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The Public Academic Library: Friction in the Teflon Funnel

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Date

2013

Authors

Ryan, Patti
Sloniowski, Lisa

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Library Juice Press

Abstract

How does one engage in a radical pedagogical praxis when constrained by a growing awareness of the ways in which libraries and librarians are institutions of hegemonic order? Using Henry Giroux’s work on critical pedagogy and its potential for cultivating an engaged citizenry, this article offers a rationale for developing an information literacy praxis that considers and creates opportunities for resisting the neoliberal imperatives that are re-fashioning higher education from a public good into training for the marketplace. We suggest that librarians can work to counter such a climate through thoughtful IL policy development and drop-in programming that makes critical sociopolitical interventions at particular historical moments, and offer practical descriptions of two library workshops on the 2003 Iraq War and the Occupy Movement. We conclude by exploring how one can advocate for libraries and librarians within this sort of programming, and how such advocacy is also, and necessarily, an act of radical pedagogical praxis in its intentional prioritization of democratic values and social responsibility.

Description

Information Literacy and Social Justice: Radical Professional Praxis extends the discussion of information literacy and its social justice aspects begun by James Elmborg, Heidi L.M. Jacobs, Cushla Kapitzke, Maria T. Accardi, Emily Drabinski, and Alana Kumbier, and Maura Seale. Chapters address the democratizing values implicit in librarianship’s professional ethics, such as intellectual freedom, social responsibility, and democracy, in relation to the sociopolitical context of information literacy. Contributors, ranging from practicing librarians to scholars of related disciplines, demonstrate how they construct intentional connections between theoretical perspectives and professional advocacy to curriculum and pedagogy. The book contributes to professional discourse on libraries in their social context, through a re-activation of the library neutrality debate, as well as through an investigation of what it means for a global citizen to be information literate in late capitalism.

Keywords

Information Literacy - Policy and Programming, Librarianship - Political Aspects, Neoliberalism

Citation

Ryan, Patti, and Lisa Sloniowski. "The Public Academic Library: Friction in the Teflon Funnel. Eds. Higgins, Shana, and Lua Gregory. Information Literacy and Social Justice: Radical Professional Praxis. Sacramento: Library Juice Press, 2013. 275-296. Print.
Ryan, Patti, and Lisa Sloniowski. "The Public Academic Library: Friction in the Teflon Funnel. Eds. Higgins, Shana, and Lua Gregory. Information Literacy and Social Justice: Radical Professional Praxis. Sacramento: Library Juice Press, 2013. 275-296. Print.