51st chat, February 1 2016: patience/impatience

Moderated by @lisalibrarian, @skeskali, & @AprilHathcock
Storify (pdf, html) by @violetbfox

This week’s chat is a chance for everyone to talk about the struggles we face in wanting to do important social justice work and to see change immediately when reality is often much different. There is no reading for this chat; we just ask that you come ready to share and listen. It can be difficult working against age-old oppression and striving for right-now change – how do you manage?

Discussion questions:

• Q1. Do you ever get impatient with the social justice work done by you or others? Why or why not?
• Q2. When does patience reinforce the status quo?
• Q3. Is talk without immediate action justifiable?
• Q4. Is there a difference between being impatient with circumstances vs with individual people?
• Q5. How can we reconcile our sense of urgency with self-care and not burning out?

50th chat, January 19 2016: #mashcat crossover: communication

Moderated by @chiuchiutrain

Storify (pdf, html) by @thomthomthom

No suggested readings, but if you’re interested in learning more about #mashcat (“a loose group of metadata specialists, cataloguers, developers and anyone else with an interest in how metadata in and around libraries can be created, manipulated, used and re-used by computers and software”), check out mashcat.info, where you can also read all about the great presentations given at the #mashcat event on January 13th 2016 in Boston.

Discussion questions:

• Q1. How do technical services, public services, and library IT inform each other in their work? #critlib #mashcat
• Q2. How can we encourage better communication between all parties? #critlib #mashcat
• Q3. What opportunities do we have to work together to enact change in the status quo of our profession? #critlib #mashcat
• Q4. What opportunities do we have to work together in providing unified services for empowering our socioeconomically disadvantaged communities? #critlib #mashcat

49th chat, January 4 2016: information resources and incarcerated people

Moderated by @foureyedsoul & @B2PSeattle
Storify (pdf, html) by @catladylib

Suggested readings:

• “Prison and Libraries: Public Service Inside and Out” – Library Journal (2013) http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2013/02/library-services/prison-and-public-libraries/#_
• “What Do Prisoners Read? Prison Libraries and Collection Development” – ALA OLOS blog post (2004) http://olos.ala.org/columns/?p=113
• “Can the Penitentiary Teach the Academy How to Read?” – PMLA (2008) http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~hbf/PMLAAbaca&Goines.pdf
• “Services for the Imprisoned” – Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki (n.d.) http://www.libsuccess.org/Services_for_the_Imprisoned
• “Dungeons & Dragons Prison Ban Upheld” – New York Times (2010) http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/us/27dungeons.html?_r=1
• “Legal Action Map” – Prison Legal News (2016) https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/legal-action-map/

Discussion questions:

• Q1 How can we best negotiate the tension between prison restrictions and our commitment to fostering access to information? #critlib
• Q2 What steps can we take to make prison libraries genuinely inclusive? #critlib
• Q3 In what ways can we support prisoners even if we aren’t working inside of a prison library? #critlib
• Q4 How we can support people who’ve been released from prison reenter wider society? What needs might they have? #critlib

Additional readings:

• “Prison Literature” – Library Juice Press blog (2013) http://libraryjuicepress.com/blog/?p=4157

48th chat, December 15 2015: #feelings

Moderated by @kevinseeber

Storify (pdf, html) by @thomthomthom
supplemental Storify (collecting #whyIcritlib submissions) (pdf, html) by @violetbfox

@kevinseeber writes: For our last chat of 2015, I wanted to encourage those of us who are involved in #critlib to reflect on what we do, why we do it, and how we could be better. With that in mind, instead of a recommended reading, I am changing things up and having a recommended writing. I’d like you to write about why you do this. Why are you a critical librarian? Why do you identify with these ideas? Why do you participate in these chats?

I hope some of you will share your reflection with others by posting it to your blog, publicly sharing a Google Doc, or finding some other way to get it online, then tweeting a link with the tag #whyicritlib. Please don’t feel pressured to post it, however—the point is to engage in reflection about why we do the things that we do. Then, we can use the December 15 chat to collectively reflect on our practice, talk about our #feelings, and get ready for the new year.

Discussion questions:

• Q1: Embracing a #critlib approach to our work can put us at odds w/ our colleagues and organizations. How might we deal w/ those #feelings?
• Q2: Where do you go when a #critlib approach fails? How do you respond? How do you get the nerve to try again tomorrow?
• Q3: Is #critlib worth it? We talk a lot, but are we getting anywhere? How are these theories changing our actions? Or our profession?
• Q4: How will you use #critlib to make a difference in the new year? What specific actions are you going to take to make things better?

