded complexity. Attendees will be introduced to the concept of lies to children, be invited to discuss the “lies” present or observed in library teaching and discuss the means by which we might move beyond simplistic lies and re-introduce complexity into information literacy teaching.

An inclusive collections statement announces an intention to create diverse and inclusive library collections, and states how that will be achieved.  Those collections are needed to support the teaching and research of a diverse university community, and to support academic and research colleagues who are diversifying or decolonising their work.   The statement also acknowledges that existing library collections will contain material that contains offensive or harmful language or content, or views that we do not endorse.

This presentation is a case study of how we developed and implemented such a statement at the University of Leicester.   We will look at how the wording was developed, how the statement is displayed to users and how it is being publicised.  We will say something about the technical side of this, perhaps of more interest to metadata and systems colleagues.   We will discuss how the statement fits into wider institutional initiatives on inclusive education.  We are about to start collecting feedback about the statement from our volunteer Library Champions and will be able to report on that.

If you are also working on this, we hope knowing of our experiences will be helpful.  Equally, we are not saying we do not need to do any more work on this, so we are looking forward to learning from your experiences, and there will be the opportunity to ask questions and to share your experiences.

This paper aims to detail the ways in which a librarian was able to contribute to a campus learning community (LC) centered on “Decolonizing the University.” Over three years of involvement, the librarian was able to forge relationships across campus, create a library guide to house LC resources, present at a teaching & learning conference, add indigenous materials to collections, create lobby displays, and act as a conduit of information between the library and LC. Of particular note is that the campus is a “land-grab” university and tensions are high between the indigenous student, staff and faculty population and the administration.

This paper aims to encourage librarians to consider activism on their own campuses even when conditions such as administration push-back, job precarity and imposter syndrome exist.

In libraries, we work with care-experienced people all the time … except we may never know unless they tell us. How can we make sure that the provision we are making and the support we are offering are appropriate? 

This paper will take the form of a short presentation (based on the research carried out for my latest book, Libraries and care-experienced children and young people, to be published by Facet Publishing in Spring 2025) followed by Q&A and discussion.

I intend to look at what we know (or think we know) about these young people; the impact of being in care, both whilst they are in care and in later life; how we can develop a better understanding of what they may have experienced; some of the barriers that may get in the way of their using libraries; types of partnerships we may be able to build locally to help develop this provision – and draw on some examples of good practice to highlight where libraries have been successful. 

I would also like to touch on the language and terms we may use to describe them. As NSPCC Learning say:

‘There are many consequences to using the LAC label, but one of the most concerning aspects is by reducing children to a mere abbreviation, we risk devaluing their lived experiences, emotions, and needs. When professionals refer to children in care as “LAC,” it might create an impression that they are a homogeneous group with uniform experiences. In reality, each child's story is unique, and they deserve to be treated as such.’

“When an elder dies, a library burns.” This African proverb emphasizes the irreplaceable role of elders as guardians and transmitters of knowledge, culture, and wisdom. Black grandmothers, as living "libraries," carry and preserve vital stories and cultural inheritances—such as material possessions, traditions, rituals, and language—that have shaped the matriarchal legacies and cultural identity of African-descended peoples.

The Black Grandmother Worldmaking Library intervenes in the fields of archiving and preservation by offering publicly accessible, digitally preserved websites for user-generated narratives. It also reshapes the discourse around Black culture and history by centering Black grandmothers as knowledge producers. Their stories set the historical record straight, providing invaluable insight into Black experiences and cultural traditions. Our project digitizes the stories and cultural inheritances of Black grandmothers, counteracting the limitations of privatized search engines that often obscure or overlook our histories.

The Black Grandmother Worldmaking Library also enhances knowledge production by empowering African Americans to preserve, share, and control the narratives about their lives. Black grandmothers, who endure intersecting forms of oppression, rarely have the opportunity for self-representation. Despite living in the information age, marginalized communities continue to have little control over the creation and dissemination of data about their own experiences. Our project offers a platform for Black grandmothers to shape and contribute to the preservation of their stories.

In this session, we will discuss: 1) our journey in creating The Black Grandmother Worldmaking Library, 2) our decision to focus on two communities experiencing mass displacement—Seattle, WA, and the Gullah Geechee Corridor; 3) the frameworks and methodologies (e.g., oral history) guiding our work; and 4) the impact of this project on the broader field of digital archiving, cultural preservation, and community-driven knowledge production.