Alternative Library Literature 1998 1999

This highly acclaimed biennial ("the best of alternative library journalism"--Library Journal) provides a reminder of the roots of librarianship and a prod to a profession that has sometimes forgotten those principles. People/Work, Women, Censorship/Human Rights/Peace, Kids, Alternatives, Service/Advocacy/Empowerment, Multiculturalism/Third World, and Cyberspace/Virtual Libraries are the topics covered, with writings from Earl Lee, Simone Murray, Scott Walter, Pat Mora and others.

Foreword by Mitch Freedman, a reprinted Counterpoise interview and 45 of Sanford Berman's U*L columns dealing with book-burning, genocide, government secrecy and repression, cataloging, indexing, classism, self-censorship and free speech for library staff (et cetera!). Index by Chris Dodge.

This work presents the history and impact of the seven most important progressive library organizations worldwide—in Austria, Germany, South Africa, Sweden, United Kingdom, and two in the United States. Each organization is considered within its national context, and in fact, the English word “organization” does not quite fit the nature of all of the groups. The South African organization, LIWO, was transitional in that it helped bring South African librarianship from apartheid to majority rule and then disbanded. The other organizations or their successors are still working in one form or another. Some of the organizations have had or continue to have vibrant local chapters, though many of the original activists have recently retired or died. The author has interviewed many of them at a time when they were assessing their life work, and handing off to new generations.

Public spending is under threat and public libraries are suffering. At a time when libraries can play a critical role in supporting people facing difficult economic and social situations, the dominant conservative model of librarianship has nothing meaningful to say about the role and relevance of libraries. It offers more of the same, but no qualitative change so necessary today. It continues to maintain the myth that there is no alternative to its own policies and practices. There is thus an urgent need to alternative ideas and practices to address peoples needs. The progressive librarianship movement is taking up this challenge. It has also been active in Kenya and Britain but its work is not widely know. The Kenyan movement differed from the others in that it grew within the underground political movement in the 1980s - the December Twelve Movement/Mwakenya. Using original documents, this book records this hidden history. In the process, it examines key concepts such as the role of libraries and the relevance of service. Linking library work with the wider social and political concerns, the book explores issues such as politics of information, the role of activism and neutrality in library work. It offers an alternative approach to librarianship, to the training of librarians and to organisational change to make libraries more relevant to peoples lives.

This work presents a thorough examination of librarianship and the social and economic contexts in which the profession and its institutions operate. As a basis of analysis, Buschman employs critical education scholarship and the research of German philosopher Jurgen Habermas, whose seminal work on the public sphere—the arena in which the public organizes itself and formulates public opinion—serves as a meta-framework for Buschman's study of librarianship. Buschman asserts that a significant shift has occurred from the library as a contributor to the public good to a model where economic rationality directs policy. He challenges much of the current thinking and assumptions guiding libraries, exploring the circumstances in which librarians and libraries operate and linking the profession back to democratic and public purposes as the core essence of the field. Chapters include: • Crisis Culture and the Need for a Defense of Librarianship in the Public Sphere • The New Public Philosophy and Critical Educational Analysis • The Public Sphere: Rounding Out the Context of Librarianship • Studies in Librarianship and the Dismantling of the Public Sphere • Follow the Money: Library Funding and Information Capitalism • Follow-the-Leader Library Management and the New Public Philosophy • On Customer Driven Librarianship • Drifting Toward the Corporate Model: ALA • Notes on Postmodern Technology, Technocracy, and Libraries • The Public Sphere and Democratic Possibility Highly recommended for courses in policy and librarianship, as well as for academic and public library directors, this work will also be of interest to theorists in the social sciences.

This book describes the history and characteristics of ethnic and multicultural children's literature in the U.S., as well as related materials published elsewhere. It relates in great detail the people, businesses, organizations, and institutions that create, disseminate, promote, critique, and collect these materials. Author Donna Gilton gives a detailed history of U.S. multicultural and ethnic children's literature throughout several historic periods, relating these developments to general social and political U.S. history. Chapters illustrate characteristics of U.S. multicultural children's books, the major issues in the field, and multicultural initiatives and mainstream responses, while also providing outlines of research possibilities in the field and suggesting other groups of people who should be emphasized more in the future. In doing all this, Multicultural and Ethnic Children's Literature in the United States brings together valuable and scattered information for the busy and involved librarians, teachers, parents, publishers, distributors, and community leaders who wish to use and promote this material with children.

Knowledge Management was the theme of the Standing Conference of Eastern, Central and Southern African Library and Information Associations (SCECSAL XVII) in 2006. This selection of conference papers provides a cross-disciplinary approach to knowledge, information and development and how the three together can mould a new and more informed society. The challenge is to make our libraries more people-centered and Afro-centric, not simply serving the interests of the elite and paying little attention to the plight of the less well off. This needs to change, with libraries becoming more inclusive and serving the needs of all. These papers raise provocative questions, and provide an insight into the struggle of information services in this part of Africa to be part of an emerging information and knowledge society.