#critlib: the impact of the Salaita case on LIS practice
Almost every tweet from the #critlib twitter chat on September 30, 2014. Read more about #critlib here: http://tinyurl.com/critlibx
- This week's chat was put together by a group of UofI LIS student interested in thinking through how our university’s recent unhiring of Prof. Steven Salaita--and other related events around the country--might impact our practice as librarians. It is definitely worth reading, because, as @barnlib says near the end, "ALL the #critlibers are fantastic." And these fantastic people had some very insighful things to say.
(I tried, but did not always succeed, to match everyone's @replies with the appropriate original Tweet and of course some things w/o the hashtag are missing. It is what it is.) 
Intros: I'm a LIS student at Illinois, with a hoarse voice from teaching an instruction session just now. #critlib
Hi! I'm a doctoral student at GSLIS UIUC, glad to be here! #critlib
Hi! I'm Melissa, public librarian in Brooklyn and also member of @Librarians2Pal. #critlibQ1. How have the Salaita case or related academic/intellectual freedom issues come up in your practice?
Q1. This isn't a huge deal comparatively, but I think those of us w/o tenure feel a hair nervous signing @ubiquity75's petition. #critlib
(also a member of @Librarians2Pal ) #critlib- If anyone doesn't know about @ubiquity75's LIS practitioners & faculty statement, it's here http://illusionofvolition.com/lis-practitioners-and-scholars-support-steven-salaita/ … #critlib
Q1: It’s hard to encourage graduate students to work online and in public given the apparent risks to their future careers. #critlib
In wake of the Salaita situation, I've seen a lot of professional colleagues lock down social media. More protected Twitter feeds. #critlib
Not all my colleagues are on the same side of this issue - some interesting things about people revealed through this case #critlib- A1 Sounds like we can draw some comparisons to #TeamHarpy, fearing job reprisals or litigation for speaking out. #critlib #salaita
@donnarosemary @rawdeal85 Def agree that this raises a lot of questions about shared governance and who's really running higher ed. #critlib- @lisaflepore Yes, even CUNY BOT has done some egregious things - eg. the Tony Kushner case a few years back. #critlib
- @kevinseeber I think it's very important to underscore that this is not an isolated case. #critlib
- Q2. How can librarians foreground intellectual freedom issues and the make them relevant to various publics across disciplines?
- @theficklegirl yes! but best way to reach this audience? #critlib
A1 2/2 I've noticed a lack of political awareness, beyond the normal liberal platitudes, in librarianship thus far. #critlib #toocynical?
Relevant to Q2 is a piece I read recently re: the two cultures in the academy hypothesis: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/09/22/salaita-case-illustrates-two-cultures-academe-many-experts-say … #critlib- #critlib How often is discussion of academic freedom part of a lib orientation or instruction session? It needs to be central to mission.
- Q2: I think LIS teaches past IF frequently (red scare etc), but we have to think about applying to present day issues #critlib
- @MelissaJVilla1 also means we need confront our very real "diversity problem" as a profession #critlib
- @donnarosemary yes, but definitely relevant to all. good analogy is research on evolution or climate change when donors disagree #critlib
This made by brilliant people at UIUC (not me) attempting to get this across to scientists-very pract app #critlib pic.twitter.com/x0yUP03CC9- @SarahCrissinger Yes, exactly this! #critlib
@donnarosemary Please help it circulate!! #critlib- @JeffGinMEM Awesome, thanks for joining us here. Welcome! #critlib
- @JeffGinMEM Info Lit will have to become central to our educational practices in order to even come close to resolving these issues #critlib
- @SarahCrissinger @JeffGinMEM Yes, but we need to make sure info lit is not just enforcing more of the same power structures #critlib
- @captain_maybe Civility is just a smokescreen - it evaporates when the terms or the actors change #critlib
@ibeilin So over calls for civility as a silencing mechanism. Seeing that in #teamharpy convos, the travesty of the #fsuprez search #critlib
Whenever “scholarship is a conversation” is taught, would be a great time to discuss academic freedom @JeffGinMEM #critlib- @foureyedsoul Of course, a danger of the "conversation" metaphor is that "civility" seems logical descriptor #infolit #critlib @JeffGinMEM
- @foureyedsoul @JeffGinMEM this is brilliant.. how can we have a convo if one side is silenced?! #critlib
- @SarahCrissinger @foureyedsoul That's precisely what happened in Salaita's case. He took a side that wasn't allowed voice. #critlib
- @JeffGinMEM @SarahCrissinger @foureyedsoul Yes, and it's a voice that's deliberately, always depicted as 'uncivil', 'threatening' #critlib
- A2: Perhaps info lit librarians can challenge students to confront & examine uncomfortable views to combat “civility” argument. #critlib
- Q3. How can we mobilize critical information literacy skills to engage students in responding to events like this?
