Emily Drabinski

Emily Drabinski, Associate Professor

Rosenthal Library, Room 261

Graduate School of Library and Information Studies

Queens College, City University of New York

E-mail: Emily.drabinski@qc.cuny.edu


 Education


Work Experience

Academic Positions

Key accomplishments: Developed course-embedded information literacy instruction program for students in labor and urban studies. Managed print collection development for related programs. Participated in library-wide outreach efforts. Co-led state-funded Open Educational Resources efforts focused on training graduate students to embed open principles in teaching methods

Key accomplishments: Managed Covid-related shifts in services including closing and reopening library space in alignment with public health directives. Lead a reorganization process that distributed power and opportunity across the library with a focus on improving status for library workers of color. Mentored tenure- stream faculty through sabbatical and tenure processes and the application and submission of multiple federal and state grants. Developed collaborative approach to budgeting that led to an increase in OTPS monies for digital collections.

Key accomplishments: Developed and implemented course-embedded instruction programs in first year and sophomore seminar programs. Conducted syllabus review in the School of Education that facilitated collaborations across departments. Served as outcomes assessment faculty fellow in the School of Health Professions, designing evidence-based tools that documented student learning outcomes and led to data-driven curricular change. Served on faculty committees including Senate and Middle States accreditation team.


Teaching Positions

Designed and taught asynchronous online three-credit course titled Information Literacy elective for Master of Information program. Worked with digital course support colleagues to develop interactive, animated modules. Supplemented course with popular synchronous office hour. Consistently rated 4.8-5.0 on student evaluations.

Research & Professional Interests

My research is embedded in critical librarianship, an area of research and practice that engages questions of power and the history, present, and future of libraries. I have long been interested in the intersections of critical theory and knowledge organization, particularly in the classification and description from a queer theoretical perspective. How can we fix in classificatory space concepts that, by their nature, are shifting and contingent? In 2013, I published “Queering the Catalog: Queer Theory and the Politics of Correction” in Library Quarterly and have continued exploring these questions into the present. My current research project, Ways of Knowing, is a partnership with librarian and sound artist Amanda Belantara. We are collecting oral histories of alternative knowledge organization systems, with an initial set of transcripts forthcoming as a primary source collection from Library Juice Press/Litwin Books. 

I am also interested in the ways that collective power can be built and wielded on behalf of libraries and the communities we serve. In addition to my work as a librarian, I have experience in the organized labor movement, including serving as Secretary of the Long Island University Faculty Federation in 2016 during the first lockout of higher education faculty in the history of the United States. I have written and presented widely on that experience, which then informed my decision to run for 2023-24 President of the American Library Association. In this role, I write and speak widely on the particular issues facing American libraries in the context of anti-democratic legislation that seeks to limit access to information by, about, and intended for Black, Indigenous, and people of color as well as the LGBTQIA+ community.

AWARDS

Professional Services

Selected Publications

Editorial Work

2020-23 Book reviews editor, College & Research Libraries

2020- Editorial board, Philippine Journal of Librarianship and Information Studies

2017- Editorial board, College & Research Libraries

2016- Editorial board, Journal of Critical Library & Information Studies

2007- Editorial board, Radical Teacher

2011- Series editor, Gender & Sexuality in Information Studies (Litwin Books)

2010 Co-editor, Critical Library Instruction: Theories and Methods (Library Juice Press)


Peer Reviewed Publications

2022 “Pleasure and the practice of classification.” With Amanda Belantara. Library Trends. Forthcoming Spring 2023.

2022 “Working knowledge: catalogers and the stories they tell.” With Amanda Belantara. KULA. Vol. 6, No. 3.

2020 “Professionalism reconsidered.” Evidence-Based Library and Information Practice. Vol. 15, No. 20, 191-195.

2017 “Locating Wojnarowicz: Moving Through Library Systems, Structures and Technologies.” With Alana Kumbier. Library Philosophy and Practice. 2017.

2017 “A Kairos of the Critical: Teaching Critically in a Time of Compliance.” Communications in Information Literacy. Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 76-94.

2016 “Information Needs in Prisons and Jails: A Discourse Analytic Approach.” With Debbie Rabina and Laurin Paradise. Libri, Vol. 66, No. 4, pp. 291-302.

2016 “Becoming Librarians, Becoming Teachers: The Kairos of Professional Practice.“ Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science, Vol. 40, No. 1, pp. 27-36.

2016 “Valuing Professionalism: Discourse as Professional Practice.” Library Trends, Vol. 64, No. 3, pp. 604-614.

