70th chat, Monday November 14: MPLP (archival processing)
11am Pacific / noon Mountain / 1pm Central / 2pm Eastern

Moderated by @aliceprael
Storify (pdf, html) by @aliceprael

MPLP stands for More Product, Less Process and is sometimes referred to baseline processing.  The acronym was introduced by Mark A. Greene and Dennis Meissner in the article “More Product, Less Process: Revamping Traditional Archival Processing”.  MPLP asserts that archives should adhere to the following guidelines* for arrangement, description, and preservation in order to improve productivity and decrease backlogs of unprocessed material.

1) expedite getting collection materials into the hands of users
2) assure arrangement of materials adequate to user needs
3) take the minimal steps necessary to physically preserve collection materials
4) describe materials sufficient to promote use.

*all italics are from the original text

Suggested readings:

• The origin article of MPLP:  Greene, Mark, and Dennis Meissner. “More Product, Less Process: Revamping Traditional Archival Processing.” The American Archivist 68.2 (2005): 208-63 http://www.archivists.org/prof-education/pre-readings/IMPLP/AA68.2.MeissnerGreene.pdf (or the TL;DR version from Wikipedia- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_Product,_Less_Process)
• Meissner, Dennis, and Mark A. Greene. “More Application While Less Appreciation: The Adopters and Antagonists of MPLP.” Journal of Archival Organization 8.3-4 (2010): 174-226. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15332748.2010.554069
• Razon, Rona. “Thoughts on Traditional Processing and MPLP….” ICFA, 2013. https://icfadumbartonoaks.wordpress.com/2012/12/10/thoughts-on-traditional-processing-and-mplp/

Discussion questions:

• Q1. What has your experience been with MPLP? How do you determine ‘sufficient’ description & ‘adequate’ arrangement for a collection?
• Q2. How does MPLP affect access to and accessibility of material?
• Q3. How does MPLP affect privacy issues? – does MPLP lead to increased risk?
• Q4. How does MPLP affect the work required from other staff (such as access services and digitization staff)?
• Q5. What do we lose with MPLP? What do we gain? How can we balance MPLP with traditional processing?

69th chat, Tuesday November 1: academic libraries & the student loan crisis

Moderated by @kevinseeber @modbrarian @beccakatherine
Storify (pdf, html) by @violetbfox

Suggested readings:

• A Look at the Shocking Student Loan Debt Statistics for 2016. Student Loan Hero, 2016: https://studentloanhero.com/student-loan-debt-statistics/
• The Man Who Shed Light on Why College Keeps Getting More Expensive. NPR Education, Oct. 25 2016: http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/10/25/498838755/the-man-who-shed-light-on-why-college-keeps-getting-more-expensive
• Fancy Dorms Aren’t the Main Reason Tuition is Skyrocketing. FiveThirtyEight blog, Sept. 13 2016: http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/fancy-dorms-arent-the-main-reason-tuition-is-skyrocketing/

Discussion questions:

• Q1. How is the student loan crisis affecting you, your library, and/or your campus? #critlib
• Q2. What programming/resources are libraries providing to address the student loan crisis? What else could we be doing? #critlib
• Q3. Many factors in higher ed have contributed to the present situation. In what ways, if any, are academic libraries implicated? #critlib
• Q4. Speaking of loans, what can libraries, librarians, and grad programs do about reducing the cost of an MLIS? #critlib

Jargon/abbreviations:

This is a list of terms the moderators anticipate might come up during the chat, though it is not exhaustive. If someone uses an abbreviation or term you don’t understand, we encourage you to ask that person, or a moderator, for a clarification.

• DOE: Referring to the U.S. Department of Education, which issues a large number of student loans.
• Financial Literacy: An understanding of how money works, including concepts connected to borrowing, including interest rates and repayment plans.
• FA or FinAid: Referring to Financial Aid, both the general concept of providing money to students attending college, as well as offices of Financial Aid on college campuses.
• OER: Shorthand for “open educational resources.” These are often no-cost-to-the-student online materials designed to supplement or replace textbooks.
• OA: Shorthand for “open access.” Typically describes individual articles, as well as whole journals, that made available online at no cost to the reader.
• Ss: Shorthand for “students.” (Because abbreviating it as “studs” would be kind of creepy.)

68th chat, Monday October 17 2016: diversity/inclusion/anti-oppression at public service points

Moderated by @gnomadlibrarian
Storify (pdf, html) by @violetbfox

Suggested readings:

• Annie Pho & Turner Masland, The Revolution will not be Stereotyped: Changing Perceptions through Diversity. From The Librarian Stereotype: Deconstructing Perceptions and Presentations of Information Work, 2014
• Lucy Kelly, Encouraging Diversity and Equity in Public Libraries. From Public Libraries Online, July 2016.

Discussion questions:

• Q1. What does diversity and inclusion mean to you and/or your library? #critlib
• Q2. What does an anti-oppressive service model look like? #critlib
• Q3. Beyond hiring diverse desk staff, what other steps can we take to create an empowered and inclusive service point? #critlib
• Q4. How can we incorporate diversity/inclusion/anti-oppression training into general service point training–especially for student employees? #critlib

For further exploration:

• Paul T. Jaeger, Lindsay C. Sarin, and Kaitlin J. Peterson, Diversity, Inclusion, and Library and Information Science: An Ongoing Imperative (or Why We Still Desperately Need to Have Discussions about Diversity and Inclusion). From The Library Quarterly, Vol 85, number 2, April 2015
• Juleah Swanson, Why Diversity Matters: A Roundtable Discussion on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Librarianship, Jul 2015

67th chat, Tuesday October 11 2016: history of critical librarianship

Moderated by @ClaireB_LIS @violetbfox
Storify (pdf, html) by @KristynMC83

Note: critlib follows in the footsteps of many critical, radical, progressive groups, while adding a unique voice. We’re using “critical librarianship” below as a shorthand to refer to all library workers who seek to promote social justice and question the commodification of libraries and the value of “neutrality”.

