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Article
Publication date: 3 August 2020

Amelia N. Gibson, Renate L. Chancellor, Nicole A. Cooke, Sarah Park Dahlen, Beth Patin and Yasmeen L. Shorish

The purpose of this article is to provide a follow up to “Libraries on the Frontlines: Neutrality and Social Justice,” which was published here in 2017. It addresses institutional…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this article is to provide a follow up to “Libraries on the Frontlines: Neutrality and Social Justice,” which was published here in 2017. It addresses institutional responses to protests and uprising in the spring and summer of 2020 after the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, all of which occurred in the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic. The article expands the previous call for libraries to take a stand for Black lives.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors describe the events of 2020 (a global pandemic, multiple murders of unarmed Black people and the consequent global protests) and responses from within library and information science (LIS), from the perspectives as women of color faculty and library professionals.

Findings

The authors comment on how libraries are responding to current events, as well as the possibilities for panethnic solidarity. The authors also consider specifically how libraries and other institutions are responding to the racial uprisings through statements on social media and call for concrete action to ensure that their organizations and information practices are actively antiracist. In so doing, the authors update the claims and expand the appeals they made in 2017,that Black Lives Matter and that librarianship must not remain neutral.

Originality/value

This paper addresses recent institutional and governmental reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic and the racial uprisings of spring and summer 2020. It is original, current and timely as it interrogates ongoing events in a LIS context.

Details

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, vol. 40 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7149

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Book part
Publication date: 21 March 2023

Beth J. H. Patin, Melissa Smith, Tyler Youngman, Jieun Yeon and Jeanne Kambara

In Virginia, former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder accused the state’s library agency of racism for “its slow pace in processing and publicly presenting records from his tenure as the

Abstract

In Virginia, former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder accused the state’s library agency of racism for “its slow pace in processing and publicly presenting records from his tenure as the nation’s first elected Black governor” (Associated Press, 2020). The State Librarian responded that this was just a lapse in protocols and framed it as a budget issue and staff turnover. However, “Library of Virginia has been processing papers from his gubernatorial successors before finishing work on his” (Associated Press, 2020). Recently, the Alabama State Department of Archives and History acknowledged their participation in systemic racism, epistemicide, and their history of privileging White voices over those of Alabama African-Americans.

Epistemicide is the killing, silencing, annihilation, or devaluing of a way of knowing (Patin, Sebastian, Yeon, & Bertolini, 2020). Conceptualization and analytic application of epistemicide has an established tradition in a number of social science fields, but information scientists have only recently acknowledged epistemicide (Oliphant, 2021; Patin et al., 2020; Patin, Sebastian, Yeon, Bertolini, & Grimm, 2021). Building from our recent identification of the existence of epistemicide within the IS field (Patin et al., 2020), this work challenges the information field to become an epistemologically just space working to correct the systemic silencing of certain ways of knowing.

This chapter examines the four types of epistemic injustices—testimonial, hermeneutical, participatory, and curricular—occurring within libraries and archives and argues for a path forward to address these injustices within our programs, services, and curricula. It looks to digital humanities and to reevaluations of professional standards and LIS education to stop epistemicide and its harms. This chapter demonstrates how to affirm the power and experience of Black lives and highlight their experiences through the careful acquisition, collection, documentation, and publishing of relevant historical materials. Addressing epistemicide is critical for information professionals because we task ourselves with handling knowledge from every field. There has to be a reckoning before the paradigm can truly shift; if there is no acknowledgment of injustice, there is no room for justice.

Details

Antiracist Library and Information Science: Racial Justice and Community
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80262-099-3

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Publication date: 1 August 2024

Beth Patin

This chapter is a witness and testimony to epistemological issues that arose as virtual workplace violence in the form of Zoombombing during the increased use of the Zoom platform…

Abstract

This chapter is a witness and testimony to epistemological issues that arose as virtual workplace violence in the form of Zoombombing during the increased use of the Zoom platform during the COVID-19 pandemic. An autoethnographic approach to the author’s experience as a library and information science scholar and public speaker conveys ways in which virtual violence on Zoom created visceral trauma of epistemicide. The autoethnography begs the question of how we actualize self-care virtually as well as socially in the LIS workplace.

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Reading Workplace Dynamics: A Post-Pandemic Professional Ethos in Public Libraries
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83797-071-1

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Article
Publication date: 17 March 2014

Hans Jochen Scholl and Beth Joy Patin

Disasters of catastrophic scope and scale have occurred more frequently in recent years. Governmental and non-governmental response management has struggled, and affected…

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Abstract

Purpose

Disasters of catastrophic scope and scale have occurred more frequently in recent years. Governmental and non-governmental response management has struggled, and affected communities have severely suffered during extreme events. Colossal damage and loss of lives have been inflicted, and the recovery efforts require extended periods of time. In post hoc analyses, actionable information has been found a critical resource requiring resilient information infrastructures (RIIs) that do not break down even under extreme duress. RIIs encompass both tangible and less tangible (for example, social) elements. The purpose of this paper is to pave the way for empirical research on the subject and to conceptually develop a framework for the analysis of information infrastructures and their resiliency, when impacted by catastrophic incidents (also known as extreme events).

Design/methodology/approach

The authors review the literatures of disaster research and related fields. They synthesize the literatures from the information perspective and develop a framework of RII.

Findings

The synthesis revealed that extreme event-ready RIIs have to be redundant and resourceful both in terms of social, organizational, and knowledge assets as well as in the information and communication technologies. RIIs combine tangible and non-tangible elements, whose interplay is so far incompletely understood.

Research limitations/implications

Roles and criticality of RIIs under the impact of an extreme event need to be studied empirically.

Practical implications

The study holds the promise to be of great potential utility for responders and recovery managers as well as affected communities in preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation efforts as timely and actionable information is still the scarcest and most sought resource during a catastrophic incident.

Originality/value

Disaster research so far has mostly focused on the technical, organizational, social, and socio-psychological effects of disasters. The authors are adding the information perspective as a unique and distinctive contribution to extreme event research, which connects the tangible elements of information infrastructures with its not so tangible elements, captures their interplay, and analyzes their role and criticality for the resiliency of the information infrastructures when under extreme duress.

Details

Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, vol. 8 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-6166

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Reading Workplace Dynamics: A Post-Pandemic Professional Ethos in Public Libraries
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83797-071-1

Available. Content available
Book part
Publication date: 1 August 2024

Abstract

Details

Reading Workplace Dynamics: A Post-Pandemic Professional Ethos in Public Libraries
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83797-071-1

Available. Content available
Book part
Publication date: 21 March 2023

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Antiracist Library and Information Science: Racial Justice and Community
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80262-099-3

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Article
Publication date: 16 January 2007

Linda Ashcroft

88

Abstract

Details

New Library World, vol. 108 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

Available. Content available
Article
Publication date: 17 March 2014

Zahir Irani and Muhammad Kamal

128

Abstract

Details

Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, vol. 8 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-6166

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Article
Publication date: 28 January 2021

Kimberly A. Bates and Eddy S. Ng

1093

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Details

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, vol. 40 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7149

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