Journal of Radical Librarianship
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Byte the Hand That Feeds: Late-Stage Capitalism's Grip on Digital Preservation
Get PDFThe pervasive influence of late-stage capitalism in the 21st century has permeated all aspects of digital preservation efforts as well as the broader context of cultural heritage. This paper uses social media preservation to examine the intersection of digital preservation with capitalism's prioritization of financial gain at the expense of all else, causing systemic harm to individuals and resulting in archival silences and challenges to preservation. The privatized landscape of cultural heritage pervades every aspect of digital record generation and preservation, introducing hurdles to object content and context, as well as to the logistics and mechanisms of social media object preservation. This discussion explores these challenges to the "who," "what," and "how" of digital preservation through the lens of social media objects and concludes by discussing digital preservation approaches existing outside of, or counter to, the capitalist mechanisms that dominate the modern digital age.
Review of Solving Names: Worldliness and Metaphysics in Librarianship
Get PDFReview of Popowich, S. (2024). Solving Names: Worldliness and Metaphysics in Librarianship. Library Juice Press
Representing the Spectrum, Autism in the United States Children’s Choice Book Award Nominees, 2014-2024
Get PDFThis study examines the 67 books featuring autistic characters in a main or secondary role nominated on the United States’ children’s choice book award lists from 2014-2024. The books for this study were examined using directed critical qualitative content analysis guided by a framework of Critical Autism Studies (CAS). CAS critiques the deficit model of autism that often defines how autistic individuals are understood. Several themes emerged in terms of how autism is described as a difference in communication and behavior, with individuals showing a variety of sensory needs. While these characters often needed a variety of support from schools, therapists, and their families, they also sometimes showed evidence of special knowledge or skills. Unfortunately, the number of books showing autistic main characters who have agency over their own lives is still a tiny percentage of books nominated for state award nominees
Censorship, Artificial Intelligence, and AI Literacy: Responding to New Challenges in an Enduring Agenda for Libraries and Librarianship
Get PDFThis paper focuses on AI censorship, an under addressed aspect of AI risk that intersects with the foundational library tenets of information literacy and intellectual freedom. AI censorship is a form of “automated censorship in which AI systems are used to selectively suppress or block specific types of information, content, or voices deemed undesirable to those controlling the AI.” This paper examines AI censorship in the context of existing threats and library principles. It explores specific techniques and methods of AI censorship. Lastly, it recommends adopting a critical AI literacy perspective that includes a political dimension essential to understanding AI censorship
Review of Solving Names: Worldliness and Metaphysics in Librarianship
Get PDFReview of Popowich, S. (2024). Solving Names: Worldliness and Metaphysics in Librarianship. Library Juice Pres
Will We Ever Learn?: : The Un-Enlightenment of Selector Librarians
Get PDFThis critical case study aims to explore the influences on the collection development procedures and practices of selector librarians to incorporate authentic voices and representation. At the time of this publication, there was limited literature on the role academic librarians play in the attainment of authentic representations of culturally diverse and inclusive materials. Incorporating results from a national-level survey and 19 follow-up interviews, this study focuses on the major theme found: academic librarians are not being adequately trained in collection development during the pursuit of their accredited degrees. When viewed through a lens of critical whiteness studies (CWS), an argument can be made that academia and librarianship are entrenched in whiteness, which perpetuates the silencing of “others.
Where It’s At: Social Justice in the Canadian MLIS Landscape
Get PDFDid you learn about social justice in your Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) program? With libraries facing issues such as a boom in book challenges, controversial event bookings, decolonization, increasing securitization and policing in libraries, budget cuts, data surveillance, serving as shelters, helping with overdose prevention, and more, questions around social justice issues are unavoidable in libraries these days. Are students learning what they need to know to work in the complex arena of libraries?
In this article, I examine program and course information using content analysis methods to answer questions about whether, where, what, and to what extent students are learning about social justice in the 8 ALA-accredited Canadian MLIS programs. What kinds of social justice topics are taught in MLIS courses? Are there courses explicitly focused on topics of social justice? What other courses look at these kinds of issues? Are these topics being addressed widely across the curricula? Are students required to engage with these topics? My work then considers relevant literature to discuss the importance of social justice in MLIS education, as it is essential to prepare students to think critically about and take action on social justice issues in their future library work
Highlights of SRRT History
Get PDFCopy of speech given at Building Radical Collections: Advocacy, Access, and Alliances with SRRT and Indie Presses program on Saturday, June 28, 2025. Article originally published by the Social Responsibilities Round Table of the American Library Association at http://www.ala.org/srrt/history. Reprinted with permission]
Slowing Down Together: Reflections on Shared Practice in the Neoliberal University
Get PDFIn this case study, library instruction workers at a four-year R1 university reflect on the timeline and process of creating an instruction working group and documenting a program centered on critical information literacy. The authors outline their initial approach and ensuing difficulty in incorporating elements of the ACRL Information Literacy Framework and Standards into the program. In reflecting on this process, the authors distinguish fundamental misalignments from critical information literacy within the instruction program. To help understand these misalignments in context, the study engages with literature on critical pedagogy and the impact of neoliberalism in higher education, illustrating the ways the authors struggled with entrenched ideals of individualism, the archetype of the “natural teacher,” and previously unexamined institutional practices and assumptions. This study concludes with actionable steps towards a more anti-racist, decolonial, and social justice-oriented instruction working group and program.
Review of Platform Power and Libraries
Get PDFReview of Smith, C. F. (Ed.). (2025). Platform Power and Libraries. Library Juice Press