Message from the Grassroots

Librarians have responded to the decades-long “serials crisis” with a common narrative and a range of responses that have failed to challenge the ideology and structures that caused it. Using Walter Rodney’s theory of a guerilla intellectual, we critically examine the dominant understanding of this so-called crisis and emphasize the role that capital plays within it. The imperial nature of scholarly journal publishing and some of its many contradictions are discussed. “Transformative” agreements receive special attention as a hyper-capitalist manifestation of these contradictions at the heart of commercial publishing.The politics of refusal are one response to the commercialism, prestige, and power imbalances that drive the academic publishing system. Highlighting the differences between refusal and reform, this paper explores the protagonistic role that librarians can play in a protracted struggle within and beyond the confines of our profession. Select open access efforts are identified at the end as examples of different forms of refusal. This paper is intended to move beyond the traditional discourse of laying blame solely at the feet of the academic publishing oligopoly and also expounds on the bourgeois academy’s use of knowledge production for capital accumulation.

Articulating Our Very Unfreedom: The Impossibility of Refusal in the Contemporary Academy

This paper begins and ends with a provocation: I argue that refusal in librarianship is both impossible and necessary. Reviewing examples of crisis narratives which permeate both American and Canadian universities, I take a materialist perspective on the idea of refusal within academic librarianship. To do so, I draw on the work of Audra Simpson, Kyle Whyte, Eve Tuck, Mario Tronti, and Rinaldo Walcott to examine the sites of impossibility of refusal in the practice of academic librarianship within contemporary neoliberal education institutions. Then, I analyze the totality of capitalism in setting the limit for the practice of refusal through case studies of direct action, including the Icelandic Women’s Strike of 1975 and the 2020 Scholar Strike Canada. Finally, I identify private property and history as key frames for understanding the contradiction at the heart of refusal of crisis. As such, any refusal that does not address the centrality of labour and private property relations can thus be understood as harm reduction rather than emancipation. Ultimately, I argue that for librarians to refuse would require an abandonment of liberalism as librarianship’s guiding philosophy, and a redefinition of librarianship as such.

Towards an Ethics of Unity: An Ecological Approach to Overcoming Dispossession in Academic Libraries

Crisis narratives are stories meant to persuade that one exists in a state of emergency. Under extractive capitalism, crisis narratives frame the scope of ethical behaviour in response to crisis. Once set, these crisis ethics promote conformity in labour practices to avoid catastrophe. Surrendering the means to self-define priorities, values, and identity of the academic library profession creates a more pliable work force. This essay uses critical and philosophical methods to apply lessons learned from landscapes ruined by extractive capitalism to professional library practice fractured by alienation, diremption, and dispossession. A critique of the exploitation of ethics of fear and hope is offered, along with a method for identifying these as they appear in crisis narratives. The essay concludes with a recommendation to pursue an ethics of unity, predicated on promoting flourishing through professional mutualism, dedication to direct action, and a focus on sustainability.

Resisting Crisis Surveillance Capitalism in Academic Libraries

In this paper, we consider what we identify as crisis surveillance capitalism in higher education, drawing on the work of Naomi Klein and Shoshana Zuboff. We define crisis surveillance capitalism as the intersection of unregulated and ubiquitous data collection with the continued marginalization of vulnerable racial and social groups. Through this lens, we examine the twinned crisis narratives of student success and academic integrity and consider how the COVID-19 pandemic further enabled so-called solutions that collect massive amounts of student data with impunity. We suggest a framework of refusal to crisis surveillance capitalism coming from the work of Keller Easterling and Baharak Yousefi, identifying ways to resist and build power in a context where the cause of harm is all around and intentionally hidden.

Genealogy of Refusal

Why can’t librarians “Just Say No”? To answer this question, we look at workplace refusal through the fine arts, literature, and popular culture to construct a genealogy of workplace refusal. In it, we also begin to trace a lineage of crisis narrative critique alongside the library profession’s inheritance of vocational awe. We explore the librarian’s role and voice through the lens of both popular culture and academic publications. In our companion multimedia, hypertextual Scalar project also titled A Genealogy of Refusal: Walking Away from Crisis and Scarcity Narratives, we contextualize strategies of refusal in libraries through critical response to and annotations of film clips and illustrations. We examine gender differences in portrayals of workplace refusal. We laugh when in Parks and Recreation a stereotypical librarian ignores a stripper but warns noisy patrons: “Shh—This is a library!” We are horrified when aspiring librarians in Morgenstern’s Starless Sea, hands tied behind their backs, have their tongues torn from their mouths. Elinguation as a job prerequisite? No, thanks. The implications of saying “No” are many. We explicate ways librarians are made vulnerable by crisis narratives and constructed scarcity. We advocate for asset framing and developing fluencies in hearing and saying “No.” Looking forward, how long will it take librarians to reclaim “Yes” in a way that works for us?

Retour sur le Référentiel de l’ACRL avec ceux qui l’ont créé

Cet entretien avec les deux bibliothécaires américains qui ont coprésidé le groupe de travail qui a mené à la création du Référentiel de littératie informationnelle en enseignement supérieur de l’Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL 2016) revient sur la démarche de création ainsi que la réception qu’a connu ce document depuis sa publication il y a cinq ans. Les auteurs rappelent les principaux débats conceptuels qui ont façonné le Référentiel et proposent une typologie des courants actuels de la littératie informationnelle, donnant ainsi à voir les enjeux qui informent l'évolution des différentes conceptions du rôle pédagogique des bibliothécaires dans le milieu de l’enseignement supérieur d’hier à aujourd’hui. Cet entretien a été traduit en français.

Retour sur le Référentiel de l’ACRL avec ceux qui l’ont créé

Cet entretien avec les deux bibliothécaires américains qui ont coprésidé le groupe de travail qui a mené à la création du Référentiel de littératie informationnelle en enseignement supérieurde l’Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL 2016) revient sur la démarche de création ainsi que la réception qu’a connu ce document depuis sa publication il y a cinq ans. Les auteurs rappelent les principaux débats conceptuels qui ont façonné le Référentiel et proposent une typologie des courants actuels de la littératie informationnelle, donnant ainsi à voir les enjeux qui informent l'évolution des différentes conceptions du rôle pédagogique des bibliothécaires dans le milieu de l’enseignement supérieur d’hier à aujourd’hui. Cet entretien est une traduction en français de la version originale en langue anglaise.

Faculty and Librarian Perceptions of Librarians as Researchers: Results from Semi-Structured Interviews

Following on the results of an earlier survey, this study explores the perceptions of librarians as researchers according to academic librarians and faculty using semi-structured interviews. Conducting research is a regular part of the academic librarian role, but one that often faces challenges to its undertaking, and one that is not always recognized. Exploring perceptions of librarian research helps to understand the current state of librarian research, the barriers faced by librarian researchers, and the value of librarian research. Fifteen librarians and seven faculty members were interviewed from eight Canadian universities. The interviews were coded and analysed to identify major themes. Librarian research was found to be sometimes unsupported and therefore difficult to conduct, but valuable to librarians and the discipline of librarianship. Additionally, librarian research was found to improve relations between librarians and faculty, and more broadly, was found to create a more collegial academic climate.