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Full-Text Articles in Library and Information Science

Working Conditions Are Learning Conditions: Understanding Information Literacy Instruction Through Neoliberal Capitalism, Romel Espinel, Eamon Tewell Dec 2023

Working Conditions Are Learning Conditions: Understanding Information Literacy Instruction Through Neoliberal Capitalism, Romel Espinel, Eamon Tewell

Communications in Information Literacy

Neoliberal capitalism’s demands for efficiency and innovation have greatly impacted North American academic libraries and the work conducted in them, including information literacy instruction. The divisive forces of neoliberalism must be met with resistance, and libraries hold the potential for generating an information literacy praxis where learners engage information with a critical consciousness instead of a consumerist one. Using library labor conditions and the contradictions between innovation and student learning as focal points, we argue that academic library workers should seek to center attention to inequities and injustices in the information economy and scholarly information systems in their instruction, identify …


A Genealogy Of Open, Betsy Yoon Mar 2023

A Genealogy Of Open, Betsy Yoon

Publications and Research

The term open has become a familiar part of library and education practice and discourse, with open source software being a common referent. However, the conditions surrounding the emergence of the open source movement are not well understood within librarianship. After identifying capitalism and neoliberalism as structures that shape library and open practice, this article contextualizes the term open by delineating the discursive struggle within the free software movement that led to the emergence of the open source movement. An understanding of the genealogy of open can lend clarity to many of the contradictions that have been grappled with in …


I Am Not A Badass: Against The Librarian-As-Superhero Stereotype, Rachel King Dec 2021

I Am Not A Badass: Against The Librarian-As-Superhero Stereotype, Rachel King

Urban Library Journal

This paper explores cultural tropes portraying librarians as heroes and superheroes. In this work, the writer has drawn on social reproduction feminist theory to explain the appearance of this emerging librarian stereotype, as well as to help readers better understand the role of academic librarians in today’s underfunded and pandemic-ravaged neoliberal university.


Neoliberalism And Public Library Policy In Ireland, 1998–2011: From The First Government Policy Document To The First General Election After The Great Recession, Maureen Garvey Jan 2021

Neoliberalism And Public Library Policy In Ireland, 1998–2011: From The First Government Policy Document To The First General Election After The Great Recession, Maureen Garvey

Publications and Research

This article discusses the influence of neoliberal ideology on public libraries in Ireland, from the first government policy document published in 1998 to the first election after the recession in 2011. The context of the rise in importance of the idea of information and the parallel acceptance of the principles of the free market for providing public services are examined. The Irish government policy documents from the period are analyzed. A critical awareness of these changes is needed in the library and information science field to recognize and oppose policies that are detrimental to the public provision of a library …


Rethinking The Neoliberal University: Critical Library Pedagogy In An Age Of Transition, Jason Coleman, Lis Pankl Jun 2020

Rethinking The Neoliberal University: Critical Library Pedagogy In An Age Of Transition, Jason Coleman, Lis Pankl

Communications in Information Literacy

In the chapter we wrote 10 years ago for Critical Library Instruction: Theories and Methods we asked instructors to free themselves from the stifling heritage of positivism that privileged tools and instrumentality above meaning. Drawing on Henry Giroux and Oscar Wilde, we urged our peers to embrace dialogue that respects the individual and draws connections between information literacy and the students’ authentic goals and experiences. In this essay we describe numerous changes over that past decade that embrace the central themes of our chapter. We then explain that these examples coexist within a vast edifice of antithetical, neoliberal institutions. We …


Neoliberalism And Reconfiguration Of The Diaspora In Contemporary Indonesia, Inditian Latifa Apr 2019

Neoliberalism And Reconfiguration Of The Diaspora In Contemporary Indonesia, Inditian Latifa

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

In most studies on globalization and transnationalism, diaspora is positioned in a conflicting and antagonistic relationship with the nation-state regime. Nevertheless, the global ascendancy of neoliberalism as a market-based mode of governing populations has brought certain changes to the relationship between the diaspora and home countries which call for further research. This essay investigates the implications of neoliberalism for diasporic kinship ties by examining emergent discourses in contemporary Indonesia that constitute an elite-led project on diasporas known as the Indonesian Diaspora Network (IDN) Global. Based on a social constructionist analysis of data gathered from activities, media reporting, and promotional materials …


On The Space/Time Of Information Literacy, Higher Education, And The Global Knowledge Economy, Karen Patricia Nicholson Dec 2018

On The Space/Time Of Information Literacy, Higher Education, And The Global Knowledge Economy, Karen Patricia Nicholson

FIMS Publications

Local sites and practices of information work become embroiled in the larger imperatives and logics of the global knowledge economy through social, technological, and spatial networks. Drawing on human geography’s central claim that space and time are dialectically produced through social practices, in this essay I use human/critical geography as a framework to situate the processes and practices—the space and time—of information literacy within the broader social, political, and economic environments of the global knowledge economy. As skills training for the knowledge economy, information literacy lies at the intersection of the spatial and temporal spheres of higher education as the …


Academic Librarians And The Space/Time Of Information Literacy, The Neoliberal University, And The Global Knowledge Economy, Karen P. Nicholson Nov 2018

Academic Librarians And The Space/Time Of Information Literacy, The Neoliberal University, And The Global Knowledge Economy, Karen P. Nicholson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This qualitative research study explores how academic librarians working in Canadian public research-intensive universities experience the space/time of information literacy, the neoliberal university, and the knowledge economy. Information literacy lies at the intersection of higher education and the knowledge economy: it became a priority for librarians in Anglo-American countries in the 1980s in the context of neoliberal educational reforms intended to better prepare skilled workers for the “information society” (Behrens, 1994; Birdsall, 1994).

