What is critical librarianship?
Critical librarianship is a way of connecting our work with critiques of structures of power, oppression, and resistance. Critical librarianship seeks to work for justice, and sees engagement with various critical theories as central to this work. This workshop aims to create space for folks to come together and speak and read about critical theory as it applies to libraries. Of course, this is just one way to engage in critical librarianship -- if it doesn’t work for you, there are many other options! Important work is happening through groups like the Progressive Librarians Guild, Radical Reference, the Radical Librarians Collective, the ALA Social Responsibilities Round Table of ALA, #radlibchat and #critlib chats online, or local projects such as books to prisoners initiatives. There is some overlap between these various groups, but there is no monolith -- critical librarianship is what we all make of it.
Who are you and why are you putting this on?
We’re a bunch of librarians involved in a variety of projects, inside and outside the library world. This is just one of the things we’re involved in, and this event is an experiment. We couldn’t think of an existing space where librarians can get together and talk about what we are reading in relation to what we are working on and get feedback on projects and ideas. So we just decided to try this. What is important to us is the in-person connection, the interaction, and the ‘slowness’ of the conversations which we hope will provide a depth that is sometimes lacking in our professional lives. The #critlib chats were one of the first places where these important conversations could take place synchronously, but the fast and short nature of Twitter doesn’t sustain all the kinds of conversation we need. We also wanted to make it as accessible as possible in terms of cost.
Who can apply?
Archivists, library workers, students, scholars, information workers, and anyone else with a stake and interest in working with critical theory and applying it to a particular project or area of practice (e.g. writing about reference service using a queer theory lens; thinking through anti-racism and hiring processes; analysis of library leadership from an anticapitalist perspective).
What does intermediate mean? I don’t have a degree in critical theory...
No big deal. We know that not everyone can be an expert in all theories and approaches. We certainly aren’t. As a group, we have a variety of different backgrounds and levels of confidence when it comes to critical theory, but we all identify as noobs when it comes to some or other area of critical theory. We don’t expect you to be an expert. The hope is that you’ve done at least a little bit of engaging with critical theoretical approaches before, but the environment we hope to create will be a place in which asking basic, wide-eyed questions is encouraged.
What do you mean by critical approaches?
This term is purposefully expansive: your critical approach may be something fairly broad (say, queer theory) or quite specific (say, Jack Halberstam’s notion of the queer art of failure). The critical approach you take may draw on academia, activism, community traditions, and/or any other sources. While you don’t need to be an expert, you do need to be able to explain it in enough detail to explain how it informs your intended project.
Where should I stay in Toronto?
When we get closer to the conference we’ll put up on our website a list of reasonably priced hotels near the conference site. We are too small to negotiate a conference rate, but we encourage folks to connect to share accommodations.
How are you doing your planning?
Just in case you want to use (and improve on) this workshop idea, we are compiling planning materials on this page, which will be updated as we go.