There’s a passage from the first part of Jean Baudrillard’s In the Shadow of the Silent Majorities that always resonated with my more pessimistic moments of doing library instruction. There is a faith involved in pursuing information literacy, a passionate belief in the empowerment of people, especially students, though teaching them to find, filter, and … Read more Baudrillard on the futility of information
Piracy: Leakages from Modernity Editors: Martin Fredriksson and James Arvanitakis Price: $40.00 Published: July 2014 ISBN: 978-1-936117-59-8 Printed on acid-free paper Available on Amazon “Piracy” is a concept that seems everywhere in the contemporary world. From the big screen with the dashing Jack Sparrow, to the dangers off the coast of Somalia; from the claims … Read more Piracy: Leakages from Modernity
News from the Sign Project, This-Sign.net. (This-Sign.net is a digital sign in a public space that is connected to the internet, so that people can put their messages on the sign.) We have enjoyed having this sign up and running at the Doughbot donut shop on 10th Street for the past half year or so, … Read more News from the Sign Project
Jennifer Sweeney teaches at the College of Computing and Informatics at Drexel University and in the Department of Information Studies at UCLA, and is a program evaluation consultant for libraries and other public agencies and nonprofits. She is scheduled to teach a series of classes for Library Juice Academy, which we are calling the “Painless … Read more Interview with Jennifer Sweeney
Vincent Mosco is Professor Emeritus, Queen’s University, Canada. In his career he has focused on the political economy of information, communication, and the media. Back in the 80s he co-edited a book with Janet Wasko that was very influential to me as I was developing my thoughts on libraries and related subjects – The Political … Read more Interview with Vincent Mosco about his new book
Andrea Baer is the Undergraduate Education Librarian at Indiana University-Bloomington, as well as an Adjunct Lecturer for the University of Tennessee’s School of Information Sciences. She holds a Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of Washington and a Masters in Information Sciences from the University of Tennessee. Andrea teaches two classes for Library Juice … Read more Interview with Andrea Baer
Last summer I went with a delegation of information workers to Israel/Palestine. As our post-trip solidarity statement said: We bore witness to the destruction and appropriation of information, and the myriad ways access is denied. We were inspired by the many organizations and individuals we visited who resist settler-colonialism in their daily lives. We connected … Read more Librarians and Archivists with Palestine Launches Solidarity Network
From: Jennifer Gilley Subject: [WGSS-L] Updated Bibliography of Women and Gender Studies Scholarship Date: June 2, 2014 12:42:04 PM PDT To: wgss-l@ala.org The WGSS Research Committee [Women and Gender Studies Section of ACRL] is pleased to announce that the Bibliography of Scholarship on Women and Gender Studies Librarianship has now been updated through early 2014! … Read more Bibliography of Scholarship on Women and Gender Studies Librarianship
We’re exhibiting at ALA in Las Vegas later this month, showing our books and talking to people about Library Juice Academy. We want to give you a free pass to the exhibits hall if you want to come visit us there. If you’re already registered for the conference you won’t need an exhibits pass, but … Read more Free exhibits pass to visit our booth at ALA
The SRRT discussion list has been alive recently with comments – objections, to be accurate – to ALA’s decision to present a screening and discussion of the controversial 1977 film, The Speaker. Here is a sampling of some of the better ones, from Al Kagan, Pat Schuman, and Mitch Freedman, followed by a link to … Read more Commentary on The Speaker – Al Kagan, Pat Schuman, Mitch Freedman
PLG Edmonton invites submissions for our fourth annual symposium, Organize and Assemble IV, taking place on October 18, 2014. Practitioners, scholars, activists, students, and other members of the general public interested in library, archival and allied information services are asked to speak on topics pertaining to this year’s theme: the commodification of information goods and … Read more CFP: Organize and Assemble IV
Andrew Salvati of H-Net has written a review of the Litwin Books title, Prophets of the Fourth Estate: Broadsides by Press Critics of the Progressive Era, by Amy Reynolds and Gary Hicks. His review starts like this: Comcast, Disney, NewsCorp, TimeWarner–in the second decade of the twenty-first century, the corporate parentage and commercialization of American … Read more H-Net review of Prophets of the Fourth Estate: Broadsides by Press Critics of the Progressive Era
Craig Dalton and Jim Thatcher’s provocative piece “What does a critical data studies look like, and why do we care? Seven points for a critical approach to ‘big data’” begins like this: As the public discourse around data turns from hubristic claims to existing, empirical results, it’s become nearly as easy to bash ‘big data’ … Read more Dalton and Thatcher commentary – “There is a need for a critical data studies”
As a rule, this is not a personal blog. I have only taken the liberty to talk about my own life a few times over the years. I’ve decided to make an exception here, to tell people why I dropped out of a PhD program in information studies. I know a lot of people who … Read more Why I dropped out of a PhD program
ALA has announced that there will be a screening and discussion of the controversial 1977 film, The Speaker, produced by ALA to educate people about intellectual freedom. ALA has now also made the film available on the web (details at the above link). The film was perceived by many to advocate an unacceptable tolerance of … Read more Historical context of The Speaker, to screen at ALA, and now also on the web
Barbara Fister has interviewed me about Library Juice Press and Litwin Books: Rory Litwin: Pressing Issues for Librarians…
Some people from Radical Reference have put together a zine with anti-surveillance resources for the discerning library worker-slash-activist. (Full title: We Are All Suspects: A Guide for People Navigating the Expanded Powers of Surveillance in the 21st Century.) As I wrote on that site, the zine includes “know your rights” info; suggestions for applications, browser … Read more A Guide for People Navigating the Expanded Powers of Surveillance in the 21st Century
The Book Collecting Practices of Black Magazine Editors Author: Thomas Weissinger Price: $16.00 Published: May 2014 ISBN: 978-1-936117-63-5 Printed on acid-free paper Published by Litwin Books The Book Collecting Practices of Black Magazine Editors focuses on the collecting habits and personal libraries of three black magazine editors. Ben Burns and Era Bell Thompson were editors … Read more New: The Book Collecting Practices of Black Magazine Editors
Here’s a little Spring promotion… Get a 10% discount on any classes offered at Library Juice Academy if you register before May 2nd – just use the discount code SPRINGTIME at checkout. This is good for classes offered next month or in the future. Classes offered in May: Introduction to Drupal for Libraries Instructor: Cody … Read more Discount on classes at Library Juice Academy
Here is an excerpt from Svetlana Mintcheva’s chapter in The Library Juice Press Handbook of Intellectual Freedom, which is titled, “Art Censorship and Intellectual Freedom.” It’s just an excerpt, but it’s very interesting nonetheless. Svetlana Mintcheva is the Director of Programs at the National Coalition Against Censorship.