The shift from Fordist modes of production to flexible accumulation, characterized by the expansion of capital into new markets, flexible workers, and just-in-time inventories, made possible by …


Information Into Action? Reflections On (Critical) Practice (Keynote Address, Wilu 2018), Karen Nicholson Jun 2018

Information Into Action? Reflections On (Critical) Practice (Keynote Address, Wilu 2018), Karen Nicholson

FIMS Presentations

In this keynote address, I consider the WILU 2018 conference theme “Information into Action" as representative of normative mainstream discourses of innovation, entrepreneurialism, vocation, and practicality in contemporary academic libraries.


What Is This Neoliberalism? And Why Should I Care?, Jennifer Soutter Feb 2017

What Is This Neoliberalism? And Why Should I Care?, Jennifer Soutter

Leddy Library Presentations

Many of us have more questions than answers about neoliberalism. What is it? Why is it important? What does it bode for our future? What we are experiencing in our workplaces and profession? Intended to help identify neoliberal values in your workplace, your position on neoliberalism and to consider the founding values of LIS and their relationship to neoliberalism.


Core Competencies For 21st Century Carl Librarians (Carl Competencies) Survey Results: Unpublished, Jennifer Soutter Dec 2016

Core Competencies For 21st Century Carl Librarians (Carl Competencies) Survey Results: Unpublished, Jennifer Soutter

Leddy Library Publications

Consists of the data collected about the Core Competencies for 21st Century CARL Librarians. The hypothesis tested was that the CARL Competencies were not being used by academic librarians. If they were being used, the intent was to discover any differences in their use and whether these differences were related to their positions within their respective libraries, and thus their potential use for ideological control at the administrative level. Unfortunately, less than 6% of the population responded. This research was not able to help build a more accurate picture of the current landscape of the use of competencies in …


The Core Competencies For 21st Century Carl (Canadian Association Of Research Libraries) Librarians: Through A Neoliberal Lens, Jennifer Soutter Mar 2016

The Core Competencies For 21st Century Carl (Canadian Association Of Research Libraries) Librarians: Through A Neoliberal Lens, Jennifer Soutter

Leddy Library Publications

Librarians are noted for their defense of others but not themselves or even their profession, thus there is a lack of consideration with respect to our roles within our own institutions and within our profession. The Core Competencies for 21st Century CARL Librarians statement developed by the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) is investigated as an expression of what our role should be, using a neoliberal lens and with reference to the work of Foucault, poststructuralists, and as an expression of critical inquiry, to discover the statement’s potential role as a tool for delivering ideology. Language and concepts associated …


Balancing Visions And Values: An Exploration Of Market Rhetoric In Canadian Academic Library Strategic Plans, Courtney L. Waugh Jan 2015

Balancing Visions And Values: An Exploration Of Market Rhetoric In Canadian Academic Library Strategic Plans, Courtney L. Waugh

Western Libraries Publications

Strategic planning documents are key sites to institutional discourse and reflect the public face of the library. This research explores the extent to which market rhetoric permeates the strategic planning documents of three Canadian academic libraries, and examines the ways in which these institutions engage in market discourse to construct their institutional identity. What are the implications of adopting a "customer service" stance? What does it mean to be “innovative”? How do "personalized services" influence ideas of choice? Through content analysis and a critical lens, this exploratory research examines the tension between libraries as public good and libraries as a …


Neoliberalism And Library & Information Science: Using Karl Polanyi’S Fictitious Commodity As An Alternative To Neoliberal Conceptions Of Information, Jonathan Cope Jan 2014

Neoliberalism And Library & Information Science: Using Karl Polanyi’S Fictitious Commodity As An Alternative To Neoliberal Conceptions Of Information, Jonathan Cope

Publications and Research

This paper examines the Library & Information Science (LIS) and Knowledge Organization (KO) literature on neoliberalism and argues that insufficient attention has been paid to the neoliberal conception of information’s relationship to the market. After an examination of the LIS and KO literature on neoliberalism, the key claims of neoliberalism with regards to information and markets are scrutinized and the role of the Internet is discussed. Karl Polanyi’s concept of the fictitious commodity is used to examine the ways in which markets are embedded within society and to provide an alternative to neoliberalism.


Libraries And The Right To The City: Insights From Democratic Theory Prepared For The 2013 Lacuny Institute: Libraries, Information, And The Right To The City, John Buschman Jan 2013

Libraries And The Right To The City: Insights From Democratic Theory Prepared For The 2013 Lacuny Institute: Libraries, Information, And The Right To The City, John Buschman

John Buschman

No abstract provided.


The Neoliberal University And Agricultural Biotechnology: Reports From The Field, Wilhelm Peekhaus Jan 2010

The Neoliberal University And Agricultural Biotechnology: Reports From The Field, Wilhelm Peekhaus

Wilhelm Peekhaus

Following in the footsteps of a variety of previous research that elaborates on the current state of affairs in academia, this article sets out the argument that neoliberalism and its corresponding iterations of science and technology and research funding policies in this country have implications for the types of knowledge that can be generated within and communicated without contemporary institutions of higher education. Using agricultural biotechnology as the lens through which to focus analysis, the article outlines a number of empirical examples that illustrate how the free flow of knowledge either critical of or not readily appropriated by capital is …