2016 "Reference Services to Incarcerated People, Part II: Sources and Learning Outcomes."With Debbie Rabina. Reference & User Services Quarterly, Vol. 55, No. (3), pp. 123-131.

2016 "Reference Services to Incarcerated People, Part I: Themes Emerging from Answering Reference Questions from Prisons and Jails." With Debbie Rabina. Reference & User Services Quarterly, Vol. 55, No. 1, pp. 42-48.

2014 “Toward a Kairos of Library Instruction.” Journal of Academic Librarianship, Vol. 40, no. 5, pp. 480-485.

2014 “What’s Gender Got to Do with It? A Critique of RDA 9.7.” With Amber Billey and K.R. Roberto. Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, Vol. 52, no. 4, pp. 412-42

2014 “Evidence-Based Instruction Integration: A Syllabus Analysis Project.” With Katherine Boss. Reference Services Review, Vol. 42, No. 2, pp. 263-276.

2013 “Queering the Catalog: Queer Theory and the Politics of Correction.” Library Quarterly, Vol. 83, No. 2, pp. 94-111.

2011 “Teaching Other Tongues: Addressing the Problem of Other Languages in the Library.” Journal of Information Ethics, Vol. 20, No. 2 , pp. 42-55.

2009 “Teaching About Class in the Library.” Radical Teacher, Vol. 85, pp. 5-16.

2008 “Gendered S(h)elves: Body and Identity in the Library.” Women and Environments International, Vol. 78/79, pp. 16-18.

2006 “Librarians and the PATRIOT Act.” Radical Teacher, Vol. 77, pp. 12-14.


Selected Publications

2022 “Disinvestment poses as great a threat to libraries as book bans.” Truthout. September 26. Editorial.

2021 “Public knowledge.” College & Research Libraries. July. Editorial

2019 “The internet’s invisible cleanup crew.” Jacobin. August 20, 2019. Review.

2019 “What is critical about critical librarianship?” Art Libraries Journal. Vol. 44, No. 2, pp. 49-57.

2018 “Questioning Authority.” With Amber Billey. Transgender Studies Quarterly. Spring 2019.

2018 “Critical Information Literacy.” With Eamon Tewell. International Encyclopedia of Media Studies. Forthcoming.

2018 “Ideologies of Boring Things: The Internet and Infrastructures of Race.” Los Angeles Review of Books, February 13, 2018. Review.

2017 “An Organizer’s Tale: LIU Brooklyn’s Lockout and Union Contract Negotiation.” The Political Librarian. Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 9-11.

2017 “Standard Practice: Libraries as Structuring Machines.” Parameters: Knowledge Under Digital Conditions. Social Science Research Council. July 5, 2017.

2017 “A Space for Pleasures of All Kinds: On ‘Cruising the Library.’” Los Angeles Review of Books, May 17, 2017. Review.

2017 “Our Futures in a Time of Change.” With Miguel Figueroa, Sarah Houghton, and Charlotte Roh. American Libraries, March 2017. Interview

2016 “Flipping to Open Access for Survival: A Librarian’s Critical Role in Transforming a Journal.” College & Research Libraries News, Vol. 77, No. 10, pp. 488-491.

2016 “Turning Inward: Reading the Framework Through the Six Frames.” College & Research Libraries News, Vol. 77, No. 8, pp. 382-384.

2016 “Asking Questions That Matter.” With Scott Walter. College & Research Libraries, Vol. 77, No. 3, pp. 264-268.

2016 “What Collaboration Means to Me: The Infrastructure of Welcome.” Collaborative Librarianship, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 5-6.

2016 “What Standards Do and What They Don’t.” with Meghan Sitar. In K. McElroy and N. Pagowsky (Eds.), Critical Pedagogy Handbook. Chicago: ACRL Press.

2012 “Forum: Radical Teacher as an Online and Open Access Journal.” Radical Teacher, Vol. 94, pp. 3-13.

2008 “Teaching the Radical Catalog.” In K.R. Roberto (Ed.), Radical Cataloging: Essays at the Front. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland.


Selected Presentations

2022 “Out of crisis, change.” South Carolina Library Association. Columbia, South Carolina. October 6. Keynote speaker.

2022 “Organizing for change.” IDS Project Conference. Online. July 25. Keynote speaker

2022 “Out of crisis, change.” METRO Annual Meeting. New York, NY. May 19. Keynote speaker.

2022 “Structure and power: information literacy for liberation.” LILAC Conference. Manchester, U.K. April 13. Keynote speaker.

2021 “Collective power for collective good.” New York Library Association Conference & Trade Show. Syracuse, NY. November 4. Invited speaker.

