Social Justice And Activism In Libraries

In a rapidly changing world with myriad conflicting voices, the library's role as a place of safety and inclusion and as a repository of knowledge cannot be overstated. Librarians must serve as community leaders with a mission to educate and inform, ready to model the principles they support. The question for many is: how? Experienced librarians offer ideas and guidance in seeking new creative paths, working to support change in library organizations and reexamining principles that may be taken for granted. Theoretical foundations are discussed, along with practical ideas such as the creation a book groups for the intellectually disabled and partnership with social workers or advocates for employees with disabilities.

In a rapidly changing world with myriad conflicting voices, the library's role as a place of safety and inclusion and as a repository of knowledge cannot be overstated. Librarians must serve as community leaders with a mission to educate and inform, ready to model the principles they support. The question for many is: how? Experienced librarians offer ideas and guidance in seeking new creative paths, working to support change in library organizations and reexamining principles that may be taken for granted. Theoretical foundations are discussed, along with practical ideas such as the creation a book groups for the intellectually disabled and partnership with social workers or advocates for employees with disabilities.

Practicing Social Justice in Libraries provides practical strategies, tools, and resources to library and information workers and students who wish to drive change in their classrooms, institutions, and communities and incorporate social justice into their everyday practice. With contributions from a diverse group of librarians, who have experience working in different types of institutions and roles, the book showcases the actions information professionals, largely from historically marginalized groups, are taking to create a more socially responsible environment for themselves and their communities. The chapters reflect on personal experiences, best practices for programming, professional development, effective collaboration, building inclusive community partnerships, anti-racist practices in the classroom, and organizational culture. Exploring how and why library workers are incorporating anti-racist and anti-oppressive work within their everyday roles, the book demonstrates that library workers are increasingly sending messages of protest and advocating for equity, justice, and social change. Highlighting their experiences of marginalization and exclusion, contributors also reflect upon the impact social justice work has on their mental health, careers, and personal lives. Practicing Social Justice in Libraries is essential reading for library and information workers and students who are searching for practical ways to implement more inclusive practices into their work

This book explores some of the challenges that libraries and librarians face due to diversity and inclusion issues among library staff, as well as the patrons that they serve. Its goal is to increase awareness of and sensitivity to the social, cultural, and educational needs of everyone involved.

In librarianship today, we encourage voices from our field to join conversations in other disciplines as well as in the broader culture. People who work in libraries and are sympathetic to, or directly involved in, social justice struggles have long embodied this idea, as they make use of their skills in the service of those causes. From movement archives to zine collections, international solidarity to public library programming, oral histories to email lists, prisons to protests - and beyond - this book is a look into the projects and pursuits of activist librarianship in the early 21st century.

Intended to be an accessible guide to transformational information work, the book collects approximately thirty brief case studies of information related organizations, initiatives, and/or projects that focus on social justice related activities. Each case is a short narrative account of its particular subject's history, objectives, accomplishments, and challenges faced. It also describes the material realities involved in the subjects' day-to-day operation. Furthermore, cases include pertinent excerpts from interviews conducted with individuals directly involved with the information organization and will conclude with three-to-five bulleted takeaway points for information workers to consider when developing their own praxis Present useful guidance on transformative library and information science Gathers real-world case studies of library and information practice relating to social justice Gives takeaway points for readers to quickly apply in their own situation Provides inspiration for the development of progressive library and information practice Considers radical library and information science at a high level, offering recommendations for the future

"Provides a historical and current perspective regarding the unionization of academic librarians, an exploration of some of the major labour issues affecting academic librarians in a certified and non-certified union context, as well as case studies relating to the unionization of academic librarians at selected institutions in Canada"--

Friendship as Social Justice Activism brings together academics and activists to have essential conversations about friendship, love, and desire as kinetics for social justice movements. The contributors featured here come from across the globe and are all involved in diverse movements, including LGBTQ rights, intimate-partner violence, addiction recovery, housing, migrant, labor, and environmental activism. Each essay narrates how living and organizing within friendship circles offers new ways of dreaming and struggling for social justice. Recent scholarship in different disciplinary fields as well as activist literature have brought attention to the political possibilities within friendship. The essays, memoirs, poems, and artwork in Friendship as Social Justice Activism address these political possibilities within the context of gender, sexuality, and economic justice movements.