Suggested readings:

• Morrone,  M., & Friedman, L. (2009). Radical reference : socially responsible librarianship collaborating with community. The Reference Librarian, 50(4). (pdf)
• Harger, E. (2016). Which Side Are You On? : Seven Social Responsibility Debates in American Librarianship, 1990–2015. (link to WorldCat; especially the Introduction and chapter 1)

Discussion questions:

• Q1. What are similarities or differences in current approaches to bringing social justice into libraries vs. previous efforts? #critlib
• Q2. How is the work of previous critical librarians evident in library practices today? Is it more evident in some areas of practice? #critlib
• Q3. What do the critical theory-focused elements of #critlib bring to the critical librarian conversation? How do they detract?
• Q4. What do we lose if we aren’t aware of our critical librarianship history? #critlib

For further exploration:

• Pettigrew, K., Fidel, R., & Bruce, H. (2001). Conceptual frameworks in information behaviour. Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, 35, 43–78.
• Pettigrew, K., & McKechnie, L. (2001). The use of theory in information science research. Journal of the Association of Information Science and Technology, 52(1), 62–73.
• Kagan, A. (2015). Progressive Library Organizations: A Worldwide History. (link to WorldCat)
• Samek, T. (2001). Intellectual Freedom and Social Responsibility in American Librarianship, 1967-1974 (link to WorldCat).

You can find more great resources suggested by @LibJuice Press.

66th chat, Tuesday September 13th 2016: #LIUlockout

Moderated by @ibeilin
Storify (pdf, html) by @feministlib

This chat will be more open-ended than the standard chat, with the following questions being just the start of the conversation. Feel free to suggest questions using the #critlib hashtag!

Readings and background reference material (document created by @fiiidget):

• https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vF82hq67CTwBQByQu9AfHms7TLCJLW8u8-XmHL3OoQ4/edit

Discussion questions:

• Q1. The #LIUlockout has been horrifying to witness & much worse to go through; what have been your reactions as a librarian/fac. member/student? #critlib
• Q2. Are there any groups/individuals who you’d like to see show more support for students & faculty affected by the #LIUlockout? #critlib
• Q3. What can we do now to end the #LIUlockout, and to prevent it from happening again? #critlib

65th chat, Tuesday September 6th 2016: collaborations between academic & public libraries
6pm Pacific / 7pm Mountain / 8pm Central / 9pm Eastern

Moderated by @AprilHathcock

Find more information about this chat at April’s blog: Public-Academic Library Collabs

Discussion questions:

• Q1. How can academic libraries support public libraries with research?
• Q2. How can academic libraries be more aware of and help out with public library advocacy?
• Q3. How can big research university libraries share with community colleges as well as public libraries?

64th chat, Tuesday August 23rd 2016: Wikipedia & #critlib

Moderated by @oksveta @fiiidget @nora_almeida
Storify (pdf, html) by @poorcharlotte

Suggested readings:

• McCook, K. D. L. P. (2014). Librarians as Wikipedians: From library history to “Librarianship and Human Rights” (pdf). Progressive Librarian, 42, 61-81.

Discussion questions:

• Q1. What is your stance towards/relationship with Wikipedia (WP) & what experiences have brought you to that stance? #critlib
• Q2. In what ways could Wikipedia be a potential resource or site for enacting #critlib?
• Q3. In what ways are the pillars (i.e. Neutral Point of View) and/or organizational structures of WP in tension with #critlib? http://bit.ly/2b3HO7d [link to Wikipedia page for the 5 pillars]
• Q4. Do librarians have a responsibility to address pitfalls of WP like gender/race/identity gaps? #critlib
• Q5. What accounts for historic maligning of WP by libs and what does this tell us about our own stance towards information? #critlib

For further exploration:

• Pinboard on Wikipedia and social justice compiled by @LibSkrat
• Fact factories: Wikipedia and the power to represent (dissertation, pdf) by @hfordsa

62nd chat, Tuesday July 26th 2016: “offensive” items in the collection
6pm Pacific / 7pm Mountain / 8pm Central / 9pm Eastern

Moderated by @zoh_zoh
Storify (pdf, html) by @violetbfox

Suggested readings:

• Emily Knox, “The Books Will Still Be in the Library”: Narrow Definitions of Censorship in the Discourse of Challengers. From Library Trends, volume 62, number 4, Spring 2014
• Alison Leigh Cowan, A Library’s Approach to Books That Offend. From The New York Times, August 19 2009
• ALA’s Diversity in Collection Development: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights (last amended July 2014)

Discussion questions:

• Q1. What kinds of materials in your library have offended your users?
• Q2. What kinds of materials in your library have you & your staff found offensive?
• Q3. Is it censorship to relocate/reclassify items?
• Q4. How do you empower your users to be directly involved in collection development and maintenance?