47th chat, December 7 2015: privacy education in libraries
11am Pacific / noon Mountain / 1pm Central  / 2pm Eastern

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

This discussion will be about ways we teach ourselves, our colleagues, and our patrons about privacy issues (with a focus on digital privacy) in their various manifestations in libraries – including internet communications, in-house tools vs third-party platforms, professional rhetoric about a commitment to privacy versus real-world practicalities. How do we grapple with the contradictions? How do we learn and teach about it all?

Suggested readings:

• Who Are You Empowering? (Hugh Rundle, In the Library with the Lead Pipe)
  http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2014/who-are-you-empowering/
  Analyzes some trends and rhetoric around technology in librarians and reflects on the limitations of “choosing” privacy. “If librarians are serious about empowering citizens and protecting their privacy, we need to provide them not just with the motivation but also the means to protect their own privacy and empower.”
• Educators’ Toolbox for Security Trainers (Gus Andrews)
  http://gandre.ws/blog/blog/2014/01/01/educators-toolbox-for-security-trainers/
  Mental models, how to engage learners, and more.
• The Nine Circles of Surveillance Hell: An Institutional View of Information Flows and Information Threats in Libraries (Seeta Peña Gangadharan and Bonnie Tijerina, LACUNY Institute 2015)
  http://academicworks.cuny.edu/lacuny_conf_2015/9/
  A short slide deck summing up the technological (and otherwise) intermediaries affecting privacy and confidentiality in libraries, along with suggested institutional solutions, including patron education and professional development.

Discussion questions:

• Q1. How do you define privacy, in and outside of the library? #critlib
• Q2. How do you teach yourself about privacy? #critlib
• Q3. How do you share information and skills related to privacy with your colleagues? #critlib
• Q4. How do you teach specific topics (e.g. passwords, safe browsing, social media privacy) to your library’s users? #critlib
• Q5. How do you balance ideals of commitment to privacy with real-world practicalities? #critlib

Additional readings:

What is privacy?

• Intellectual Freedom Requires Intellectual Privacy (Bobbi L. Newman, Librarian By Day)
  http://librarianbyday.net/2015/05/20/intellectual-freedom-requires-intellectual-privacy-nisoprivacy/
• Mark Zuckerberg’s Personal News Shows Why Privacy is the True Bedrock of an “Open and Connected World” (Zeynep Tufekci, The Message)
  https://medium.com/message/mark-zuckerberg-s-personal-news-shows-why-privacy-is-the-bedrock-of-an-open-and-connected-world-e0a1acea89bd#.xpkuw0xyx
• Targeted Surveillance, Civil Rights, and the Fight for Democracy (Malkia Cyril, Center for Media Justice)
  http://centerformediajustice.org/2015/10/targeted-surveillance-civil-rights-and-the-fight-for-democracy/
• A Contextual Approach to Privacy Online (Helen Nissenbaum, Daedalus)
  http://www.amacad.org/publications/daedalus/11_fall_nissenbaum.pdf 

Tech and tactics in libraries

• The Library Digital Privacy Pledge (Library Freedom Project)
  https://libraryfreedomproject.org/ourwork/digitalprivacypledge/
• Toward the Post-Privacy Library? (Eric Hellman, American Libraries)
  http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2015/06/16/toward-the-post-privacy-library/
• Wrapping up our Tor exits pilot, and what’s next for this initiative (Chuck McAndrew and Alison Macrina, Library Freedom Project)
  https://libraryfreedomproject.org/torexitspilotwrapup/
• The Walled Gardens of Ebook Surveillance: A Brief Set of Arguments Against DRM in Libraries (Alycia Sellie, Urban Library Journal)
  http://ojs.gc.cuny.edu/index.php/urbanlibrary/article/view/1672

Heaps of additional reading

• http://libraryprivacy.tumblr.com/
• http://www.datasociety.net/links/

46th chat, November 24 2015: #critlib and hiring practices

Moderated by @PoorCharlotte and @EamonTewell

Storify by @hsifnihplod

Anonymous posting: Talking about hiring and your place of work can be a sensitive subject. Chat participants who would like to post responses anonymously are welcome to send a DM (direct message) to @EamonTewell before or during the chat. Eamon will then share during the chat without revealing sources. (More info about how to send a DM.)

Suggested readings:

• “Soliciting Performance, Hiding Bias: Whiteness and Librarianship” by Angela Galvan:  http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2015/soliciting-performance-hiding-bias-whiteness-and-librarianship/
• “Get a Job” by Ruth Collings: http://blog.ruthcollings.ca/get-a-job/

Discussion questions:

• Q1. In what ways have you been a part of hiring processes? #critlib
• Q2. How do hiring practices in libraries perpetuate existing systems of inequality? #critlib
• Q3. How could hiring practices in libraries take biases into account? #critlib
• Q4. What actions can we take to change discriminatory and oppressive hiring practices? #critlib
• Q5. What might a #critlib hiring process look like?