- @donnarosemary could you explain a bit more? as far as information format re: Twitter? #critlib
- @SarahCrissinger "Info has Value" frame utilizes rhetoric of info marketplace, monetization of info--money as key to info privilege #critlib
- @donnarosemary ah yes, problematic. but imp to think about in this case 2. Money= power to silence & stop info that is opposition #critlib
- @donnarosemary @libraryleadpipe thanks! will read for sure. always interested in critiques of the new framework #critlib
- @SarahCrissinger Yes! I want students to think about politics of information--that which they can access & that which they can't. #critlib
- Q3 In said class, we read Brian Martin's (classic?) "Politics of Research" https://www.uow.edu.au/~bmartin/pubs/98il/il07.html … - def. relevant here. #critlib
All ppl should tune n2 the #critlib talk on Steven salaita 2know what is structural violence on ppl who speak truth to power. #teamharpy- A3: We need to foreground power in talking about scholarship as a conversation! Who has the power to participate? #critlib
A2 It's hard when I see the students once or twice a semester. I wish an IL one credit course geared to each dept was required. #critlib
#critlib now is as good of a time as any to retrospectively mention http://carmichaeldigitalprojects.org/politicsofinfo/ that @LaurenMWallis and I taught this year- That looks fantastic! Certainly will peruse more after 10:00 pm! Thanks for mentioning. @rawdeal85 @LaurenMWallis #critlib
- A3: Wikipedia, when approached critically, can be a good tool for presenting how knowledge is constructed/contested. #critlib
- @SeerGenius Yes. #teamharpy (& supporters apparently) in the back of my mind through all of tonight’s #critlib
- @nrvscrcts haha, one can never be too critical of Google.... not that proprietary databases are much better. :) #critlib
- @nrvscrcts Yeah, tricky line. Being energetic teaching easily—>performance of jeremiad/polemics. Hard to engage & remain “aloof” #critlib
As a final reminder, we can no longer consider tenure a safety net at all - recall that Dr. Salaita is tenured... #critlib- ...and attacks on library and faculty tenure are happening across the country. If we don't take action, it will cease to exist. #critlib
- Q4. What obstacles do we face in having these discussions?
Something I'm noticing in tonight's #critlib chat -- in many places, librarians *are* faculty
@rawdeal85 maybe in phd seminar, not so w/ masters-level students who are focused on jobs (wild guess) #critlib- @lisaflepore @rawdeal85 Yes. Question has to be about who decides what students should learn. Students or trustees? #critlib
- @SarahCrissinger haha yes, but also important that for some the stakes for speaking out are very high #critlib
- @SarahCrissinger & how can those of us w/ relative privilege support them & help safeguard their rights. #critlib
- But I wonder if this had happened to a faculty librarian if discipline faculty wd have rallied to the same extent. #critlib 2/2 @eiratansey
Info as commodity/info has value/power...so much there, yet I feel silenced by the one-shot #critlib
@LaurenMWallis So with you there, Lauren! #critlib- "yet I feel silenced by the one-shot" -- @LaurenMWallis Wow. This. #critlib
- @LaurenMWallis @kevinseeber Mos def. It's the right fight to fight, though. For lots of reasons. #critlib
- @LaurenMWallis one step at a time! #critlib
- @kevinseeber, should we make "Just say no! (to one-shots)" signs for #acrl15? @LaurenMWallis #critlib
- @donnarosemary @LaurenMWallis Dunno, I believe that the "one-shot" can be a shot "heard 'round the world" if you like risk. #critlib
- @kevinseeber @LaurenMWallis @JessicaCritten Indeed. There's more than one way to skin a cat (I know, wrong audience for that). #critlib
- @JessicaCritten @ACRL_RIG @foureyedsoul Yikes, imagining a future rehtorical analysis of Framework for "civility" *shudder* #critlib
- @RoxanneShirazi 'just' a student & already feeling the repercussions #critlib
@JeffGinMEM @rawdeal85 Exactly. Really, it shocks that BoT is allowed passage, their agendas drive choice of faculty/curriculum #critlib .- @lisaflepore @JeffGinMEM @rawdeal85 Add to that the fact that BOT members are often political appointees = ewww. #critlib
- Q5. And what are some strategies to overcome these obstacles?
- So, now we solve all the problems with Q5! https://docs.google.com/a/barnard.edu/document/d/1wntzuezo-QVhl7pgf3HJQ2iIUgUrs8E61hU1gdAbSSc/edit … #critlib
- http://librarianswithpalestine.org/ RT @captain_maybe: join the @Librarians2Pal network! there is power in collective action! #critlib
- @kevinseeber @lisaflepore @rawdeal85 Political appointees at public U's or large donors at privates. Hold enormous power at both #critlib
- #critlib A5- Empower learners to question everything. Authority, credibility, reliability, authenticity.
- Our #critlib pitch - We want to keep this conversation going! If u r interested in collaborating let us know & keep an eye on #uncivilLIS
- I’ll add that #teamharpy stuff shows need in LIS community to talk more about “punching up” vs “punching down” @InfAgit @micdow #critlib
A5: Solidarity is key, through voice & action. W/ disciplinary faculty, w/ each other, w/other workers in our libraries and orgs #critlib- Next week: a #critlib convo about labor solidarity and labor issues in the library workplace. See the cheat sheet for readings and Q's soon!
- Q5: A plug for the LIS boycott letter http://illusionofvolition.com/lis-practitioners-and-scholars-support-steven-salaita/ … #critlib @ubiquity75
The irony abt tonight's #critlib is that I felt unsafe to participate for the very topics they were discussing. Can't afford to be salaita.- ALATT, Salaita, and #teamharpy prove just how strongly ppl fight (tone polocing, gaslighting,etc) to maineain "order" #critlib
- @Fobettarh Particularly when that order's odds remain ever in their favor. It’s alarming/disturbing to have that questioned #critlib
- @michaelrperry6 everyone should just read #critlib #uncivilLIS and #teamharpy bc we all make the connections. Aw da time.
