Keynote

Presenter: Fobazi Ettarh

Topic TBA

Canadian Prison Libraries and the Lies We Still Tell Ourselves

Presenter: Michelle De Agostini

Access to library services in prison is a minimum human rights requirement. These services impact people both while they are incarcerated and as they reintegrate into the community. Since the 1980s, there have been recommendations to improve library services to people in Canadian federal prisons. Although some advancements have been made, these recommendations have been largely ignored by prison administrators, policy makers, and the larger library community. Canadian prison libraries are still underfunded, understaffed, and sorely lacking in basic library materials, making it impossible for prison librarians to meet the minimum human rights requirements of the people they serve. Furthermore, the devaluation of library work combined with the notion of books as sacred objects has led to the pervasive view that the prison library is an unnecessary privilege received in exchange for good behaviour. Using a combination of the existing research on prison libraries and my own experiences as a former prison librarian, this presentation will discuss the Canadian prison system, the current state of prison librarianship in Canada, and how moralistic views of the library and literature inform how society decides who is worthy of library access. 

White spaces, Asian faces: Onboarding for racialized academic librarians

Presenters: Ashley Manhas, Sabrina Wong

Racialized librarians experience vocational awe and the consequences of how vocational awe plays out with their white colleagues. Namely, racialized librarians witness the inconsistencies between library values and library practices (Ettarh, 2018). Through a series of vignettes, two racialized academic librarians, one mid-career and one early-career, will share their experiences and reflections on the hiring and onboarding of a racialized librarian at a predominantly white institution. These vignettes illustrate the gaps in the existing recruitment and onboarding processes and how these institutional failures cause harm to both new and existing employees. While libraries and librarians have made commitments to diversifying the field and decolonizing their teaching and external-facing practices, this attention has not been extended to inward-facing library policies and practices, as evidenced by the recent research on bureaucracy in libraries (Nataraj, Hampton, Matlin & Meulemans, 2020). The presenters pose areas for further investigation into onboarding practices for racialized librarians and propose that libraries treat onboarding not as a checklist but as a practice to intentionally retain BIPOC librarians.

Exposing vocational awe by exploring the reality of white supremacy in libraries

Presenters: Kim Buschert & Sajni Lacey

The University of British Columbia Okanagan Library has been developing a robust Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee that encompasses representation from librarians, library staff, and student staff. The scope of this committee includes strategic and operational work and multiple smaller working groups who explore, assess, and integrate EDI work into Teaching, Learning, and Engagement, Indigenous Strategic Planning, and Recruitment and Retention. In addition, the work of this group has included developing anti-racism initiatives based on campus directives and strategic documents, and professional development opportunities and collaborations amongst different employee groups within the library and with other campus partners.

Through our work, questions have arisen such as, how do we improve access and services for students who may not feel welcomed in the library? How can we incorporate critical concepts into one-shot information literacy instruction? How might we explicitly confront and acknowledge the idea that libraries are inherently good and safe spaces, and the notion of librarians as infallible defenders of democracy as constructed narratives, so we can begin to counter the oppressive and white supremacist aspects of our work?

In considering our response to these questions, and in order to effectively and publicly communicate our committee’s purpose and goals, we decided to create a more intentional space to explore the theme of white supremacy in academic libraries, and the culture of whiteness, that consistently enable the structures of colonialism, imperialism, and oppression within the academic library and university context. Through this process we have worked to unpack the ideas around vocational awe, and the roles that we as library workers have in critiquing this system.

Recognizing that this exploration would necessarily be messy, and the complicity that a group of folks who are primarily white have in enabling and supporting the structures of white supremacy in the library and the academy, an exploratory working group was struck to start reading, listening, uncovering, recognizing, and moving to identify ways to dismantle white supremacy in our library.

Through intentional practice of slow looking and reflection without defined outcomes, we intend to connect the history of white supremacy in libraries, academia and Canada to our committee’s activities, grounding our efforts relating to changing library practices in recruitment, training and retention of staff, and teaching and learning in a deeper understanding of past and present oppression and exclusion.

This presentation will discuss our working group’s purpose and processes, our preliminary findings and next steps.

Vocational Awe and Library Management

Presenter: Danya Leebaw

In my talk, I will consider “vocational awe” as it manifests in academic library management. I will approach this topic with insights from my own research into both critical management studies and academic freedom for librarians. Academic libraries have long borrowed uncritically from mainstream management theories and practices. One of the characteristics of mainstream management studies is that the role, practice, and power of management itself is unquestioned. Workers are not considered stakeholders with valuable insights, but rather resources to be managed for productivity and a positive return on investment. Critical management studies questions this taken-for-granted conception of management in organizations. What if instead of valorizing and centering the concerns of management, we elevated the voices of workers, tolerated dissensus, and reconsidered our usual stakeholders? In my research on critical management studies as applied to libraries, I theorized that many of our most common management practices discourage open participation and disempower library workers, ultimately impeding our profession’s enactment of its stated commitments to diversity and equity. I have also conducted relevant research on academic freedom in libraries. In our survey data, librarians report pushback and punishment for speaking up about management and organizational practices. Management and organizational practices that are positioned as beyond reproach and insulated from feedback serve as a powerful example of Fobazi Ettarh’s theory of vocational awe. By opening our libraries up to critique, by decentering managers and elevating workers, and by doing better to ensure the academic freedom of our staff, we will find ourselves with messier but more authentic and liberated libraries, led by fulfilled staff who find meaning in their work rather than frustration.

