Indigenous Knowledges and Scholarly Publishing

At its core, academic knowledge production is predicated on Western notions of knowledge historically grounded in a Euro-American, White, male worldview. As a component of academic knowledge production, scholarly publishing shares the same basis of Whiteness. It excludes knowledge that doesn’t conform to White, Western notions of knowledge, forces conformity to (and therefore reinforcement of) a Western standard of writing/knowledge, and leads to a reverence of peer-reviewed literature as the only sound source of knowledge. As a tool of scholarly publishing and the editorial process, blind peer review, though perhaps well-intentioned, is fraught with problems, especially for BIPOC researchers and writers, because it fails in its intended purpose to drastically reduce or eliminate bias and racism in the peer review and editorial processes; shields peer reviewers and editors against accusations of bias, racism, or conflicts of interest; and robs BIPOC, and particularly Indigenous, writers and researchers from having the opportunity to develop relationships with those that are reviewing and publishing their work.

Challenges and LIS Responses to Digital Literacy in Crisis

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic beginning in the Spring of 2020, vulnerable Canadians were left behind by digital exclusion, which was exacerbated by an increased reliance on digital technologies. In this article, I seek to provide an overview of the links between digital inclusion, social justice, and the values of the LIS profession. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, another crisis of digital exclusion has revealed the ways in which digital citizenship and socio-economic exclusion are fundamentally intertwined. In response, many LIS professionals have overcome extensive closures and reductions in resources to find innovative solutions to this crisis of inequality. This article will provide just a few examples of these responses from LIS organizations. Indeed, even among overwhelming barriers, LIS professionals have not lost sight of community values and commitment to social justice in challenging times. In unprecedented times, LIS professionals have found innovation to address ongoing social and economic barriers of digital exclusion.

The Onus of Explanation

This manuscript contains the text of the key note speech given at the 2021 Forum for Information Professionals.

Theory and Practice

In this short introduction, the co-chairs of the 2021 FIP Conference discuss the effect the pandemic had on the conference, the importance of theory to practice, and the moral importance of theory to librarianship.

The Value of a Book: Beyond the Price

This research comments on the historical and current trends of special collection libraries and the ways in which their collection policies reflect priorities of protecting certain voices over others, thus assigning a value to those books which are sought after. While book value has been discussed extensively, most of the literature has not taken into account the significance of collection policies, which is a gap that my research aims to address. The methodology includes a literature review of the different ways in which book value is determined and an examination of the collection policy documents of twenty North American special collection libraries. This examination, accomplished via coded data analysis, will determine how these documents reflect the historical and current priorities of special collections and how they subsequently assign value to books. The results of this analysis indicate a consistent commitment to acquiring materials that build on existing collection strengths, as well as a prioritization of locality as it relates to potential additions. Furthermore, the lack of inclusion for marginalized communities in collection policies suggests a need to discuss the future direction of documentation as it relates to recognizing the value of marginalized voices.

Support local: Public libraries and local authors

In 2020 we have experienced movements to support local creators, restaurants, and businesses; how can the library community support local authors? This extended abstract discusses research conducted about how public libraries support local authors, with a focus on how these works are included in library collections and made findable to community members. Twelve public libraries from British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan were selected for analysis of collection policies and item metadata. Qualitative content analysis is used to code collection policies, and systemic analysis of item metadata is used to understand methods of identifying locally-authored items. The results of this research indicate that collection policies provide both opportunities and barriers for including locally-authored items and there is a lack of consistent methods for identifying items as locally-authored within item metadata. Some of these barriers can be attributed to the challenge of identifying and defining “local authorship”. This extended abstract will conclude with recommendations for how libraries can modify collection policies and methods of identifying items as locally-authored in order to support local authors and make these items more accessible to the community.

The Impact of Knowledge Management on Innovation in Academic Libraries

In an ever-changing environment, innovation is a key concern for nearly every organization, including libraries. Innovation is not necessarily spontaneous; in fact, workplace factors including knowledge preservation and management can have both positive and negative impacts on the innovativeness of organizations. But how can knowledge management translate into innovation? What kind of knowledge do knowledge management systems capture? And most importantly, why should academic libraries care? This paper aims to assess the impact of knowledge management tools on innovation within an academic library context and highlight areas of further research. Based on the literature reviewed, common findings include that an effective KM system supports innovation and learning within organizations, and that there are several variables within the framework of KM which can increase the effectiveness of the KM system. These variables include the use of KM tools for staff and customers alike, cooperative and supportive management attitudes, and the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to codify and share knowledge between institutions.

Internet filters in Canadian libraries

Internet filters can be understood as any method that “[blocks] content [from] coming into and going out to the Internet” (PC Magazine, n.d., para. 1). Instantaneously, the word ‘blocks’ causes advocates of intellectual freedom to stand at attention. The American Library Association’s (ALA) Library Bill of Rights states: “a person’s right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views” (as cited in Houghton-Jan, 2010, p. 40). More specific to the topic at hand: “the use of Internet filters to block constitutionally protected speech … compromises First Amendment freedoms and the core values of librarianship” (ALA, n.d., para. 1). This paper will investigate and discuss the function of and methodology behind internet filters, with specific attention to their application in Canada. Following a general overview, a discussion follows of what library professionals in public and school libraries should do to uphold and protect intellectual freedom.

Stories Re-Told

This paper introduces three umbrella terms (Literal Adaptation, Spirit Adaptation, and Creative Adaptation) that define the broad approaches to creating an adaptation through the consideration of the literature of six different fields and their approaches to the study of adaptation. They are as follows: the study of Classical Mythology (a sub-set of Classics), Cultural Studies, Adaptation Theory (from Film Studies), Fan Fiction Studies (from Fan Studies), Folklore Studies, and Translation Studies. While Library and Information Studies (LIS) does occasionally deal with adaptation, often in the form of Children's Literature and/or Fairy Tales, there is no widely-accepted theory or method to doing so. Therefore it is absent from the six disciplines that were reviewed, though it has substantial cross-over with each. As scholarship becomes more interdisciplinary, juggling the terms of a variety of fields becomes more important and more challenging. This paper aims to provide three accessible terms for those interested in studying adaptions from a broad or cross-disciplinary perspective that can substitute for the lengthy and specialized vocabulary of each individual discipline. It may also provide an example for others looking to similarly synthesize a set of cross-disciplinary vocabularies.

Suppressing communities: An analysis of LGBTQ+ censorship in libraries

Librarians serve as defenders of intellectual freedom and social responsibility, and this includes speaking out against censorship. Censorship of information, materials, and books occurs in the public, but censorship can also occur in libraries themselves. Those impacted the most by this censorship are marginalized communities, such as the LGBTQ+ community. The purpose of this paper is to explore how internal, external and institutional censorship affects the LGBTQ+ community and what librarians can do to uphold their defense against censorship. Internal, or self-censorship, occurs at the librarian level where LGBTQ+ materials may be hidden by librarians or library staff or simply not ordered due to pressure from the community the library serves. External censorship occurs at the community level where the community culture pushes for the censorship of LGBTQ+ materials. Lastly, institutional censorship occurs at the classification level where classification models such as the Dewey Decimal System or subject headings may not provide accurate representation for LGBTQ+ materials. In order to put an end to these forms of censorship, trained and certified librarians must act as agents of change, committing to their due diligence to provide information to all members of their communities.