2021 “Hegemonic knowledge structures in MeSH: implications for medical librarianship”. Mid Atlantic Chapter of the Medical Library Association. October 26. Lightning speaker.

2021 “Playing with Power: Administration at the End of the World.” Access Conference. October 21. Invited panelist.

2021 “Teaching the Radical Catalog.” LILAC FestivIL. Online. July 6. Invited speaker

2021 “What’s in A Name? LGBTQ+ and Latinx Perspectives on Access Terminology.” ALA Annual Conference. Online. June 26. Invited speaker.

2021 “Making Change: Organizing for Action While Caring for Each Other.” ALA Annual Conference. ACRL President’s Program. Online. June 24. Moderator.

2021 “Decolonizing the Library Catalogue.” CILIP Festival of Pride and Knowledge. Online. June 21. Invited panelist.

2021 “What’s Gender Got to Do With It?” Connect NY Day of Discovery. Online. June 17. Invited panelist.

2021 “Critical Librarianship and the Problem of Empire. University of Buffalo Bobinski Lecture. Online. April 5. Invited speaker.

2021 “What’s So Critical About Critical Librarianship?” OrbisCascade Alliance DEI Speakers Series. Online. March 30. Invited speaker.

2021 “Catalogers at Work.” With Amanda Belantara. Royal Anthropological Institute Film Festival. Online. March 25.

2021 “Building Our Power: Management and Labor in Libraries.” With Kelly McElroy. Conference on Library Management. Online. March 19. Keynote speaker.

2020 “Classifying Difference: Critical Librarianship in a Global Context.” University of the Philippines-Diliman School of Library and Information Studies Speaker Series. Online. November 17. Invited speaker.

2020 “Herstory Through Activism.” ALA Annual Conference. Online. June 25, 2020. Invited panelist.

2020  “Making Power, Making Change.” ALCTS/LITA Exchange. Online. May 4, 2020. Keynote speaker.

2019 “Power: What it Is and How to Build It.” Be the Change Symposium. St. Louis, MO. December 5, 2020. Keynote speaker.

2019 “The Library as Connection Machine.” Philippine Library Association, Inc. Annual Conference. Tagaytay City, Cavite, Philippines. November 19, 2019. Keynote speaker.

2019 “Designing Inclusive Information Systems: From Theory to Change.” Association for Computing in the Humanities Conference. Pittsburgh, PA, July 24, 2019. Panelist.

2019 “Teaching the Radical Catalog.” Big XII Teaching and Learning Conference. Austin, TX, June 14, 2019. Keynote speaker.

2019 “Classification and Power: Filipiniana and the Shape of Library Space.” HASTAC 2019, Vancouver, Canada, June 3, 2019. Individual paper.

2019 “Organizing Difference.” Iowa Library Association/ACRL Iowa Annual Conference. Cedar Rapids, IA, May 23, 2019. Keynote speaker.

2019 “Librarians and the Labor of the Everyday.” Eastern New York/ACRL Annual Conference. Newburgh, NY, May 22, 2019. Keynote speaker.

2019 “I Appreciate Your No-Nonsense Takes: Adjunct Instructors and the Future of the MLS.” ACRL 2019. Cleveland, OH, April 12, 2019. Panelist.

2019 “The Material Conditions of the Historical Surprise.” Organization of American Historians Conference. Philadelphia, PA, April 6, 2019. Chair.

2018 DLF Forum Closing Plenary: Enacting the Mission. Digital Library Federation Forum. Las Vegas, NV, October 17, 2018. Invited speaker.

2018 “Organizing for Change, Organizing for Power.” Digital Library Federation Forum. Las Vegas, NV, October 16, 2018. Panelist.

2018 “Organizing for Change: Building Power for the Libraries We Need.” Nebraska Library Association. Lincoln, NE, October 5, 2018. Invited speaker.

2018 “Toward a Critical Optimism: Enacting Access, Diversity, Inclusion and Democracy in Difficult Times.” Libraries in the Digital Age. Zadar, Croatia, June 13, 2018. Panelist.

2018 “What do We Mean by Critical Librarianship.” Toward a Critical (Art) Librarianship. Chelsea College of the Arts, London, NY, May 25, 2018. Keynote speaker.

2018 “Librarianship in Challenging Times: Advocating for Intellectual Freedom, Democracy, and Equity.” LACUNY Institute. New York, NY, May 11, 2018. Keynote panelist.

2018 “The Power of Words: Library Knowledge Systems and their Impact on Access.” Beinecke Speaker Series. New Haven, CT, April 18, 2018. Invited panelist.