Emotional Labor, Care Work and Mental Illness in the Neoliberal Library

Presenter: Siân Evans

In this talk, I will address how vocational awe intersects with neoliberalism in higher education and how this particularly impacts library workers who identify as mentally ill or neurodivergent. 

I will discuss the findings of an autoethnographic interview project I undertook in 2019, wherein I surveyed twenty-one and interviewed thirteen library workers at both public and academic libraries who agreed to talk about their experiences with mental illness in library service work. 

I went into this project with my own set of experiences around teaching burnout and came out of it with a greater understanding of the ways in which the neoliberal culture of libraries negatively impacts all of us, but especially those of us who experience challenges around our mental health. 

Fobazi Ettarh (she/her) 

Michelle De Agostini (she/her) is a librarian from Edmonton, Alberta. She earned a Master of Library and Information Studies degree in 2018 from the University of Alberta, and has since dedicated herself to supporting communities through library work with special interest in the areas of prison librarianship and social justice. 

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Ashley Manhas (she/her) is the Public Services Librarian and Fine & Applied Arts Liaison at Capilano University. She is a first-generation university graduate who is passionate about inclusion in academic spaces. She holds an MLIS from the University of Alberta and a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design.  

Sabrina Wong (she/her) is the Scholarly Communications and Copyright Librarian and Tourism & Outdoor Recreation Management Liaison at Capilano University. She is interested in how equity, diversity and inclusion practices can guide our work in libraries. She holds a MLIS and a BA from the University of British Columbia.  

Capilano University’s campuses are located on the territories of the LíỈwat, xʷməθkʷəỷəm (Musqueam), shíshálh (Sechelt), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and SəỈílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

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Sajni Lacey (she/her/hers) is the Learning and Curriculum Support Librarian at the UBC Okanagan campus library. Originally from the traditional territories of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, Lūnaapéewak and Chonnonton Nations, in what is now known as London Ontario Canada and now resides on the traditional territory of the Syilx Okanagan Peoples, in what is now known as Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada. Her work focuses on leading and coordinating the Library’s instructional program, as well as liaises with the History, Education, English, Cultural Studies, and World Languages and Literatures. Sajni completed her MLIS at the University of Western Ontario, and her BA in History and Psychology from Huron University College. She is currently working on an MA in Education.    

Kim Buschert (she/her/hers) is the Faculty of Management Librarian at the UBC Okanagan campus library and the liaison librarian for the Department of Psychology. She currently resides on the traditional territory of the Syilx Okanagan Peoples in Kelowna, BC. Kim has a BA in English literature from the University of Victoria, located on Lekwungen traditional territory, and completed her MLIS on Musqueam First Nation territory at the UBC iSchool.

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Siân Evans (she/her) is the Information Literacy & Instructional Design Librarian at Maryland Institute College of Art and the co-founder of Art+Feminism, a global campaign to create meaningful changes to the body of knowledge available about feminism and the arts on Wikipedia. Her writing can be found in edited volumes from MIT Press and Litwin Press, and journals such as Art Documentation and The Serials Librarian. Her work with Art+Feminism has been covered by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, ARTnews, and more. She was named a Leading Global Thinker by Foreign Policy magazine and a Badass Woman by Buzzfeed.

Politics of Libraries seeks to provide a welcoming, professionally engaging, fun, and safe conference experience and ongoing community for everyone. We do not tolerate harassment in any form. Discriminatory language and imagery (including sexual) is not appropriate.

Harassment is understood as any behavior that threatens or demeans another person or group, or produces an unsafe environment. It includes offensive verbal comments or non-verbal expressions related to gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age, religious or political beliefs; sexual or discriminatory images in public spaces (including online); deliberate intimidation, stalking, following, harassing photography or recording; sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact, and unwelcome sexual attention.

Conflict Resolution

1. Initial Incident

If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, and you feel comfortable speaking with the offender, please inform the offender that she/ze/he has affected you negatively. Oftentimes, the offending behavior is unintentional, and the accidental offender and offended will resolve the incident by having that initial discussion.

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2. Escalation

If the offender insists that she/ze/he did not offend, if offender is actively harassing you, or if direct engagement is not a good option for you at this time, then you will need a third party to step in. At the Politics of Libraries conference, if you need any assistance with respect to harassment, please contact Michael McNally. The full organizing committee will introduce themselves at the beginning of the conference so you know who we are. If you require any assistance with respect to harassment, please find Michael or any of the other organizers, and they will be able to help you.

Sanctions

Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately. If a participant engages in harassing behavior, organizers may take any action they deem appropriate, including warning the offender and expulsion from the event.

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(Adapted from the Code4Lib Code of Conduct)