45th chat, November 2 2015: dismantling white, upper class, cisgender, & colonial LC classification

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

Suggested readings:

• Rory Litwin’s interview with Barbara Tillett on Library Juice Press – Litwin interviewed Tillett on the process of getting the Library of Congress to update subject headings in 2006.
• Radical Cataloging: Essays at the Front  – the first quarter of it is available on Google Books, and I recommend the preface and the introduction.

Discussion questions:

• Q1. How does LCSH affect the work you do at your institution?
• Q2. Is there a better alternative to the SACO process of LCSH review to ensure that change happens?
• Q3. Should we be localizing efforts at our individual institutions to create a more inclusive SH system? Or is a nation-wide system the only way to go?
• Q4. How can we draw non-catalogers into the fold to help create change?

* LCSH = Library of Congress Subject Headings
* SACO = Subject Authority Cooperative Program [for more information on the SACO process, see the first suggested reading]

Moderated by @catladylib
Storify (pdf, html) by @kshockey04

Suggested readings:

• Library Feminism and Library Women’s History: Activism and Scholarship, Equity and Culture by Suzanne Hildenbrand. (pdf available here)
• The Glass Elevator Revisited: Gender Inequality in Neoliberal Times by Christine Williams (in Gender and Society, let @catladylib or @violetbfox know if you need access)

Discussion questions:

• Q1. What’s with the erasure of women’s history from current LIS education? How does that impact leadership in LIS? #critlib
• Q2. How do we address gender bias in our perceptions of leadership styles? #critlib
• Q3. How does gender impact advocating for pay/status for yourself or your staff? #critlib
• Q4. Does LIS leadership training address gender and discrimination? How can we make it better? #critlib
• Q5. What does feminist leadership look like to you? #critlib

43rd chat, October 6 2015: neutrality and objectivity in scientific information
6pm Pacific / 7pm Mountain / 8pm Central  / 9pm Eastern

Moderated by @rorylitwin

Suggested reading:

• “Scientific Objectivity” article by Julian Reiss and Jan Sprenger, from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/scientific-objectivity

Discussion questions:

• Q1. What might a #critlib stance on claims to scientific authority and objectivity in the vaccination debate be?
• Q2. Anti-vaccination arguments cite pharmaceutical industry influence on science. What might a #critlib evaluation of this concern be?
• Q3. Should potential public health outcomes influence the way we handle reference questions about vaccination, or is the patron’s autonomy the only consideration?
• Q4. What does neutrality or non-neutrality mean in the context of reference questions about the vaccination debate? What about authority?

42nd chat, September 22 2015: library security and implications for libraries
6pm Pacific / 7pm Mountain / 8pm Central / 9pm Eastern

Moderated by @BNTdynomite
Storify (pdf, html) by @oksveta

Topic: With issues of open and concealed carry being played recently in state legislatures and in the courts, the issue of security in public spaces, including schools, public libraries, and college campuses. Public libraries, such as in Michigan and Virginia (see: http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2014/01/14/taking-aim-at-the-reality-of-guns-in-libraries/ and http://www.aallnet.org/mm/Publications/spectrum/Archives/Vol-19/No-4/open-carry.pdf) have been targets for public protests for the Open Carry movement. Texas legistlature recently passed a bill to allow for colleges and universities to have open carry campuses. In light of these recent events, library security has a lot to unpack in terms of balancing creating safe spaces accessible to all and respecting indiviudual rights to free speech, privacy, and other state and federal rights. This topic can look at different types of security measures libraries use (guards, gates, cameras, signing in physically or electronically, etc.) and whether these are reactive tactics or if they are hindrances to creating an inviting and inclusive space for the communities they serve.

Suggested readings:

• The Case Against More Guns on Campus by Andrew Morse and Linsday Hammond, Chronicle of Higher Education:  http://chronicle.com/article/The-Case-Against-More-Guns-on/232093/
• AL Live: Library Security by Mariam Peram, American Libraries:  http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blogs/the-scoop/al-live-library-security/

Discussion questions:

• Q1. What type of safety/security measures does your library employ? Does your library have a code of conduct/set of rules posted?
• Q2. How effective are these measures/policies in providing a “safe” library space/workplace?
• Q3. In what ways have these measure/policies infringed on personal privacy/rights or used to discriminate specific users (homeless/teens)?
• Q4. What local/state/federal laws or outside groups does your library deal with that may interfere with providing a safe and inclusive space?
• Q5. How do we balance safety/security or dealing with “problematic” users without infringment on individual rights and dignity?

Additional reading:

• Facts on Campus Carry in Texas provided by UT Austin: http://campuscarry.utexas.edu/
• To Use That Library Computer, Please Identify Yourself by Scott Carlson, Chronicle of Higher Education:  http://chronicle.com/article/To-Use-That-Library-Computer/19950/