2018 “Organizing for Power.” New England Archivists/Archivists Round Table Spring Meeting. New Haven, CT, March 24, 2018. Plenary speaker.

2018 “Instant Organizing: Lessons from a Faculty in Crisis.” University of West Georgia AAUP Spring Program. Carrollton, GA, March 7, 2018. Invited speaker.

2018 “Teaching Straight/Teaching Queer: Mobilizing Controlled Vocabularies to Queer Pedagogy.” ARLIS/NA Annual Conference. New York, NY, February 28, 2018. Invited panelist.

2018 “Are Libraries Neutral?” ALA Midwinter Meeting President’s Program. Denver, CO, February 11, 2018. Invited speaker.

2018 “Organizing for Opposition: How to Build Power to Contest Power.” METRO: Libraries in the Context of Capitalism. New York, NY, February 2, 2018. Individual paper.

2017 “Fighting for Libraries, Fighting for Librarians.” New York Library Association Annual Conference. Saratoga Springs, NY, November 9, 2017. Invited speaker.

2017 “Shifting Shelves: Time, Place, and the Politics of Space.” Long Island Libraries Resources Council Symposium on the Future of Libraries. Bethpage, NY, October 27, 2017. Invited speaker.

2017 “Critical Librarianship in Challenging Times.” Wisconsin Library Association Annual Conference. Wisconsin Dells, WI, October 20, 2017. Invited speaker.

2017 “Teaching in Time: Connecting to Collections Past and Present.” University of the Philippines, Diliman. Quezon City, Manila, Philippines, July 19, 2017. Invited speaker.

2017 “Putting Critical Theory to Work: Pedagogy and Praxis for Librarians.” With James Elmborg and Heidi LM Jacobs. WILU 2017. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, May 24, 2017. Panelist.

2017 “Engaging, Expanding, Exploring Information Literacy Through Critical Theory and Writing.” With James Elmborg and Heidi LM Jacobs. WILU 2017. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, May 23, 2017. Workshop organizer.

2017 “What’s so Critical About CritLib?” Michigan Academic Library Association Annual Conference. Grand Rapids, MI, May 18, 2017. Keynote speaker.

2017 “Local Contexts, National Demands: Navigating Standards in Academic Libraries.” New Jersey Library Association Annual Conference. Atlantic City, NJ, April 26, 2017. Invited speaker.

2017 “Narratives of Library Power: The Stories Library Shelves Tell.” New Jersey Library Association Annual Conference. Atlantic City, NJ, April 26, 2017. Invited speaker.

2017 “Making it Work: Ideology and the Infrastructure of the Library.” British Columbia Library Conference. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, April 21, 2017. Invited speaker.

2017 “Selling Information Literacy: Critical Approaches to the Classroom. University of Victoria. Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, April 19, 2017. Invited speaker.

2017 “Instant Organizing: Union Power in the Wake of Crisis.” Pennsylvania AAUP Northeast Alliance Conference. Scranton, PA, April 8, 2017. Invited speaker.

2017 “Who Steers the Boat? On Women in a Feminized Profession.” With Roxanne Shirazi. ACRL 2017. Baltimore, MD, March 24, 2017. Panelist.

2017 “Cataloging, Gender, and RDA Rule 9.7.” With Amber Billey. ALCTS. March 15, 2017. Webinar.

2017 “What’s Critical About Critical Librarianship?” Hawaii Library Association. Honolulu, HI, February 23, 2017. Invited speaker.

2017 “The Future of Librarian Labor.” With Eamon Tewell. Future of Libraries Symposium, ALA Midwinter. Atlanta, GA, January 21, 2017. Panelist.

2017 “The Power of the Catalog: Inclusion and Advocacy in Cataloging and Description/Knowledge Organization.” ALCTS 2017 Midwinter Symposium. Atlanta, GA, January 20, 2017. Invited speaker.

2017 “Librarians as Labor: Lessons from Past and Present.” With Aliqae Geraci. METRO Annual Conference. New York, NY. January 11, 2017. Panelist.

2017 “Librarians & Labour: Making Information Work Visible.” University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, Canada. December 6, 2016. Invited speaker.

2016 “Instruction Standards and Professional Power.” ACRL/NY Symposium. Baruch College, New York, NY. December 2, 2016. Panelist.

2016 “Considering CritLib: Inclusion and Diversity in Libraries.” ACRL Maryland/MILEX Fall Workshop. November 11, 2016. Keynote address.

2016 “Librarians As Labor: Lessons from the LIU Lockout.” Rutgers University, Beta Phi Mu Fall Lecture. October 19, 2016. Invited speaker.

2016 “The Politics of Classification.” Amherst College Library. October 6, 2016. Invited speaker.

2016 “We Are What We Do: Labor and Knowledge in Open Access.” Syracuse University. September 29, 2016. Invited speaker.

2016 “Flipping to Open: The Implications and Opportunities for Libraries as Journals Transition to Open Access.” ALA Annual Conference. June 25, 2016. Invited speaker.

2016 "Intersections with Power: Critical Teaching and the Library Catalogue." WILU Annual Conference. Vancouver, British Columbia. May 30, 2016. Keynote address.

2016 "What Standards Do, and What They Don't." Pennsylvania Association College and Research Division Spring Workshop. Scranton, Pennsylvania. May 20, 2016. Keynote address.

2016 "Librarian Engagement and Social Justice in Publishing." Panelist. Library Publishing Forum. Denton, Texas. May 18, 2016. Plenary session.

2016 “Pedagogy in a Time of Compliance.” Information Literacy Summit. Chicago, Illinois. April 29, 2016. Keynote address

2016 "Queering the Catalog, Queering the Classroom." Associated College Libraries of Central Pennsylvania Spring Conference. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. April 15, 2016. Keynote address.

2016 "Leading Together: Archivists and Historians Shaping the Digital Archive." Organization of American Historians Annual Conference. Providence, Rhode Island. April 8, 2016. Panelist.

2016 "Infrastructures of Practice: Standards & Everyday Librarian Life." UCLA Information Studies Colloquium. Los Angeles, California. March 10, 2016. Invited speaker.

2016 "What Standards Do, and What They Don't." Purdue University Libraries Spring Workshop. West Lafayette, Indiana. March 3, 2016. Invited speaker.

2016 "Instruction for Inclusion: Addressing Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the LIS Curriculum." Association of Library and Information Science Educators Annual Conference. Boston, Massachusetts. January 6, 2016. Panelist.

2015 “The Kairos of Information Literacy as Professional Practice.” Canadian Association for Information Science Conference. Ottawa, Ontario. June 3, 2015. Individual paper.  

2015 “On Critical Practice: Opening Reflections.” Canadian Association of Professional Academic Librarians Conference. Ottawa, Ontario. May 31, 2015. Invited speaker. Plenary session.

2015 “Scholarly Communication as a Tool for Social Justice.” ACRL 2015. Portland, OR. March 27, 2015. Panelist.

2014 “Teaching in Time: Toward a Kairos of Library Instruction.” LACUNY Institute. New York, NY. April 6, 2014. Individual paper.

2014 “Fitting In: Queer Theory and the Politics of Knowledge Organization.” Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY. April 8, 2014. Invited speaker.

2013 “Imagining the Future of Library Instruction: How Feminist Pedagogy Can Transform the Way You Teach and How Students Learn.” ACRL 2013. Indianapolis, IN. April 30, 2013. Panelist.

2013 “Questioning Authority: Standard Three and the Critical Classroom.” ACRL 2013, Indianapolis, IN. April 29, 2013. Panelist.

2013 “Sustaining Scholarship: Librarians and the Political Economy of Print.” LACUNY Institute. April 5, 2013. Individual paper.

2012 “Shifting Conceptions of Literacy Terrains: Writing Center and Library Instruction in Third Spaces.” International Writing Center Association Annual Conference. October 26, 2012. Panelist.

2012 “Queering Library Classification.” Queer Places, Practices, and Lives. The Ohio State University. Queer Places, Practices, and Lives. May 18, 2012. Individual paper.

2011 “Reading Lesbians in the Library.” Reception Studies Society Annual Conference. Marysville, Missouri. September 9, 2011. Individual paper.

2011 “Sexing the Algorithm: Thinking Critically About Digital Information Organization.” LGBT Archives, Libraries, and Museums Conference. Los Angeles, CA. May 12, 2011. Individual paper.

2010 “Classification As Text: Legible Ideologies, Resistant Readings.” Libraries in the History of Print Culture Conference. Madison, Wisconsin. September 11, 2010. Individual paper.

2009 “Gendered S(h)elves: Gender and Sexuality in the Library.” National Popular Culture and American Culture Conference. New Orleans, LA. April 10, 2009. Individual paper.

2008 “Queering Library Space: Notes Toward a New Geography of the Library.” Thinking Critically: Alternative Methods and Perspectives in Information Studies Conference. Milwaukee, WI. May 16, 2008. Individual paper.

2008 “Pedagogical Implications of GLBT Cataloging Practice.” LGBTQ Museums and Special Collections Conference. New York, NY. May 9, 2008. Poster.